Listen more by Dagogo

Listen more by Dagogo - July 2025 Scholarship Essay

Listen to me, little me, and listen well. I'm going to tell you something that will change your life. Listen, to your parents, to your teachers, to yourself, your instincts, your surroundings, all of it, because you don't listen enough. You're about to go through your life, shutting out everything you think doesn't matter. That it from me, that's not okay, nor is it healthy. You need to listen.
The first examples are a bit redundant, you already do listen to your parents, and you don't ignore your teachers yet, but you will start. It'll start in 2020. I won't explain why, but it'll break your and everyone else's world view. So, keep listening to them. It'll help you.
You also doubt yourself way too much. Your judgement may be young, but it's built off of years of life experience. You know when something or someone is off kilter, so listen to that. Observe more and do your best to help. Just don't get into adult business just yet.
Last, your surroundings. You're going to develop an attachment to headphones in 2019. That doesn't mean you should go tuning out the world with YouTube and music. It's a real problem for you for a while. Something you probably won't grow out of for a while either, but you need to listen to the world. It's going to be awful, and you're going to say you hate it and it's too loud, but there's beauty in there. Beauty you won't find if you can't hear it.
You may not understand now, but you will. And if you follow the path I did, you won't know what any form of attachment or connection, not for a very long time. But if you do walk that path, you'll find people who genuinely make you happy to be around, people who aren't your family, people who you will think about when you eventually choose to write this down. So, listen, for both of our sakes and futures.