English 12 by Ella

English 12 by Ella - July 2016 Scholarship Essay

At the start of my senior year, I was terrified. I had gone through my class schedule, and had seen the one name I didn’t want to see: Jane Wensko. I had heard horror stories about her— her class was impossible, and she didn’t care whether you passed or not. I was terrified. It was English, a class you have to pass to be able to graduate. I told myself it would be okay— I had always been fairly good at English. I would survive this.
The first day of school came around and I had already decided I didn’t like her. I thought I would spend the whole year dreading her class every day. For the first few months her class did seem impossible. We had quizzes and tests that were confusing and essays that were long and difficult. However, I didn’t seem to be struggling. I had an A in the class and received high grades on all my tests quizzes and essays. I thought, hey, maybe this isn’t so bad after all. Then, research paper time came around. We had an entire marking period dedicated to writing a research paper on a topic of our choice. I was panicking, as were all the other students in my class. There were so many things we had to do: find reputable resources, write down facts from all our resources, and so on. I was so stressed. I thought, I am going to fail this paper and this marking period. But I didn’t. I received one of the highest grades in the class on my research paper, a 99.5%. I was beyond surprised. Everything after that seemed easy. I had actually grown to like this teacher that I was so afraid of.
On my last day of high school, Mrs. Wensko told us what she appreciated about each one of us. Then, she told us something I will never forget. She said, “Every time we took tests or wrote essays and you saw me looking at you, I wasn’t looking to see if you were cheating. I was praying for you. And I pray for you every night. You are such wonderful, special people and I pray that this world won’t bring you down or make you lose your light.” I am not a religious person, but this moved me to tears. I could not believe that anyone could have told stories about how mean this woman was. She is a beautiful person. She taught me how powerful prayer can be and that if you love what you do nothing can bring you down.