Developing Skills by Ivy

Developing Skills by Ivy - January 2022 Scholarship Essay

Developing skills is something that every person needs to grow and continue. Some skills that I developed during 2021 that help me now are knowing myself a little better. Some skills that I strengthened were better time management, keeping grades at an A/B average, and keeping up with sports. The thing about strengthening skills is that it was super hard to accomplish over the Covid19 pandemic, especially in Hawaii. Things were closed left and right, gyms, schools, stores. Perseverance is the key to a good work ethic, you keep going with a goal in front of you as inspiration to keep running with that goal. The thing about making goals, on the other hand, is you have to work for it just as much or a little harder than you would to strengthen. Starting a new goal can be just as hard to make and keep at as it is to add onto others.

So let's start with making a goal. I made goals to try and keep myself on task with my school work. I was a part-time virtual and at school student. So I often had to lug around a laptop with cords and headphones. I thought that having the stress of sports and school would help with my academic achievements, it’s almost like having an incentive to keep working on the more important things. Some goals that I had that included my academics were studying before tests, keeping track of homework (when it is due, etc), and having an outlet or downtime. I consider having an outlet apart from academics a useful tool because then you feel more refreshed and ready for school and homework the next day. Some of my outlets consisted of drawing, reading, and swimming/water polo. It was and still is, hard for me to try my best to keep myself on track. But what it comes down to is I'm trying my best to complete these goals and I continue to do so. All I have left is to strengthen those goals.

To strengthen a goal, you will have had to work at it and want to go above and beyond with said goal. It's more than just a bragging right, it's something you want to accomplish for yourself. Something that I worked on to strengthen my goals was to practice them more and more every day. Because with practice comes repetition, and when there is repetition there is muscle memory to do a thing a certain way. So when you build on that muscle memory you strengthen your goal. I would attend all of my online classes, I made sure I knew what the lesson plan was and gathered materials accordingly. But sports were canceled due to covid so I found workouts in other ways, such as walking the dogs twice a day or doing long walks with friends. When you have a goal it is so important that you are also flexible. Some things get in the way or don't work out.

Goals are meant to be made and to be added upon. Goals, however, are not meant to be made just to forget or tossed aside. Academic goals get increasingly more difficult as you go because of the workload and/or outside factors. It gets difficult, but perseverance is the key to any problem. Imagine moving your senior year of high school, starting somewhere completely new and different from the last school. That takes a lot of new goals to think of and work on. It takes courage and determination to get through something like that. But what I've found helps so much is setting goals, even the academic ones help out a ton. It doesn't matter if it's a small goal, it's something for you to work towards and to be proud of once you've completed it.