I thought I was a good writer, until I realized I was mistaken by Iris

I thought I was a good writer, until I realized I was mistaken by Iris - August 2016 Scholarship Essay

Going into my senior year in high school, I had constantly heard from all of my teachers that I was a great writer, and that I was at the top of the class in my writing ability. All of that praise led me to think that the advanced placement English class I was going to take in the fall would be a piece of cake. Little did I know that I would receive the lowest essay grade I had ever received, which ultimately caused me to doubt my writing ability and almost decide to drop out of that class. Not only was I shocked to see a grade below an A, but I was also annoyed because I thought that I had put a lot of effort and hard work into my essay.
Despite the countless hours I spent on trying to rewrite my essay in order to get a higher score the second time around, I was left with my sad looking C. Never in my life had I worked so hard and been left with unsatisfactory results. A few weeks into the semester, I chose to stay after school and talk to my teacher about what I was doing wrong. After meeting with my teacher I realized that I was being kind of full of myself and needed to respect the grade I was given. I needed to take the time to learn why I had received the grade I had instead of focusing just on how to change the grade. I was deeply humbled when I my teacher showed me all the mistakes and issues she had with my writing.
From that day on, I learned that being a good writer isn’t just about how grammatically correct a paper is, but it also includes that amount of thought that goes into the paper. Even the motivation and inspiration that the author uses to write a good essay is extremely important. I am forever grateful for my teacher’s dedication to helping me rework my writing and to help me finally succeed.
This subject really showed me how to persevere in school, especially if it takes more than one try. This class specifically, helped me grow as a student because at the beginning of the class I believed that I was already a great writer. I assumed that the class would be easy, just like my other high school classes were, and that I would breeze by with perfect A+ essays. To my complete and utter surprise, this class was a rude awakening to how much I still needed to grow and learn as a student writer. I realized that I needed to take a step backwards before I could fully succeed in the challenging class and eventually in the art of writing.
To this day, I am in college and still remember how I first started my last year in high school, thinking my writing was “all that”. Now, I know better and learn from my mistakes. In fact, I strive for grades that aren’t necessarily perfect because then I know that there are things that I can still improve upon. I am a lifelong learner, and I know these skills that I learned in high school will most definitively continue to be useful as a become the best student that I possibly can in whatever aspect of life I may be in.