My path towards greatness by Isabela

My path towards greatness by Isabela - April 2024 Scholarship Essay

Throughout my high school career, I have taken more than 7 Honors classes and a total of 7 AP classes. Looking back now as a senior, I realize this is no easy feat to accomplish, so how was I able to do it?
Motivation has always been a key proponent in my life, whether it be for academics, or for sports— which I used to play competitive soccer until I tore both of my ACLs— it’s truly the key to being successful in anything, especially school. Setting my goal to be pursuing a secondary education at a prestigious university was how I kept myself motivated. Every day, I woke up and chose to be diligent about my work, I chose to stay up that extra hour to study for that test, to get that 100 and to keep up with my Honor classes.
Staying focused, though, was a different battle altogether. As a senior, it's especially hard to stay focused on minute homework, on work that may not seem like it amounts to much, knowing that in a couple of months you’ll be in a completely different environment, with so many different people around you; and yet, I still had to be focused to finish this year strong. However, this year was unlike any other. This year, I had the immense opportunity to co-teach a math class. The reason I was the only student chosen to do this is because I can fluently speak English, Portuguese, and Spanish; so communicating with most ESL students that entered my school was easy. This amazing opportunity really allowed me to become more focused on my own studies because I became so immensely grateful for everything I had and everything I took for granted.