America, a Meritocracy

I hear the word meritocracy and scoff.  We were all taught in school that America is a school of meritocracy, we rise and fall based off our merits.  Is that true? Is America really based of people's achievements and skills?  I look at what has happened to me within the past week, and I begin to think that it isn't.  Meritocracy is dead.

We rise and fall based on our own skills and achievements.  I was at school today and recieved a letter. It read

"Dear Max,

Thank you for auditioning. We were impressed and had our largest turnout ever.  It was obvious that you all spent a lot of time preparing... Unfortunately, you were not selected as a speaker for senior events.  Thank you.

Signed __X___

Senior Class Adviser" 

I look at my letter and think.  I thought about it hard.  Throughout my elementary and middle school years, I was a reknown speaker.  People were moved by my words, and they believed in what it meant.  People were jumping at me to speak at graduation, knowing I will do well.  I wrote a speech about individuality: the importance and how each one of us is important.  I would say it was one of the best speeches I've written.  After presenting it, I thought I did really well on my part.  Of the other competitors, I only thought one did really well.  Listening to the other speeches, I realized that what other people lacked was a solid message.  Some wrote about getting used to high school, and somehow talked about her jamming her finger into a locker.  Another wrote about how we don't know what will happen in the future, but she knows we'll do well.  Another wrote about people, and how it was members within the class(es) that kept her going.  My favorite speech was given by my good friend; it was about remembering.  Remembering things, and never letting go of the experiences.  I honestly believe my friend deserves that spot for speaking, but I honestly do not know about the other people.  Yeah, they have the courage to go up there to speak, but their content lacked.  It is through this where I feel meritocracy is dead.  Giving a speech isn't always about being funny and cracking jokes.... especially a senior speech.  I wanted to be able to give people the opportunity to understand their importance in this world  I wanted people to know that even though they may feel worthless, that there is someone out there that depends on what they do and how they do it.  That is all I wanted to do, but our own class council must've not seen through the importance of it.  Maybe it was the fault of my speech.  Maybe it was a terrible speech; or maybe it was even how I presented it that stunk.  But, I feel that, this isn't the case.  I feel that people are clouded by judgement of contacts.  The members of the council were friends, best friends, girlfriend/boyfriends of the possible candidates. And because of this, I feel that this was not really based on the merit of the speech, but rather the knowledge of the person.

Meritocracy.  Although there has been many negative aspects that have come out of this experience, I must remember "as one door closes, another opens".  I did play in a orchestral group that is performing for graduation.  Maybe it is because one of the members is the sister of a council member; maybe it is because we actually did well, I will not know.  But, I do know now that knowing people is one of the most important things to have.  Knowing people can change an entire judgement basis of a decision.