The Ever Successful Student by Brandon

The Ever Successful Student by Brandon - August 2014 Scholarship Essay

Success can be defined in a number of ways. To some, success may be defined as passing by to whatever the next stage is. To others, success means striving to be the best that one can possibly be. Unfortunately, I used the former definition for a long time. Through elementary school, middle school, and even a few years in high school, I was always able to reach that level of success of getting by. Never was I on the verge of failing, but I wouldn't consider myself an A student. Many times I relied on my test scores to keep my grades up. Quizzes and exams were my strong suit because of my great short term and long term memory. Other aspects of my grade were often jeopardized, such as my homework and classwork grades, but it never really bothered me. Doing the minimal amount of homework, completing my classwork, and my decent test grades constructed the B average that I received through my years of schooling. School was always easy to me, and a B average was more than enough at the time. Of course the Honor roll students got a lot of recognition for their work, but I failed to see the benefit of working that hard. The A+ students always seemed stressed over their work and grades, and isolated from the rest of the class. They weren't loners or suffering from depression, but they sure weren't as joyful as I was throughout the school year.

Going into high school with this mentality ended up being more of a curse than a blessing. Coursework began to get harder, classes were longer, and my grades were getting lower. Unwise and stubborn, I continued in my path of getting the OK grades instead of the best grades. Freshman and sophomore years were not really challenging. The work was just review of what I learned in the year prior, so my excellent memory played right into this. Junior year was the red flag for me. I took a physics class during the last period of the day. The physics teacher was new to the school, so no one knew much about him. This was also the first year I played on a high school sports team. During the fall, I played soccer and then in the spring I had workouts for next years football season. Between practice and my physics class, I had a conflict. Practices started immediately after school, and it was imperative to be early to the field. Competition for spots on the team and workout equipment was fierce, and when it came to sports, I had to be the best. Ironically this work ethic never translated into my school work. Because of my success in my prior school years, juggling sports and academics didn't seem like a challenging task. First marking period I received a C in the class. One would think that this is enough warning to focus more on school work instead of sports, but I didn't. I kept going with a C average until the third quarter exam. My memory couldn't save me as this exam required extensive studying. With no studying during the days leading up to the exam, I blindly went into the test with only the information retained in my head at the time. A few weeks later I was in shock. The marking period ended, and I got an F on the test. I couldn't believe myself as even later I realized I had failed for the 3rd quarter as well. Up until now, I had never failed a class. I always thought it wasn't possible for me to fail. The shame inside me kept me from showing my parents my grade for the third marking period. By the end of the school year I had a D average in physics.

Failing the third quarter in physics showed me that I could not use my old work ethics continuing on in school. Senior year would be even harder, and I would have to start striving for better grades if I wanted to go to a good college. Coming back to school in the fall of senior year, I made a lot of changes in my life. I had to manage my time better by doing homework immediately after practices, and utilizing after school teachers on my days off of practice. I organized my bag and folders more, used binder tabs, and used a personal organizer book to keep track of assignments. After arriving on-time to all of my classes, I finally saw the benefits of being one of the A students. My GPA rose back up to a 3.3, and in the spring of 2014 I accepted the offer from my dream college. The Pennsylvania State University offered me admission in February of 2014. I can only hope to maintain the drive I now have when going through the next four years of schooling. Being the B student in college won't be enough, and it's time to join the A students.