The Importance of a Good Community in Academic Success by Hannah

The Importance of a Good Community in Academic Success by Hannah - June 2016 Scholarship Essay

This last academic school year was probably the hardest years of my life. School was the last thing on my mind as I battled many internal conflicts. School has always been a huge part of my life. In fact I really enjoy school and have always gotten good grades. Moving away to college challenged that a lot. I used to experience such ease when it came to academics but now there were many other stressors in my life that I had to worry about.

I was enrolled as a biology major which meant that I had very intensive classes to attend to. As school began it became harder and harder for me to put my whole self into my classes as I began to suffer from depression. The depression was encapsulating my entire being. And as my grades began to drop I only fell deeper into this depression as a I began to lack self-confidence. The depression had been caused by multiple things.

College was incredibly stressful and it was the first time in my life that I had been out on my own. I had moved 10 hours away from home. With this, I was trying to figure out who my friends were and really who I was and what I believed. With that said, being on my own for the first time had its social challenges. I had trusted a lot of people that I should not have trusted and who broke my trust. Because of this, I began to distance myself from people in an unhealthy manner. I began to feel very lonely because I did not have a solid community of friends at college. It was radically different than being at home with my supportive family to come home to.

This emotional storm inside of me made it very difficult to focus on my grades and school. I realized that I could not be at college and achieve the things that I wanted without a solid community of people around me. That is when I learned that even though people at college had broken my trust, I needed to reach out and make close friends and still be vulnerable with people. I realized that friends and community are what is really important and what is going to get you through life’s struggles. When I began to learn to take care of myself and open up to trustworthy people I was able to go back to focusing on school instead of being overwhelmed by depression. I now have made some very trustworthy and close friends at school that help pick me up when I am down and encourage me in my academic goals.