Singing In The Rain by Annah

Singing In The Rain by Annah - April 2022 Scholarship Essay

My senior year has been a time of tremendous personal growth. In that regard, I’m not unlike thousands of high school students who have had to adapt to the changes stemming from a global pandemic. However, I have faced additional challenges that forced me to examine who I am, where I come from, and who I would like to be. What I have learned, above all, is that I am a woman of integrity. While the dictionary defines integrity as “the quality of being honest and having strong moral principles,” Merriam-Webster takes it a step further by explaining that the word implies “trustworthiness and incorruptibility to a degree that one is incapable of being false to a trust, responsibility, or pledge.” I prefer to think of this quality simply as “choosing well.”
Last month I took an impromptu trip with my church to visit a community in Pennsylvania. I watched as many students I'd grown up with were shell-shocked by the lives of marginalized and lower socioeconomic status families. While I can't attest to the lives of others I felt especially closer to the younger children who were facing similar obstacles to my own. While it was a small gesture we could give, babysitting the kids throughout the week brought us closer as a community. Parents could go to work knowing their babies were cared for and loved. I spent countless hours giving piggyback rides and doodling with face paint. I'm specifically fond of one sweet girl who attached herself to me from day one. We talked about our brothers, parents, and school. She was the most beautiful and articulate eight-year-old I've ever met. I'd wondered for years about my future career and passions. I knew I had a heart convicted to be present for others. Those small conversations and gestures with these students prompt me to pursue a degree in education. With all the continuous hardships these families will face it is the choice to show up for others that make an impact. I know it did for me. On our last day, we played on a basketball court and it started pouring just as we were walking our group home. The little ones that I'd grown close to pulled me along and danced while my mascara ran in the rain. When we started the week I didn't see one of them smile and now they were behaving like bubbly, beautiful children. Regardless of the hardships we will face I drove home more sure of my identity and the goodness we hold onto in this world. technically speaking I was serving them, but these kids helped me more than they will ever know.