Rasheed Jordan '23 Recruiting Profile

In life you tend to come across a saying, a quote, a line, a sentence, that flips you upside down and makes you rethink how you view life. Whether it's a good change or bad; it changed you. From Uncle Ben to Peter Parker, “with great power comes great responsibility.” As shown in the movies and comics this line resonated with Peter his whole life, forming him into the hero he is. Now in my life I’ve had my own quote from my father. He told me “the only reason we moved to America was for your education.” Now don't take it the wrong way but I found this very powerful from my dad's perspective. Even from the age of four I understood what he meant. Little background knowledge: I was born in the Caribbean, Barbados to be exact. Had a very comfy life, ideal home, nice neighborhood, etc. The thing is my parents wanted me to be successful and gain experiences in life, and it seemed like I wouldnt get it from living here. So we moved to America. The Big Apple, the mixing pot. Now that I think about it, this led to a lot of change and sacrifice. Not so much for me but for my dad. He was technically getting out of his comfort zone; living in a new place and having a new lifestyle. He had to quit his job, say goodbye to family. Any change like this would greatly change a man. It changed, it inspired me. It pushed me to do great, to make my parents proud. Proud of the hard work they put into me. The effort and time, so because of them, I intend to do great things. So as he told me we moved for my education, I chose to excel. Many would probably feel a burden, and be stressed. Thoughts in their mind telling them if they fail they would disappoint their family. In a sense I think like that sometimes, we always have that sense of failure that wants to fall over us. Though as I got older I grew to be more optimistic and get over this feeling of failure. One thing I can say is that we shouldnt submit to failure because it consumes us, and stalls our success. As time passed I met other people who resonated with me and pushed me to do great. One big example is my track coach. One thing he told me is that “if you fail to plan, you plan to fail.” It can be quite confusing, but what I got from it is that if you intend to fail, if you sit and be okay with failing and you dont put in the work to succeed, then in the end you plan to fail. You planned for your own downfall. So in the end these two quotes stuck with me for a long time. I always think back to it, and even think what my life would be if I never heard these things. Just as I wonder where Peter Parker would be if his Uncle never told him this quote. If you didn't know already Spiderman is my favorite superhero, I just resonate and relate to him. I intend to be like him, someone great, someone people can look at and see hope, an inspiration to many.