A New Perception by Holly

A New Perception by Holly - January 2016 Scholarship Essay

The start of a new year encourages a wave of motivation throughout the brains of most everyday persons. Facebook posts begin being seen about dedications towards weight loss, a new mentality, or saving money, which also leads to the pessimistic comments of some, who view most resolutions as unsuccessful. In my opinion, the stimulating enthusiasm a new year brings is exactly what society needs in order to re-focus their initial goals, but resolutions are too often about a specific goal as opposed to the necessary actions to obtain it. For example, instead of having the New Year's resolution to "lose weight", a more effective option might be to "exercise more" or "eat healthier"; in setting this goal, you have less of an opportunity to be discouraged when your numbers don't drop automatically, which could have made the resolution seem falsely unobtainable.
Given my thoughts on how a New Year's resolution should be made, I have decided to stray from my usual resolution of "maintaining straight A's" and attempt a new approach. For my final semester of my senior year, I have made the resolution of maintaining a higher level of self-confidence. Some may argue this resolution does not affect the way a student performs academically or that it is not directly aimed towards my education, but speaking personally I have found self-doubt to be the most prevalent during school hours, where students feel they may "not be smart enough" to pass their math test or "not able to speak in front of the class" for a presentation.
I have dealt with confidence issues for many years, and I didn't truly recognize how much this doubt affected my academic achievements until the end of my junior year when I was asked to run for an ASB office. I had truly wanted to be a student body officer; I have leadership skills and enjoy having the chance to better my school and community, but I immediately refused. I doubted my ability to create and deliver a speech in front of Tulare Union's entire student body, and I did not believe I was well-known enough to gain my votes. However, when I was eventually put into the race, I realized I had an immensely better creative writing quality than I had previously believed, and my public speaking skills exceeded my expectations.
I, to my surprise, was announced to be the ASB vice president for my senior year, and it was then that I realized how much a lack in confidence set me behind in all I wanted to achieve in school. Before I had been afraid to push my intellectual boundaries out of fear of saying the wrong answer or being perceived by my classmates as unintelligent. There is a high amount of pressure placed onto students to achieve such academic heights, that at times meeting all these expectations may seem impossible.
A study at UCLA has stated that the high expectations set by high schools has led to more teenagers feeling discouraged and doubtful of their own abilities, which has led to a 26% increase in teenage depression from 1938 to 2007. My advice to all students is to make it their 2016 New Year's resolution to have an utmost level of confidence within their academic abilities. Being willing to push their boundaries within their high school's will drastically improve their performance within all classes, as well as improve their overall health.