What I Learned in High School by Emma

What I Learned in High School by Emma - September 2021 Scholarship Essay

Stubbornness is one of my worst personality traits. Also, I am a perfectionist. This has meant the experiences I have had in school have been full of challenges to my understanding and beliefs. These challenges to how I think has made me love education. School has given me opportunities to make friends and manage responsibility. I have decided I want to help kids have some of the same kind of growth opportunities, I plan to become a middle school science teacher. All that being said, the most important challenge school has given me is a chance to confront is that life comes in colors not just black and white.
When I was younger, I believed there was right and there was wrong. I still fall into that trap sometime even though I am a little older now. I have always found the world to be easier to make sense of in black and white. School has taught me about some heavy stuff - the death penalty, Vietnam War, Holocaust, Rwandan genocide, 9-11, and the Little Rock Nine, just to name a few. This has let me see that life doesn’t happen in black and white with a clear-cut answer or even a way to make sense of it. In war, both sides commit atrocities. Humans carry out terrible senseless acts of hatred on others, sometimes help doesn’t come to those who need it. Education has challenged my view of life and how I interact with the people in it. Empathizing with peoples struggles and understanding that everyone has hard times is allowing me to become a better person. It has made me see color. This has given me an opportunity to change how I make decisions and see the world.
One example of how my perspective has changed is my view of math textbook answer sections. When I was in junior high and a freshman, I though looking in the back of math books for the answers to some of the questions was cheating. As I have gotten older, I have taken harder math classes. Currently I am taking calculus. I have no idea how I would get by without being to check my answers with the back of the book. It helps me know if I am on the right track. Now I know that using the resources at your disposal is just as important to learn as how to do the math.
Being challenged by school has helped me grow as a person. When I was younger, I was only able to see how a decision affected me. Now I am able to see the bigger picture. Changing the way I think about problems has helped me decide what I want to do with my future. I can see the world in colors, not just in black and white. I still have a lot to learn about life, but I am excited to have an adventure of my own. In addition to all the lessons school has taught me, I also have better math grades.