Growing up in Silicon Valley: Dream or Nightmare?

When complete strangers hear that I’m from Silicon Valley, they let me know how smart I am and how successful I’ll be in the future. They tell me that I must be going to Harvard and that I probably have a 5.0 gpa. I tell them that’s not even close to the truth. Not all kids in Silicon Valley are geniuses, but most are perceived to be, which makes life growing up so much more competitive.

I started kindergarten at the age of 4, youngest and, not to mention, shortest, in my class. I went through elementary, middle, and high school with the same friends in the same school district. I played the piano and the cello, I did countless extracurriculars, I spoke at my eighth grade graduation. I graduated May of this year from one of the top public high schools in America. I had a 4.0 gpa and my SAT scores were considered to be in the 99th percentile. I was captain of a sports team, I was a board member of a club, and I received numerous awards for my achievements. But all this means is that I was a pretty average student during my high school career. Mediocre at best for a female asian student in Silicon Valley.

Realistically, my resume looks about the same as the average Joe’s. I didn’t start my own company at the age of 16, I didn’t invent some new technology, I didn’t intern at Stanford’s lab. The students I go to school with are truly one of a kind and beyond extraordinary, which makes my achievements just average.

But I wouldn’t want it any other way.

I always think that if I had grown up in a completely different isolated small town, my chances at college would have been SO much better. I couldn’t be more wrong. If I hadn’t grown up in Silicon Valley, I would never have had the access to such a great education. I would have never pushed myself as hard as I do. And I would have never gotten to feel the satisfactory feeling that finally came after 12 years. I did it. I graduated from an exceptional school. I met my best friends through the extracurriculars I threw myself into. I took difficult courses that allowed me to find what I’m passionate about. I complain about the fact that I grew up in Silicon Valley, that competition in my school was intense, and that I had to spend all my free time studying, taking classes, catching up on schoolwork. But had I not grown up in Silicon Valley, I wouldn’t be where I am today. I wouldn’t be attending USC this fall, I wouldn’t have the knowledge that I do today.

And for that, I am grateful.