Don't Push Yourself to a Breaking Point by Addison

Don't Push Yourself to a Breaking Point by Addison - October 2021 Scholarship Essay

One of my all time favorite books is A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder by Holly Jackson. The main character, Pip, is in her senior year of high school and is starting her AP Capstone research paper that could get her an advanced diploma. This paper could be about anything that interests the writer, they encourage you to pick a topic you’re passionate about. Pip chose to follow the trail of a cold case in her small town. The case of a girl named Andy Bell that had gone missing. Her body had not been found, and everyone assumed it was the boyfriend that had done it because he had committed suicide a few days after the police questioned him. So, she submits her idea to her school’s AP coordinator and gets it approved. Pip doesn’t expect this to really go anywhere, she just wants an interesting topic for a paper that would look good to journalism programs. As she starts investigating and digging deeper into a case that was determined to be cold, she discovers that it is not as cold as she had hoped.
As Pip starts interviewing people that were directly involved with the case, the family members, friends, police officers, journalists, she starts uncovering bits and pieces that show that the case should be reopened and investigated more thoroughly. She goes to the police station and shows them the evidence that she had found so far and they tell her that it isn’t enough for them to do anything about. But she just has this feeling that there is something else going on and she isn’t going to stop until she figures out what’s going on. She starts skipping school, lying to her parents and friends, and pushing herself to her limit to try and uncover what really happened on the night that Andy Bell disappeared.
The lesson that I learned from Pip in this story was to not push yourself to a breaking point. If you need a break or you start to realize that you aren’t doing as well as you were, you should take a step back and breathe. Pushing yourself that hard helps no one. Not yourself or the people around you. Your mental health starts spiraling and your friends and family members start to get worried about you because of it. Essentially, never push yourself so hard for something that could be insignificant later.