New Year, New Me by Hannah

New Year, New Me by Hannah - January 2016 Scholarship Essay

Hannah Harder
“Describe one New Year's resolution that will help you become a better student in 2016.”
“New year, new me” is a popular caption for a photo on Instagram as soon as the New Year rolls around. It’s one thing to say you’re going to become a new you, but to actually change is an accomplishment. A resolution to become a better student is to invest more time into my studies. As of now, I believe I don’t put enough time in my studies. Trying to balance a social life, athletics, sleep, and my education is a lot to juggle. Time is limited, so accomplishing this goal may be difficult.
One way I can accomplish this goal is to chunk off a specific amount of time just for school work. At least an hour a night of doing homework without any distractions would be a huge help. I can’t block off time too late or too early due to sleep, so preferably an hour after school. That way I get a little time to relax before jumping back into school work, but not too much time for me to get comfortable.
Studying alone isn’t too much fun and you can easily fall off track. Finding some motivated people to do school work with would make studying a little more fun. In this circumstance, you get to have a social life and work on your education at the same time, two for one deal! Working with others will help you in case there are any questions which they may be able to answer. This also helps if you need to bounce ideas off someone. Since you will get to have a social life and do homework at the same time, time will be easy to block off because you don’t have to worry about creating more time for your friends.
Trying to juggle athletics and studying is one of the most difficult. You want to be the best athlete there is, but also be doing good in school to make sure that you can play is also important. What I have been doing when I have softball, is to make sure I use my time wisely in school and not worry so much about my social life, since I’m around my team every day. When I have games and I know I won’t be back until late, I bring my homework with me and work on it on the bus rides and I try to look over it one more time when I get home, but I’m usually tired and just want to shower and sleep.
Coordinating athletics, sleep, education, and a social life may sound difficult, but it can sound easy if you have a planned schedule. Every day of my life is planned out by the hour to ensure that all of those needs are met. It’s busy, but I manage. My New Year’s resolution is to invest more time into my schoolwork and become a “new me”.