Prioritization Is My Best Friend by Chirag

Prioritization Is My Best Friend by Chirag - July 2023 Scholarship Essay

During the onset of my junior year, I was juggling (quite literally) my daily participation in rigorous IB and AP coursework, extracurriculars, and a division-one-level cross-country team. Especially after COVID-19, I lost all traces of my memory about in-place learning and the usual homework load given during the pre-pandemic era. There were consistent academic pressures on me since junior year grades were the X factor for college admission officers. On average, I spent almost six hours each day completing my homework and studying for pop quizzes, quizzes, and unit tests. This tiring routine after almost two hours of running practice seemed even more daunting. During that time, I didn’t know how to prioritize. Although I knew I didn’t want to become a professional athlete, I innocently weighed sports and academics the same. As a result, I wasn’t able to give my best effort to academics during the first semester of junior year because my time and effort were invested in both activities. This led to me earning very poor grades in classes such as Honors Pre-Calculus and IB English 1.

As I contemplate, I realize I wasn’t focused on my goal of securing a place at a four-year university and becoming a physician. My goal and career aspiration required me to earn a top GPA. However, I was so focused on perfecting every aspect of my college application that I couldn’t give time to the main aspect, academics. Truly, looking at poor grades for the first semester was heartbreaking. At that moment, I felt like a failure since I felt I had no chance of getting into a top-ranked college. However, I learned a huge lesson from my failure. I learned to prioritize the things I value and consider very important for my career. One day, I started writing the things that are most important to me in life. I wrote my goals of maintaining and creating good relationships with my family and friends, earning top GPA, maintaining fitness, and career aspirations of becoming a physician, I learned that I need to start prioritizing those things. Starting from the second semester of junior year till the end of high school, I reminded myself daily to give my best effort in classes. This truly paid off as my GPA trended upward. Although running and extracurriculars were important too, I prioritized them as secondary when compared to academics as my primary focus. Prioritization has given me clarity about things I want to accomplish. This has definitely shaped me as a better person as I learned to give more importance to the things I value most in life such as career, family, friends, and fitness to live a fulfilling life.