Resolving to Become a Better Student by Christopher

Resolving to Become a Better Student by Christopher - January 2016 Scholarship Essay

Over the last four years, while hosting foreign exchange students, our family has learned several new traditions for New Year’s: in Brazil, the color of clothing worn as the New Year begins reveals one’s hopes for the year; in Russia, during the last seconds of the countdown, people write down their wish for the coming year, light the paper on fire, dropping the ashes into the glass of their beverage of choice and drink it so that their wish will stay with them the entire year; in Spain, finishing eating twelve green grapes before the final ringing of the twelve chimes preceding the New Year brings good luck in the coming year; the people of Ukraine raise their glasses in a toast to the future following their president’s speech about the country’s success over the year that is ending. Of course, in the United States, in addition to watching the ball drop in Times’ Square and singing “Auld Lang Syne,” we think about what we want to change or do better in our lives and make New Year’s resolutions. This year, one of mine which I believe will help with my education, is to become better organized.

As a senior in high school, a member of a Venture Crew, a participant in my school’s service organization, the Anchor Club, a fabricator on our First Robotics Competition team, and someone who is preparing for college by applying for scholarships, visiting colleges, and working to maintain or improve my grades, it is more important than ever to become better organized and to practice my prioritization skills. After all, college acceptances can be rescinded if I fail to maintain the standard of performance my application conveyed and they now expect. Time management over the coming months is going to be critical to my success, both as I conclude my high school career and begin college.

Scholarship applications have deadlines. Clubs have weekly or monthly meetings. Classes will have projects due, tests to take and homework to submit. Each of these deserves my undivided attention, and that means I have to prioritize to ensure that I can be focused on the individual activity. Maintaining an agenda, or calendar, with events, dates and times will help ensure I meet deadlines and stay on track. Ending each evening by creating a to-do list for the next day will prepare me so that I know I have everything I need. Taking along projects that can be worked on as time allows will help me keep up with, or even move ahead of, deadlines. Prioritizing also means learning to tell people “no” when time does not allow the luxury of adding anything more to my schedule. Sometimes, it will mean telling myself “no.” There is a time and place for everything, or at least there should be. Getting organized also ensures that I am actually focusing on the project, application, activity, etc. and have taken steps to prevent interruptions and distractions. This, potentially, helps produce a higher quality product, whatever it might be.

Fortunately, today’s technology provides many ways to help us all become better organized. There are apps, calendars, reminder tools, etc. Efficiently utilizing resources, such as those available on my smartphone, is another of the changes I intend to make in conjunction with my resolution. While the ability is not new, since I have, in fact, experimented with it over the past couple of years, this year I have made a conscious decision to accept a greater amount of responsibility for myself and I have found a huge sense of satisfaction in doing so.