Different is Good by Gabi

Different is Good by Gabi - November 2014 Scholarship Essay

I wish that I would have been told that it is okay to be different my freshman year. I finally took my own advice during my senior year, when I found my group of friends slowly diminishing. I began to understand who I was. When you first enter high school, you have high expectations of making a lot of new friends, having fun all the time, having good teachers, and developing relationships and habits that will last a lifetime. Although some people may have had this experience, not everyone will; but that is okay. It is okay to be different. You don't have to love high school, because it is not the end of the world. No one will remember what embarassing thing happened to you in high school. No one is going to remember what you wore one day, or who you were seen talking to. Evidently, I've forgotten most of the things I said and did my freshman year.

The mistake I made my freshman year was trying too hard to fit in. I wanted everyone to like me, so I was never truly being myself. I acted shy and closed off because I didn't want to be judged for who I was. The most important thing to do your freshman year is be yourself. I know that this is something that everyone always says, but it's true. I thought I was "being myself" my freshman year, and I finally realized - four years later - that the person I was my freshman year wasn't actually me. It was a girl who was trying to please everyone, and to not "rock the boat". I agreed with everyone, and I put on a smile for everything. It just wasn't me.

Although it may not happen to everyone, sometimes your group of friends go down. This happened with me, and I'm totally okay with it. I have realized that your true friends will stick with you for years to come, and I realized that a lot of the people I hung out with weren't actually my friends. I'm not trying to sound cynical, I'm trying to show that it's okay to have your group of friends change. As the years progressed, I finally started to open up to other people, and showed who I was. I wasn't shy - I was loud. I was opininated and stubborn. I was someone that some people didn't like. But that's okay, because I made new friends in school, and a lot more outside of school, that liked me for me.

So while it may seem that high school is going to be difficult, it's not. Just be yourself - be different! Don't be like everyone else and try to reestablish who you are your senior year (like me). Be who you want to be, not what someone else wants to see. In the end, the opinions of other's in high school don't matter, so there's no reason to stress over the things that you can't control.