This Year is the Year! by Erin

This Year is the Year! by Erin - January 2016 Scholarship Essay

As like every year, while I am on my two-week winter break from school, I consider what my New Year’s resolution will be. This year was a very important year; the year I will graduate from high school; the year I will become a legal adult; the year I will move away from home. As I consider my resolution, I take in mind what a crazy, emotional, life-changing year this will be. It will be a year like no other I've ever experienced. So obviously my resolution would be different than my usual “try harder in school”, “exercise more”, “ spend more time with family and friends”. While all of these are important and I should consider every day, this year my resolution had to be better. My resolution has to be bigger and better and different than all of my past resolutions because this year will be so different from all of the past.
This year I go to college. I plan to attend The Ohio State University next fall. This is a prestigious university and I've worked so hard to get to this point. This is the start of the rest of my life and I have no time to stop. My resolution has to be about me being a better student. Since I have been a good student all of my life, it seems hard to find a way to better my studies and grades. As I reflect on my success in school, most recently high school, I notice that I work so hard for that “A” in a class or “100%” on my test, but do I truly learn the material or just pass the test? I would like to say that I truly learn the information each time I study for a class, but I think that is unrealistic for me. So my New Year's resolution this year to help me be a better student is to focus more on the material of the class instead of working only for that perfect score or grade. Since the next four or more years set me up for the rest of my career life, it is important that I actually soak up the information instead of knowing it only for the period of the class. My goal is to commit the information I learn in my college courses to my long term memory so that I can truly put it to use everyday in my career. I believe that if I work hard to do this, I will also earn the best grades I can because of how well I am learning the information. These two things will work in positive correlation to help me be a better student.
I believe that if I stay true to this New Year's resolution then my first year of college will be successful. I know that if I make habit of this then I will no doubt reach my goal of going to graduate school to become an Occupational Therapist. Not only will I be a therapist, but I will also know all of the information I learned at school and be able to put it into daily practice. That is my ultimate goal. I know that this resolution will better me as a student and a professional later. It may not be an easy task at first, but I know with my excellent time management, organization, and study skills it will not be a hard habit to learn. I know that this resolution should have been part of my life many years ago, but what a better time to start than now! I am ready to achieve my goals and become a better student as I start a new series of my life!