[Music]
I’m here today because I failed and I’m
going to talk to you about why not
getting into Oxford was actually pretty
fun for me so for those who have never
applied to an elite institution and this
is what happens so I applied study
classics and you choose a college you
send in an inspiring personal statement
and two selected essays and your reports
and predicted grades and you set a test
and if you’re lucky you get to interview
stage which you then tell your parents
and aunties and it becomes the gossip so
then you go to the University for a few
nights
and you get all immersed in the culture
and learn all the weird slang and smell
the dusty books and I’ve intense
conversations with the top brains of the
country and did you catch yourself
wondering if you could pull off that
tweed blazer you stop to realize you’re
considering yourself Oxbridge material
then a few weeks later in January a
letter comes and screech of tires in a
moment
you’re not Oxbridge material and it’s
being explained to you as I so
articulately that after careful
consideration with the greatest
apologies and want of less disappointing
news they don’t want you at the
University so that was a downer at this
point I’m told some people get out the
full morning attire
listen to dismiss what I did was for
some reason I had this urge to make the
very fancy letter into some kind of
artwork so I cut up although
flowery little phrases and I got the
paints out I like to paint and I just
let it all out and so this is what I
came up with so I felt bit better after
that and my mom came home presumably
hoping I wasn’t in sackcloth and ashes
and she said oh do you mind if I show my
friends on Twitter I was like yeah sure
I went to school the next day and I got
a text from her it said I’m trending in
the UK sorry what and then most of half
an hour later I’m trending in Singapore
so the world had just exploded with this
tweet within a few days it had been
shared over 50,000 times seen by
millions and I was seeing myself on the
TV news of the radio BBC BuzzFeed and
all because I was a failure so that was
a very odd week of people going so how
do you feel about not getting into
Oxford and I’m going oh I feel great and
I did feel great because people’s
responses were so kind and positive you
know social media can be a savage place
but I think people were cheered up by
the fact that I turned a rejection into
art
firstly there were hundreds of people in
my situation with Oxbridge so it was a
dark day for some more and more people
young people nowadays encouraged to
think that academic success is all you
are and what should be interesting
learning is turned into this really
stressful box-ticking treadmill so an
academic failure can really bring some
people down but I must add that the
people speaking here today are not here
because they got good grades
besides the Hawks British thing though I
think it resonated with everyone because
we all at some point get rejected you
know whether it’s a job University a
friendship group
whatever it can really crush your ego
but you’ve got to remember it doesn’t
define you and you can always cut it up
make it into something else
you
I’m here today because I failed and I’m
going to talk to you about why not
getting into Oxford was actually pretty
fun for me so for those who have never
applied to an elite institution and this
is what happens so I applied study
classics and you choose a college you
send in an inspiring personal statement
and two selected essays and your reports
and predicted grades and you set a test
and if you’re lucky you get to interview
stage which you then tell your parents
and aunties and it becomes the gossip so
then you go to the University for a few
nights
and you get all immersed in the culture
and learn all the weird slang and smell
the dusty books and I’ve intense
conversations with the top brains of the
country and did you catch yourself
wondering if you could pull off that
tweed blazer you stop to realize you’re
considering yourself Oxbridge material
then a few weeks later in January a
letter comes and screech of tires in a
moment
you’re not Oxbridge material and it’s
being explained to you as I so
articulately that after careful
consideration with the greatest
apologies and want of less disappointing
news they don’t want you at the
University so that was a downer at this
point I’m told some people get out the
full morning attire
listen to dismiss what I did was for
some reason I had this urge to make the
very fancy letter into some kind of
artwork so I cut up although
flowery little phrases and I got the
paints out I like to paint and I just
let it all out and so this is what I
came up with so I felt bit better after
that and my mom came home presumably
hoping I wasn’t in sackcloth and ashes
and she said oh do you mind if I show my
friends on Twitter I was like yeah sure
I went to school the next day and I got
a text from her it said I’m trending in
the UK sorry what and then most of half
an hour later I’m trending in Singapore
so the world had just exploded with this
tweet within a few days it had been
shared over 50,000 times seen by
millions and I was seeing myself on the
TV news of the radio BBC BuzzFeed and
all because I was a failure so that was
a very odd week of people going so how
do you feel about not getting into
Oxford and I’m going oh I feel great and
I did feel great because people’s
responses were so kind and positive you
know social media can be a savage place
but I think people were cheered up by
the fact that I turned a rejection into
art
firstly there were hundreds of people in
my situation with Oxbridge so it was a
dark day for some more and more people
young people nowadays encouraged to
think that academic success is all you
are and what should be interesting
learning is turned into this really
stressful box-ticking treadmill so an
academic failure can really bring some
people down but I must add that the
people speaking here today are not here
because they got good grades
besides the Hawks British thing though I
think it resonated with everyone because
we all at some point get rejected you
know whether it’s a job University a
friendship group
whatever it can really crush your ego
but you’ve got to remember it doesn’t
define you and you can always cut it up
make it into something else
you
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