Education vs Me by Brooklyhn

Education vs Me by Brooklyhn - October 2022 Scholarship Essay

Education began making its appearance heavy in my life whenever my dad started to ask for my brothers and my report cards in high school. My parents worried about our grades because they knew that what we did in high school could get us a happy, prosperous life or one where we’re miserable. Their worry grew from first-hand experience. My dad passed high school but never finished college, and my mother dropped out of high school because she became pregnant with my eldest brother, Kyler. Despite hardships with their education, they knew that their own experiences with education didn’t have to filter through us and have what education means to us stained like theirs was. They pushed us to be better than they were, so we wouldn’t have to share the dreadfulness that education brought for them.
However, it led to them forgetting about how we truly felt during those report cards or mid-term times. They only ever asked, “ Get good grades on the report card?” We never sat down to talk about our day with our parents. I was never asked if there was something at school that was bothering me. While my parents loved us unconditionally, they had managed to worry about our futures so much that they forgot to worry about our present selves. In turn, it led to me and my brothers putting education before anything else in our lives for the approval and appreciation of our parents. This is when I truly began thinking about what education meant to me and how it had been affecting me.
Education has come to mean so much more than just going to school, receiving worksheets, and listening to lectures for 8 hours before going home. It means more than coming home with a report card full of A’s and B’s. It means more than sitting at a desk waiting for a bell to ring so you can go to the next class. Education is a dangerous force that can fester within someone’s eagerness to learn, and while it enforced a strength of learning and self-respect within me, it unknowingly consumed my whole life. Education has brought virtue to my life, but it has also brought turmoil within me. It holds the key to success within its grasp, and I will try to equip that key through hard work and determination. Ultimately, education means the succession to a stable, happy life.