Overcoming my academic obstacles by Annamarie

Overcoming my academic obstacles by Annamarie - June 2016 Scholarship Essay

One obstacle that really sticks out for me happened when I was in second grade (I am going way back on this but I promise it will be good). I remember looking at my report card and seeing the letter K next to my reading level. I asked my mom what it meant and she told me that my reading level was kindergarten though I was in second grade. I didn’t understand why I was not reading at my academic level but I knew that I didn’t want that to follow me for the rest of my life. So I began to read anything I could get my hands on, the Bible, newspaper articles, magazines pretty much anything with words as long as I was reading I didn’t care. I would go to the library and check out ten books at a time because my love for reading grew so much.
Fast forward many years later to my mid-twenties. I was working in a restaurant as a hostess and I always had a book with me. It didn’t matter if it was in the car, at school, at work I had to be reading something. At this restaurant, we had a lot of regular patrons who loved to come in on Sundays after church and have breakfast with us. One family, in particular, the Hills, came every Sunday without fail and they had everyone with them; grandparents, parents, and grandchildren. One Sunday, Mr. Hill (the grandfather) approached me about the book I was reading (it was probably Stephen King) and asked me when I started to love reading because he never saw me with the same book each week. He said his ten-year-old granddaughter hated to read and was failing her English class and he was desperate to find a way to get her to connect with reading.
I sat down next to her and asked her a few questions about herself; what did she like to do? What were some of her favorites places, animals, and food? I told her my story about not being a good reader when I was young. How it made me feel dumb and that I felt that I would not be able to ever read at my level again. I explained that all it took was for me to find what I was passionate about and to read about it. In doing that I was able to overcome a huge academic obstacle in my later years (I am still an avid reader). She told me that her favorite animals were horses and immediately I smiled because that too was my favorite growing up and I knew exactly what she needed to read. My excitement must have piqued her interest because she asked me what I was smiling about. I said, “I have the most exciting horse story for you to read but you have to be serious about wanting to read about it. Because if you aren’t it won’t be the same, the characters won’t mean anything to you, Black won’t make you want to just go riding”. With that, I told her to read “The Black Stallion” by Walter Farley. The next week the whole Hill family was back again for breakfast and the granddaughter was carrying “The Black Stallion” with her. We were able to talk about some of the characters and what our favorite scenes were.
A few months later Mr. Hill told me that her grades went from Ds to Bs! I didn’t realize back then that we all have obstacles to overcome. By sharing my story, I helped that little girl and I hope that she does the same for some other little girl or boy someday. Helping that little girl showed me that I can’t let my fears or any academic obstacle stand in my way.