Judgement Day by Cristy

Judgement Day by Cristy - May 2014 Scholarship Essay

First day of sophomore year in high school, 3.8 GPA and had taken almost every advanced placement class that was offered my freshman year. I chose to not sign up for advanced placement english for the upcoming year. I was tracked down by the teacher early that morning and asked why i had not registered for the class even though I had met all the requirements to participate. My answer was only this, "I just don't think i'll have time"

Little did I know the same teacher taught both the advanced placement and the regular english at my school. When I showed up the class and saw the same teacher, I knew I hadn't completely dodged the bullet. For a reason that i wouldn't find out quite yet, not a single word was spoken about our previous conversation.

Two weeks later the class got the scores for the first essays we had written. I was disappointed, angry, and confused all at the same time. I had seen the work of some of my classmates and the grades just weren't adding up in my head. I approached the teacher after classes and asked her for some criticism on my paper. She told me my paper would have been an A.

She went on to explain that she would be grading me to my level of work, and not the level of the class I had chosen. She knew that I could have done much better work and that was what she expecting of me; advanced placement course or not! "I needed to step it up"

To this day, I hope that is the way that everyone looks at life. Everyone has their strengths and weaknesses, but why shouldn't we push ourselves to be the best we can be in every aspect of our lives? Who wants to settle for mediocre? This piece of advice pushes me to be the best I can be, compared to no one except me!