Abridged Biography of Aaron Schock with coinciding personal revelations

         The intern lecture series I went to on Tuesday changed my life. Aaron Schock represents all that I aspire to be, or rather should have aspired to been at a much earlier age. Representative Schock has already accomplished more at the age of 31 than I could hope to accomplish in a lifetime. He’s the youngest representative in the House of Representatives and his amazing life story started out in the seventh grade.
         He grew up in Illinois and during his youth there ticket scalping became legal while he was at the tender age of twelve. Mr. Schock quickly made 18K dollars and then began systematically investing in the top 10 companies financial magazines told him to. He amassed an exorbitant amount of money in coincidence with the booming stock market during his childhood. After getting enough credit to graduate High School in three years, he turned in his paperwork and was told by an administrator it went against their school system’s policies to allow anyone to graduate early due to real estate tax benefits the school would miss out on account of early graduates. He countered with a written check for $8,400, and was once again stonewalled by the administration because they thought this would set a bad precedent.
         The only way through this poor educational policy was through the leadership themselves. No one could change this policy besides the school board, so despite these setbacks, he decided to enact change himself. He went door to door and collected over a thousand signatures to run for office. Once the incumbent school board president he was running against found out about his plans, she schemed to have his petition disqualified because of a technicality, and booted him off the ballot. Instead of being disturbed, and whilst being indubitability perturbed, he organized a militia of thirty angry mobs to go door to door and organized a big enough backing to win the election as a write in candidate.
         Whilst a member of this school board, he went on to figure out how to balance their 9 million dollar budget deficit in two years, and then was unanimously elected as the school board president at the age of 21. He then bought a huge real estate acre lot with the money he accrued from stocks and ticket scalping, and made money off of the gravel he had surveyed in the land before purchasing it. He continued to make money in the real estate market, and then was elected to the Illinois legislature at the age of 23, becoming the youngest member of the body. He then narrowly won his first election to become the youngest member of the House of Representatives at the age of 28 in 2009. I didn’t even think the most politically savvy person could climb the political rungs this quickly, but he proved me wrong.
         After leaving this intern lecture, I felt invigorated and melancholy all at the same time. Who can accomplish all of this by the tender age of 31? What am I doing with my dismal life? And then my father reminded me via Facebook “ Life is a journey to enjoy. The only thing you are in a race with is your own potential. There will always be people beyond and behind you. Every time you help someone behind, you make better time on your journey.” And then I realized I wasn’t in a race with him anymore, I was in a race with myself. And like Mr. Schock so wisely advised, it’s someone who runs through the proverbial door of opportunity that enjoys success. Someone who puts himself or herself out there for failure, and distinguished themselves through excellence.  I intend to do the same whenever the opportunity indubitably  presents itself.


Alexander Hurd