“How Online Courses Have Taught Me Discipline” by Blakely

“How Online Courses Have Taught Me Discipline” by Blakely - May 2014 Scholarship Essay

If I am honest, I must admit that I am who I am today in part because of my the online courses I have taken. When my academic adviser first suggested I take courses online, I expected to get little out of the experience. I had heard that online classes included little professor involvement, little work, and little learning. But my adviser insisted. "It takes some self-discipline, but the online coursework can be very rewarding," she told me. I am pleased to say now exactly how right she was.

After a less than stellar semester in 2010 that resulted in my withdrawal from classes, I returned to college in 2012 hoping to finish what I started. I wanted to get an Associate of Arts to enhance my career prospects, but after one semester it became clear to me that education had more to offer me than I had previously realized. Slowly my values changed; slowly I was transformed.

My online classes stretch me in ways that I never expected. One of the first discoveries that I made about my courses was that hard work was expected. But there was no taskmaster; there was no one to tell me when to do my assignments, to study, or even to take exams. I was fully on my own, and given my less than stellar performance in 2010, I was scared of failing once again.

In response to this problem, I did what any student needing organization does: I bought a planner. Every important date from my syllabi was marked in the planner. Test dates, quiz dates, homework due dates — all of it was noted alongside any personal or work engagements that were planned. The entire semester was available for me to look through, and throughout the semester, not one assignment caught me by surprise.
Unfortunately the joy of noting my every deadline came to an end the first Saturday of my semester when I found myself cramming fifteen credits of coursework into a single weekend. This full day of studying turned out to be a better idea in theory than in practice. Assignments were rushed; papers were late. My work was suffering. It seemed that knowing the deadlines was not sufficient.

To combat this tendency to procrastinate, I began waking up earlier on weekdays to knock out my coursework. Before breakfast I required myself to complete at least one major assignment. This proved to be an effective system, and my work improved. By the end of the semester, I achieved A’s in every class. But what truly amazed me was that without the pressure of an immediate deadline, I found myself enjoying the work.

It is difficult to express how remarkable this change was for me. Before returning to school, I had spent a lifetime procrastinating unpleasant tasks. The important parts of life were always delayed. I pretended that last minute pressure was good for creativity; I imagined I excelled during crunch time. But the sad truth was that I simply avoided work. I made laziness into a lifestyle. Had I not taken my advisers words seriously and enrolled in online courses in 2012, I would probably still be stuck leading that same unremarkable life. Without the challenges I received in my classes, I would never have known the achievements I was capable of.