Chemistry: From Enemy to Best Friend by Jeannette

Chemistry: From Enemy to Best Friend by Jeannette - April 2019 Scholarship Essay

Jeannette Jeffrey
04/05/19
Scholarship Essay: Varsity Tutors
Chemistry: From Enemy to Best Friend
Back when I was in high school, the subjects that I had the most trouble with were the ones that I had the least confidence in. It didn’t help, either, when kids would tell you how hard a class was going to be before you even took it. This was chemistry for me. I dreaded it more than anything, mostly because all the teachers were constantly discredited amongst the students throughout the class picking period. I knew I had to take it, though, so I signed up in complete fright.
On my first day of class, I thought the best way that I was going to set myself up for success was to just try my best every day without making excuses for myself. If I approached this problem like I usually faced my math classes, which I feared just as much, I knew I would flunk. With this in mind, on day one, I took the most copious notes I ever had and did my homework during lunch that day to apply what I had just learned right away to insure that it stuck.
This worked out really well for the first month of my chemistry class up until the first test, which I surprised myself with a good grade for. My teacher also began to really appreciate me too, because I think he was noticing how hard I was really working. I never imagined I would have a good relationship with my chemistry teacher because of how terrible students had made them all sound, and I had gotten the meanest sounding one; it turned out to be that he was just really hard on students that didn’t really care about working hard in his class and that’s why everybody hated him. Everybody had faced the class with fear, and that’s where I was different.
Facing classes that you are afraid of with distress whether it be because of the “scary” teachers or because of the “impossible” work that you have to do sets you up for an automatically harder time. I tended to do that with my math classes; math was always a difficult subject for me, and it took a lot of beating around the bush and extra effort on my part to be able to pass those classes. My chemistry class, though, changed my whole perspective on how I approached all my classes since that first month. The unexpected payoff I had of a successful test grade showed me what real calm and confident work could do. Chemistry homework never burdened my time, and I was always excited to do my homework and go to class the next day. This was my new favorite subject, and it completely changed the course of my life.
After falling in love with chemistry, I became better at managing my classes and all of my work because I put that same work ethic into all of my classes after that for the rest of junior year, senior year, and into my first year of college here at Saint Mary’s College of California. That new motivation, too, gave me the biggest GPA bump I ever had: I went from a 3.0 to a 4.0 and then I was able to hold 4.2 senior year. I am now pursuing the medical track of my clinical psych major because I wanted to take chemistry into my profession. The academic challenge that I overcame wasn’t necessarily a class or subject on its own, but it was my approach to classes where I didn’t feel confident. Asking for help and not letting fear inhibit how hard you work is a key factor in doing your best!