Are you kind?

Yes, you have international awards— you have won competitions people in far corners of the world speak of as if they are myths. You are prodigal, in no short sense of the word. A paper you co-wrote lives in Nature now, researchers bygones to your ultimate goal of prestige, byproduct neural networks suffering wasting disease as you forcefeed them slop and brand it research. Only the ISEF judges can tell. Your startup tech non-profit LLC PhD MD saving children whose hands you have never shook has not seven, not eight, but nine figures in profit— you have letters of recommendation from presidents of countries and international multibillion dollar companies, preaching end to end of the Earth of your goodness and 'maturity.' You have this. You have this, and everything else you have ever dreamed of. You are the 'ideal' college applicant, the one who AOs rave on and on about at the dinner table that night, whose essays are framed in some imaginary 'Harvard Applicant Hall of Fame.' You loathe the letter S and are a Costco regular— you use quirky tie-ins from seemingly unrelated items to your 'unique' goal of curing cancer because your cousin's grandma's friend's wife's husband's dog had cancer and you learned at a squash game. You are the pinnacle product of the application process, passed instantly from the AOs reading tablets to committee, who celebrate when you are read over and deemed the best, most deserving person.

Are you kind? Really kind? Do you know what 'kindness' is? Have you stopped to think about what 'prestige' means? Do you wrinkle your nose at your fellow student who wants to go to a state school? Do you turn up your chin when someone celebrates an acceptance into a school that has a >10% acceptance rate? Do you scorn kids who are not busy all of the time, or hang out with their friends? Do you have many friends who don't chase this ideal? Do you surround yourself with people who think differently? How many hours a day, on which days, and on which weeks, do you perform the Tier 1 activity of looking down your nose? Do you help others? If someone drops their phone or wallet in front of you, do you pocket or keep it? Is it their fault if they lose something, or an interplay of complex factors and transactions? Do you pay it forward? If someone asked you to rate their application, would you be cruel? Honest? Sugarcoat it? Do you believe that colleges care about your wellbeing? Which do they prioritize— money or your success? Are these two things interlinked?

Most importantly, outside of a series of scheduled sought-out sessions and statistics that prove you in particular have the highest return rate, are you a true individual? Have you questioned the process, gone beyond? Do you strive to go beyond for the sake of it, or because it is necessary for success? When you see an agreed upon opinion with thousands of experts agreeing and praising those who confirm its goodness that you don't agree with, do you shun it or keep scrolling passively? When your friend does something you don't morally agree with, or makes comments that you believe are made in prejudice, are you honest with them? What do you do? Do you look out for others? When you are volunteering, do you think of how good this is going to look later? When you walk down the street, do you believe people are watching you and judging your worth? Are you worth something outside of a piece of paper? When you are making memories at prom or homecoming, are you too busy thinking about the time you could've spent on your sixteenth passion project?

Are you kind? Or are you 'good?'