I've Seen the Difference (And It's Getting Better All the Time) by Jenna

I've Seen the Difference (And It's Getting Better All the Time) by Jenna - November 2014 Scholarship Essay

As a high school senior with an older brother who never told me about what I could expect from high school, I feel confident saying that I walked into my first day of freshman year woefully unprepared. I have a high school of slightly less than a thousand people, so it is a fairly small building. I got lost in a tiny building three times my first day of school. I was late to four classes, could not get a handle for one of my newest teacher's sarcasm, and had to walk home after school because I was too young to drive and my brother was nowhere to be found. Basically, my first day of high school was not one that inspired any sort of confidence about the next four years of my life. When I get home, my parents told me the one thing it would have been nice to know earlier that morning: it gets better all the time.

Something that I've discovered freshmen are not so great at is putting themselves out there. It is easy, even in a small school - almost especially in a small school, when everyone knows everyone and has expectations about everyone - it is easy to be intimidated by the upperclassmen. Every activity I participate in had a reputation for absolutely brilliant upperclassmen. As someone who has always prided herself on being one of the most intelligent people in the school, that was hard for me to digest. I felt that everyone in both quiz bowl and Academic Decathlon was going to call any success I had a fluke and any failure I had typical. I had something to prove from day one. I did not want to befriend the upperclassmen, I wanted to be equal to them, even if I really was not on their level yet. I had a lot of growing up to do. But as I did prove myself freshman and sophomore year, I put myself out there more because I was more confident. I made friends out of my perceived competition and grew closer to people in my own grade I had never had a patience for before. Some of those people, regardless of my short time with them, have impacted my life in ways I had never imagined, and those people gave me advice and a reason to enjoy coming to school. Putting myself out there was the most important step I could make.

That seems like a strange story to tell in relation to upswings, but my point is that all a freshman has to do is find a support system and stick with them. All they have to do is get their feet wet. All they have to do is take one step, and then another, and then another. And after that, it is going to seem like no time at all until high school becomes the easiest water they will ever have to navigate. Every freshman starts out crawling. But by the time senior year rolls around, they have it. They will have mastered it.

All they have to do is try, and it will get better all the time.