Why Give Up? by Chelsey

Why Give Up? by Chelsey - February 2014 Scholarship Essay

“When you get into a tight place and everything goes against you, till it seems as though you could not hang on a minute longer, never give up, for that is the time that the tide will turn.”-Harriet Beecher Stowe

When I thought my life could not get any worse, it happened.

I am a freshman in college, so that means getting adjusted to the college life, roommates, heavy loads of work and reading, while maintaining family and social life outside of campus. That’s a immense challenge! Intermediate algebra and sociology on top of English and University Life, should seem like an easy load but I struggled. I was told I needed to have at least 12 units to be a full time student. Hoping that putting 10 classes in my enrollment basket, would give me many options. Not the true for freshmen. In fact I was fortunate to even get 3 out of 10 selected courses. But, I needed 3 more units to fulfill my 12 unit, full student deal. The only class and mistake I could have made as a freshman. Sociology. Not only was the reading of articles difficult, but so was the professor. Those results at the end of the first semester exhibited it. That’s when my life began to turn against me.

During the winter break, I received an email notifying me that I was placed on academic probation. Great, just what I need. Can this situation get any worse? Getting closer to the time of returning to school, I received another devastating email stating that my financial aid had been placed on hold until I wrote an appeal letter due to my low grade. At this point all these worthless thoughts rushed into my mind, “maybe I should just go to community college, I mean nothing wrong with it right? Or just drop out while I have the chance and the money.” As time gets closer to begin paying financial aid, I sat with nothing but uncanny and worthless thoughts. I was a depressed wreck.

The day after accepting financial aid had begun, I thought to myself what was the purpose of getting this far to college and then just to stop my education over a low to no income and low grade issue? Taking matters into my own hands I began emailing, calling, and setting up appointments with people who might be able to help me stay in school. Explaining why I deserve financial aid and why I even deserve being at the school, I knew there is a purpose. Not giving up on myself even after being denied millions of time, I finally received my answer.

It was not until the morning before my classes were threatened to get dropped that I received the decent news. I was going to be given my financial aid to continue my schooling.

Although I could have given up from the first letter I had received, a little piece of me questioned why. I have made it from being just another statistic, I have made it from not being the top of my class, and I have made it passed all these negative thoughts because I am motivated to prove others and my negative self-wrong, that I can do anything I want in life if I just go for it. Even though everything was against me and nothing was going right, at the last minute the tide did turn.