To Those Who Say I Can't, Thank You by abel

To Those Who Say I Can't, Thank You by abel - July 2016 Scholarship Essay

Back when I was in fourth grade, it was a nightmare, nothing was going for me; I was the butt of almost every joke, didn’t have a lot friends, school was tough with my grades were constantly in flux between a B and an C, which my mother was not happy about. And to top it all off, I had the other fourth grade teacher that persecuted my handwriting in front of the whole class. When he finished a peer asked me how I was feeling, pretty concerned for me, first time I noticed that level of concern for me from someone outside of my family. Not knowing what to do and also not fully realizing the traumatic experience that I went through. I responded that I was okay, even though I wasn’t at all. My peer saw through my lie and talked to my teacher about it.
At the end of that day my teacher pulled me aside and asked me what happen, how it made me feel, and how I can change so nothing like that ever happens to me again. I told her that it tore me up inside after I came to the realization that I was shamed for my handwriting in front of the entire class. She asked me how I can change that and make sure nothing like that happens again, and I replied, with tears forming around my eye, “I dunno, he said that I couldn’t do it.” Not even a second after I finished with my response she spoke up and made sure that I was paying attention to what she was about to say, and for good reason too, because what she told me still motivates me to this day. She said “The only person who says that you can’t do something is you, and if someone says that you can’t do it, then use it as fuel to get better and prove that person wrong.”
This proved to be the biggest and most helpful lesson that I ever got from a teacher. I used this very lesson the following year when I asked my 5th grade teacher she thought I could get into a program called ALPS; A program in middle school which was for people that need a faster pace of learning compared to the traditional teaching. Without hesitating, without even looking at me she said that I couldn’t make it. This really brought me down but then I remembered what my 4th grade teacher told me. “Use people’s doubts as fuel to get better.” That alone was enough to give me the drive to get into ALPS, which I did get into, and not only did I get in, I excelled during my 3 years there.
I used that lesson during high school, when people would say that I couldn’t get into the varsity basketball team, I used this lesson when as a senior, when my own mother didn’t think that I could keep put with the college pace and would get bad grades. This fueled me even more to do great during my first year of college. I got the dean’s list during my first semester at Western Michigan University. This lesson as such an impact on my life, I know it’s one of the first lessons that I want to teach my own kids. I already know how I am going tell it to them too. “Don’t let anyone say that you can’t do it, even me. There are a lot of things that are hard, but nothing is impossible.”