Forgetfulness by Brigette

Forgetfulness by Brigette - August 2022 Scholarship Essay

I leave for school in three days. In preparation for my sophomore year at the University of Tennessee I have dedicated myself to becoming extremely organized. I am typically a pretty organized person but frequently I found myself forgetting assignments or even EXAMS my freshman year. I am a great student. I had a 3.9 gpa both semesters of my freshman year. Lucky for me my professors were very forgiving when some things slipped my mind. But just because I was given a free pass because of my great grades and attendance I refuse to let this forgetful behavior become a habit. I have become so motivated to do my best in school as summer comes to an end. I love the feeling of seeing my name on the dean's list and viewing my perfect grades.
Like I stated earlier, I am a pretty organized person with the exception of some minor slip ups. I started a routine of doing all of my assignments and work weeks in advance. I would sit down and grind out every assignment I could find. I did my work so far in advance I found myself with really nothing to do except go to class and take notes. To this day, my friends are always so shocked by my grades and GPA because they “swear they have never ever seen me do homework”. This is because I sit down and get it all done so I do not have to stress and complete an assignment down to the wire. But with this great system I had in place I began to get too comfortable in the “oh I have nothing to do'' mindset. Because in my mind I completed all of my assignments last week and I can sit back and relax. But I always seem to forget the assignments that are locked up until a certain day and are only unlocked for a certain amount of hours.
I perfectly remember this weekend before spring break. I made sure all of my work was done for before, during, and after break. I had nothing to worry about! I was all packed to head to canada! I woke up on my last day of class and decided to check canvas. I open up the assignments tab that shows all my assignments due and one quickly disappears (meaning the app did not refresh until I reopened the app and it was showing me what I saw the last time I opened canvas). An assignment that read GERMAN EXAM. My face instantly turned white. Suddenly I could hear my German teacher a few weeks ago telling me all I should know about this exam due yesterday. Obviously I began freaking out and was so embarrassed and coincidentally had to go to my german class in 15 minutes. I left early and explained everything before class drenched in sweat. I was so nervous. The professor put up a tough fight to reopen the assignment but I am so so so grateful he finally did. After that I vowed to never ever do this again. Obviously I was used to feeling the disappointment after forgetting small assignments but the feeling of forgetting an exam I will never forget.
This is why I have already started to organize my entire calendar and not miss any assignments and set as many reminders as necessary to never forget anything again.