Shoot for the Stars and Get There by CJ

Shoot for the Stars and Get There by CJ - December 2015 Scholarship Essay

These past few years have been quite interesting. I have gone from thinking I know everything, as most teenagers do, to realizing that I have absolutely no idea what I am doing in this world. It has caused me a lot of self reflection on exactly what I want to do. I look at my father and how successful he is. Most people only see the success and say he is very lucky. Knowing him, I say just the opposite is the truth. True success comes from hard, persistent work.

10 years from now I see myself with a wife and children. Family always comes first for me and always will. Education is important so I can provide for them. These days children grow up in an increasingly violent and degenerate society. High school to me proved that. I want to be able to provide for my children so they can see what is truly important in life. Everything we learn is supposed to help us improve our character. No matter how much money we make or how many friends we have, we still come home every day and look at ourselves in the mirror. I think sometimes," Would my father and mother be proud of what I have done with the family name?" I hope that I can answer that in the positive every day.

10 years from now I see myself opening a dental practice of my own and helping out the community in which I reside. It is going to be a long road that is going to teach me many important questions. Education provides the learning in the classroom that all of us pay for, yet many of us do not realize the learning that we pay for as well. We do not pay monetarily, but with success and failure; happiness and disappointment. These things help us to grow into individuals society would want us to be. This is what I want out of my education. Not just a so called "degree", but character that I can take throughout my life.