My Proudest Accomplishment of High School. by Emily

My Proudest Accomplishment of High School. by Emily - December 2016 Scholarship Essay

Looking back on my years of high school, I have a lot of things to be proud of, I am a starting lacrosse player on my high school’s lacrosse team, I am am active volunteer in my church and community and I manage to keep my grades up with a busy work and lacrosse schedule. But looking back on these four years, my proudest accomplishment was just simply making it through high school.

My freshman year of high school started out as normal as it could get, the only worries I had was what I was going to wear to school, or who was going with who to homecoming. Not until September 9th 2013 when my life changed forever. On that September afternoon an armed intruder broke into my house when my parents were not home; just my two siblings and I. What happened while he was in my house changed my life forever. Thankfully stitches were able to heal the physical wounds, but no stitches would be able to fix how this affected me mentally.

The days that followed were long and full of neighbors and family stopping by just to hug my siblings and me. People called us heroes; I sure didn't feel like one. Wasn’t a hero supposed to feel pride and brave? All I felt was scared, and all I wanted to do was hide. I wanted more than anything just to go back to the way I used to feel before he broke in.

I knew my life would never be the same. I developed post traumatic stress disorder, my anxiety became unbearable. I spent most of my freshman and sophomore year talking to different counselors who tried to “fix “me. What hurt me the most was seeing my parents have to deal with all my anxiety attacks; they were so helpless and all they wanted to do was help; it was like I had some type of incurable diseases that kept consuming me. My grades were dropping. No matter how hard I tried to focus, the fear would always come out on top. I got to the point where I didn’t even want to go to school anymore.

By the end of sophomore year, I was more than disappointed with myself and my grades. I needed to stop living in fear. One day after school, I came home upset with myself. That day my Mom told me something that I will never forget; she said that I have to stop letting an evil man control my life, this is my life and I have so much ahead of me, life is short, don’t let him take anything away from you.

First day of junior year, I entered the school a new person. Although was still living in absolute fear, I was still going to give school my best work. With the help of my amazing family, many counselors and great friends, I made one of the biggest accomplishments of my high school career, I made the Honor Roll. This was proof to me that I could do anything I put my mind to. Hard work does pay off and I couldn't be more proud of myself.

I think a lot about what my life would be like today; if I never left the garage door open, I think about the person I would be. Honesty, I wouldn’t change a thing. Because of what happened to me, it built me into the strong, brave and committed young woman that I am today. I am a true hero.

So now I am a senior in high School, about to go on to the next chapter in my life. The world has so much to offer me and I am going to seize every opportunity that it offers. No longer am I living in fear. I can proudly say, I accomplished high school and I couldn't be more proud of myself.