Tackling Self-Discipline by Ekaterina

Tackling Self-Discipline by Ekaterina - September 2014 Scholarship Essay

College versus high school. What’s the big deal? The transition should be easy, right? Wrong. If you’re anything like me, and were able to write papers in fifteen minutes before school started and get A’s on tests by just attending class, the transition to college is not an easy one.

I had mentors, instructors, and relatives tell me I need to work on time management, prioritizing, communicating with my professors, and other skills to succeed in college. Yet what I realized from being in a junior college for the past two years is that I lacked a skill you can’t learn from a book and you can’t learn from watching someone do it. It is the skill of self-discipline. It tackles all other skills. You can’t manage time or prioritize well if you lack self-discipline, or communicate with your instructors unless you actually get yourself over to their offices.

College is filled with fun activities, parties, and late nights. It is up to the student to decide what activities they want to participate and when to study, and those decisions are based on the strength of the student’s self-discipline. Success in college does not consist of just high GPA’s and being on the honor roll, it also consists of staying healthy and becoming an individually well-rounded adult. Therefore, finding a sweet spot between keeping up with academics and discovering oneself as an adult through college extracurricular activities takes self-discipline.

Albert Guest Edgar once wrote, “…Have you tackled self-discipline? Have you ever issued commands to you to quit the things that you like to do, and then, when tempted and sorely swayed, those rigid orders have you obeyed?”

Tackling self-discipline on Friday nights when I had a test on a Monday morning made my teeth grit. It was a test of will and a fight between devil and angel figurines on my shoulders. I had experienced a newfound freedom when I turned eighteen and began attending college. At this stage in life, no one made me attend class, do assignments, or study. Instructors did not follow me down the hallway to inquire why I haven’t turned in the work like in high school – I was viewed as an adult. I learned that nothing and no one will make students do anything to succeed in college, except for the student’s own self-discipline.

Developing the skill of self-discipline took several quarters, failing several courses, and reassessing my priorities. Though time was lost, I do not regret it. I learned to sacrifice my time with friends and other pleasurable activities and forcing myself to do the things I did not want to do, such as stay in and study, in order to reach a bigger, greater goal – graduating from college. So if you want to know if you will succeed in college, take a look in the mirror and ask yourself, “Do I have self-discipline?”