Luck

My older brother Will was a math GENIUS. I was not. English and Arts was (and is) where my heart lies. My siblings and I STILL laugh to this day that my Dad built his own accounting firm from the ground up and NONE of us took it over. “No thanks Dad, I’m gonna be an actor, no, musical theater performer... er, I meant artist, no, filmmaker? Writer? WRITER!” Who wants to make a perfectly comfortable living doing a profession that will always be in demand? (Death and taxes anyone...) “No thanks, I think I’ll struggle and live in a pool of constant rejection and uncertainty.” (In all seriousness, my Dad always has the most epic answer when we ask him why he never forced it on any of us, “I wanted you all to do something you liked.”)

SIDE BAR: For those thinking of going into the Arts in any form – it is hard, rejection filled, uncertain and offers no guarantees of success, BUT you will know it’s for you because you will keep trying to make it work until IT DOES. For a long time it is like a bad relationship - it treats you like shit, takes all your money and leaves you with nothing but a broken heart. Until, you realize, each experience makes you stronger, the bad moments don’t erase the good ones, and with enough time and perseverance, a good relationship is possible. Also, the best shit comes out of hard relationships and then you get to Taylor Swift the shit out of them.

REDIRECT: Also, what vocation isn’t hard and uncertain? I’ve never tried but, I can’t imagine getting into medical or law school is any easier than getting a film made, a painting sold or a landing a recording contract? Props to all playing the game, you might not be winning yet but if you’re still on the ice Wayne Gretzky told you how it is…

Anyway, I digress, my older brother Will and I didn’t really get along until the summer before he left for university. All of a sudden we were like best friends? That’s how it goes. But before he left to go to school, Will left me one of the greatest gifts -- though at the time I didn’t know it.

I really wanted to get into a good university, and even though I was definitely going to be applying to a Fine Arts program, most of the schools required a senior math credit. Okay Ivy League, I accept your challenge. After all, what painter doesn’t know on what is the slope of the tangent line of the function f(x)=2x3−4x2−3x at x=2?

I was geared up for the challenge that was Mr. Knott’s Grade 12 calculus class. As most kids who went to school in the 1990s remember, Grade 11 math was KILLER. I had squeaked through but didn’t underestimate the challenge ahead. When our first test rolled around I was finally able to make use of the generous gift my brother had left behind: two years ahead of me, Will had given me his old Grade 12 calculus tests to study from. That's a Bingo!

I went into the test pencils sharpened and ready to go. (Has anyone ever done a calculus test in pen? How confident do you have to be to do THAT?) I sat down and turned over my test – and you can imagine the surprise when I realized it was the EXACT SAME TEST as the one my brother had left me to study from. Will also had Mr. Knott in Grade 12, and hey what teachers don’t re-use old tests? Needless to say, it was one of the best hours of my little academic life. I burned through that sucker and scored a 96%.

A few months later, Test #2 floated around… I, being the resourceful sister, studied off the test Will had left me that was closest to the date of my upcoming test, and well, I know lightning doesn’t strike twice, but… 94%.

Little did I know, “Winter is coming…”

I went into the winter term with a 95% average and Mr. Knott’s respect that I was seemingly as smart as my brother. So I decided, why would I waste my time studying outside of the tests Will left me to work from? I’m gonna coast the shit out of this class…

In the words of Julia Roberts, “Big mistake, big. Huge!”

As I’m sure you’ve put together better than my naive teen-aged self did, the winter term’s tests were NOT the same ones Will had left. I failed, HARD.

I learned the hard way my brother had helped put me in a favourable position, but that I could not rely on just that, because here’s the thing - I honestly believe a lot of life is about who you know – but that comes from research, networking and hard work. Luck is when opportunity meets preparation, and in this case I had an opportunity, but not the preparation.

I might have scored higher on the test if I had tried. I’ll never know because I got lazy and relied on someone else to do the work for me. And that might work for awhile, but sooner or later the ball will drop (Milli Vanilli (kind of disappointing), Lance Armstrong (so disappointing) Donald Trump (there are no words…)

So here’s the lesson kids: if your brother gives you tests to study from, use it to help you get a leg up, but study like you don’t have them.

Because at the end of the day, you can’t control opportunity, but you sure as shit can control preparation.

Love,
Grace

PS - Thanks for helping me get into university Will xo