Push yourself, Surprise yourself by Bianca

Push yourself, Surprise yourself by Bianca - April 2019 Scholarship Essay

I was always a good student, working to get my assignments done on time, actually doing the readings that are assigned and trying to take challenging classes. However, I would have never thought that I was skilled at math, I was always just assumed that since it never clicked as quickly as it did for the other people in my classes, especially the boys. As a result of this, I never even tried to push myself to do better at math I figured that passing it would be sufficient. Why push myself when it seemed useless? I wasn’t any good at math so why make a fool of myself?
I graduated with good grades and decided to go to a local community college while I figured out my educational and career goals. I ended up changing my career goals around five times, taking advantage of all the wonderful professors available to me and the variety of classes that I was able to afford. One professor, in particular, gave me the confidence I needed in order to push myself. It was my college algebra professor, she made the class very doable and surprisingly enjoyable. At the end of the semester, she asked me if I was going to continue taking math classes. “Why would I?” I thought. “You take all of your assignments very seriously and I think that you could go very far,” she told me.
That was a thought. Me, good at something so not me like math. Well, what did I have to lose? It was community college, after all, I could actually afford these classes with the help with my parents. So what the heck let’s do it. I walk into Business Calculus and rocked it like the coolest rock star you can think of. It was not easy, probably one of the most challenging classes that I have ever taken, yet I found that I actually liked challenging myself. I was one of four females that were in the class and I finished the class with one of the highest grades.
I would wake up hours before I would go to work where I worked with preschoolers with special needs and redo math problems and making study guides for myself. I was not afraid of asking questions even when it felt like everyone else immediately got the chapter. This soon caught the attention of the guys that sat at my table. They later asked me to join their study group, which soon I began to lead.