Time in the World: The Relationship between Preparation and Outcome

          The college process is often one that is daunting for high school juniors and seniors. It requires an extensive amount of time and effort and often leads to a significant amount of stress and anxiety. Applicants must visit schools, decide where to apply, and fill out the application. Filling out the application requires meeting with teachers in order to request recommendations, writing at least one essay that accurately represents one’s personality, and including a resume of activities and achievements throughout one’s life. Finally, students typically must prepare for standardized tests in order to submit their highest scores to schools. They often take prep courses, and sit through the testing on multiple occasions. After an exorbitant amount of preparation, high school seniors hit the “submit” button on the Common App. In an instant, their application is out of their hands and into the hands of the admissions counselors. Applicants can do nothing but wait for a few months that feel like years, as decisions that affect their future are in the hands of others.

            The college admissions process demonstrates that no matter the time and effort one puts into his or her application, he or she cannot guarantee the outcome. High school seniors can do everything that they can in order to be the best possible applicant, but ultimately they must wait and see which colleges will admit them. Once applications are submitted and deadlines pass, there are many questions that tend to arise in students’ minds. There are questions of doubt and uncertainty, from “Would I have gotten a higher SAT if I took the test one more time?” to “Should I have applied to more schools?” and “What if I don’t get accepted anywhere?”. While some questions seem unreasonable, it is no surprise that students would have these thoughts after putting in such time and effort into something that has the potential to drastically change their lives.

            Like students applying to college, on a higher and even more tedious level, astronauts put in an insurmountable amount of preparation before launching into space. This meticulous process is described in Andy Weir’s novel The Martian. Mark, one of the narrators of the story, explains that “Start to finish, including supply missions, a Mars mission takes about three years” (3). In addition to the mission itself, the time it takes to prepare for the trip is extensive. Employees at NASA must produce the supplies, build the necessary technology, and train the crew members, which is all together a lengthy process. Like with the admissions process, once the trip begins, there is no guarantee that the time and preparation put in beforehand will pay off, as there are many factors that could cause the mission to fail. The astronauts and other NASA employees can do their best to prepare, but something out of their control can surely go wrong. Once the mission begins, they can only wait and see. Throughout The Martian, the mission does undergo circumstances that cause it to fail, as well as to not guarantee the safety of all the crew members, when the team leaves Mark behind. Nevertheless, the preparation of the mission gives Mark a fighting change—he has the supplies that will potentially allow him to live, even if it is not in the way that he imagined.

            The relationship between time and preparation and outcome is not only demonstrated through the college admissions process and in The Martian, but it is also exhibited in Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Dear Ijeawele, or A Femenist Manifesto in Fifteen Suggestions. Adichie offers many pieces of advice to her friend regarding how to raise a daughter to be a feminist, such as to not “speak of marriage as an achievement” and to “teach her about difference” (30, 61). Nevertheless, Adichie explains that no matter the preparation, there is no guarantee that her daughter will turn out to be a feminist. She writes, “remember that you might do all the things I suggest, and she will still turn out to be different than you hoped, because sometimes life just does its thing. What matters is that you try” (7). A parent can try his or her best, but cannot guarantee that a child will act in the way that he or she had hoped.

            In all three of these cases, it is clear that time and preparation do not always lead to a desirable outcome. Nevertheless, they demonstrate that preparation is positive, as it at least gives a better chance. If one puts time and effort into his or her college application, it is much more likely that he or she will be accepted than if the application is submitted carelessly. If a space program prepares for a mission, it is much more likely that it will succeed and that the crew will survive. Finally, if a parent tries to raise a child a certain way and puts in the effort, it is more likely that a son or daughter will ultimately possess the desired values than if the parent did not try. While preparation does not guarantee success, it does heighten the chances and ultimately work towards good. Time, in this way, is an investment into one’s future.