Just Make Sure You Graduate by Jennifer

Just Make Sure You Graduate by Jennifer - May 2014 Scholarship Essay

There are always people willing to offer advice, but not all of that advice is sound. It can be challenging, however, to make choices that best fit the needs of an individual when listening to well-meaning but conflicting voices. When I was younger, my defense to this barrage of advice was to simply ignore it all, but then my grandfather said something that still sticks with me. The best advice I ever got about education was simple; to stick with it.

Like many people, I struggled to find my path, even after I was enrolled in college. It felt like I changed my major as frequently as I changed my socks, and by the time I was twenty-one, I was seriously questioning the wisdom of completing my bachelor’s degree. I wanted to start contributing right then, without having to wait for another year of training and the uncertainty of the job market. Wouldn’t it be better, I mused, if I dropped out and started changing the world immediately?

My grandfather is a high school dropout. He doesn’t talk much about that reality, but he did earn his GED in adulthood, and he always took pride in the academic accomplishments of my younger siblings and me. Still, I’d never really realized how invested he was in my future until the day when I casually suggested that it would be better for everyone if I dropped out of school.

He glared at me for a moment, and I felt a prickle of unease; I don’t really like confrontation, and I could tell I’d made him mad. Instead of telling me I was stupid, however, he channeled his anger into an impassioned command that I should just get the degree I’d been working on, graduate, and worry about the rest of it later. “You don’t even have to use that degree if you don’t want,” he’d argued. “Just make sure you graduate.”

I did graduate, and I’ve made good use of my degree in the seven years since I earned it, but Grandpa’s passion and advice have echoed in my mind the entire time. If not for him, I don’t know if I would have pushed through and earned my bachelor’s degree; I was feeling pretty low at the time. He was right, though, in so many ways; that degree has opened doors for me, and it’s led me to where I am today, getting ready to go back to school again to deepen my work and enhance my craft with further study. Years later, I’m still listening to his advice.