Charlotte Hornets point guard Jeremy Lin. (Photo : Getty Images)
A point guard for the Charlotte Hornets, Jeremy Lin, dished on his experience coping up with the immense pressure to succeed in his Palo Alto, California, high school.
According to The Atlantic, Lin poignantly described the distress he felt in high school and the classmates he lost to suicide.
Lin wrote on Facebook, "As someone who was raised in the Bay Area, I've always taken great pride in being from Palo Alto - the greatest city in the world, as far as I'm concerned. Like many others, I read "The Silicon Valley Suicides" in this month's Atlantic and it led me to reflect on my own experience at Palo Alto High School."
The point guard outlined the anxiety he associated with trying to attain academic perfection. He explained:
"I distinctly remember being a freshman in high school, overwhelmed by the belief that my GPA over the next four years would make or break my life. My daily thought process was that every homework assignment, every project, every test could be the difference. The difference between a great college and a mediocre college. The difference between success and failure. The difference between happiness and misery."
Lin pointed out that he was unable to sleep at night, he obsessed over class work and exams, and sometimes he woke up drenched in sweat because of nightmares.
The post included Lin's personal experience with suicide when a classmate committed suicide in his first year and a friend the following year. Amid all the challenges, Lin is successful. However, the superstar indicated that what he learned about success he discovered because of struggling with anxiety in high school.
Lin said, "As each year of high school passed by, I realized that even though there was pressure to be great, I had to make a personal choice not to define myself by my success and accomplishments."
Watch the clip below revealing some of the success incidences of Jeremy Lin.
