First Scholarship Essay by Addison

First Scholarship Essay by Addison - May 2022 Scholarship Essay

Addison Vela
`May 9, 2022

Prompt: Describe a time in your life when you had to overcome adversity. What skill helped you the most along the way?

During the COVID pandemic, I struggled the most at the beginning. 2020-2021 was a rough time frame. As an athlete and an overall active person, I naturally went out a lot for sports or some outdoor activity. I was on a softball team called Rouge. We were extremely pumped for the next season since everything started coming together. We had a solid team, everyone had talent and contributed. We were ranked high in the county for being the best team. Our league was so excited for us to come back and play for All-Stars. They had so much confidence in us that they put money aside for our team if we made states. Covid hit and it all fell apart. There was no team. Most of us aged out and were now going to be trying out for high school softball. The opportunity we had was taken.

While the high school season was happening, we tried to salvage something. We made a new team called “Blackout” that mostly consisted of people from Rouge. We played for a little longer before the team ultimately came to an end. There was no more us. We all ended up joining different club teams. It was quite a sad time. Softball was our passion and our possibly most exciting part of our career was gone. It ended before it even got to start. I’m confident we would’ve moved on past states and gone to nationals.

This was a breaking point for me and what the sport was. After this letdown, I tried focusing on school. My grades during my freshman year had become low. Not reflecting who I was as a person or what kind of student I was. I was severely disappointed in myself just as much if not more than my parents were.

During that time I was arguing with my father a lot. We constantly were butting heads. He’s an athlete as well and was also not used to being home 24/7. None of my family was ever confined to a house together for so long. It felt as though we were never enjoying our time. We resorted to taking drives 2-3 times a week so we could get out and maybe cool down. This worked for a little but eventually, things once again became discordant. My father and I got into a bad fight. I ended up leaving, running away. This made things worse. Our relationship was getting to a really bad place. I had to talk to CPS for the 3rd time in my life so far. I didn’t feel like his daughter.

I was losing myself. I wasn’t waking up at a decent time. I barely left my room. I had no determination to do anything. I was severely depressed. I was alone. My school was all online and I figured I could do my school work when I felt like it. Every day was a blur. This way of thinking is what landed me in summer school. I ended up failing my first quarter of English and P.E. After realizing how bad I was getting, I wanted to change to get my life back together. I didn’t want to be this person anymore. I hated feeling so disconnected. I tried my hardest to be more productive.

Luckily for me, school started becoming a blended learning schedule since Covid was getting better. I was going to school and doing my work. I passed the following quarter of English with an A and during summer school I pushed myself to be an excellent student. I did so well that the teacher offered a letter of recommendation when I needed it for future reference. I believe that he knew that I was better than being in summer school. He helped me feel like I was restored. With this, I would continue to grow and stay positive.

Through perseverance and reflection, I was able to change. These two skills are what helped me the most. I will continue to use them to better myself and those around me. I hope to be able to help others with my newfound understanding. These two are what I believe are essential to success in any sort of workplace or life in general.