A Different Kind of Stress by Geneva

A Different Kind of Stress by Geneva - August 2014 Scholarship Essay

I expected a lot going into my Physics class my junior year. The teacher was the girls varsity soccer coach at our school and I was captain and already on his good side, and everyone I knew that had him before as a teacher loved his classes. They were difficult sure, but he was supposed to be the best Physics teacher in the school. Walking into class he had cool physics related toys and posters everywhere. I was actually somewhat excited.

The further the school year progressed however, the further behind I found myself in the class. Before I knew it, I had an 88 in pre-ap Physics. An 88. I had been a straight A student my entire life, and now I had a B in my coach’s class. Impossible. I was getting 70s and 80s handed back here and there as grades that could not be changed. All of a sudden the end of the semester was quickly approaching. We had one major grade left before finals, and if I did well enough I could be exempt, but I wasn't going to take the exemption if I didn't have an A in the class. I wasn't learning what I needed to in the class, or at least what I did learn I didn't retain very well, and tutoring wasn't much better. I had to take matters into my own hands to ensure that my reputation would be saved.

There is this excellent little site named Khan Academy that helps with every school subject imaginable. It contains literally thousands of videos on anything one could ever hope to study for. It was my only hope to end the semester with an A. Beginning at least 4 days before the last major grade of the semester I spent every minute of my free time at home on Khan Academy. For each subject there are anywhere from 3 to 10 videos or more. Each video averages at least 9 minutes. I studied for at least 3 subjects and I watched every single video and did every single example problem to ensure that I was going to ace the test. Finally, when the day came I was ready. I was nervous, but I knew what had to be done. The test was short, maybe twenty questions, and all open ended answers. I flew through it with ease, which made me more nervous. The last Physics test I took that confidently I almost failed. I was one of the first ones to finish and my anxiety levels rose as I took it to the front. Good thing he was a quick grader.

I had to wait an entire 23 and a half hours to get my grade back from the test. I ran into class the next morning with all kinds of emotions: anxiety, excitement, fear. I shuffled through the stack of graded papers and quickly found mine. On the top, in big red numbers with a circle around the outside, I found a beautiful 98. The amount of satisfaction felt in that very moment is indescribable. Two points had been taken off for forgetting to add a unit at the end of an answer, but I couldn't care less. I was going to be exempt from my final, and more importantly, I was going to end my semester with an A. I learned a very valuable lesson from Coach Bolton my junior year: not everything is going to be easy, even for the smart kids. However, there is always something to be done about a problem, you just have to be willing to put in the extra work.