Don’t Just Do It, Do It for the Right Reasons by Jensine

Don’t Just Do It, Do It for the Right Reasons by Jensine - May 2021 Scholarship Essay

I think during elementary school, most of us are academic scholars. We want to impress our teachers and get good grades so we can earn prizes and rewards. We want to make our parents proud so they might cook our favorite dinner or maybe even buy a new toy. As kids, we get excited to learn because the way our teachers taught us was so interactive and fun; it made us pay attention. In turn, we would do our homework early for different reasons. Maybe it was an interesting topic or maybe it was because we wanted to play with our friends later in the day.
That is definitely not the case as you grow older and enter middle and high school. At least, it wasn’t for me. I began to realize as I got older that I was caring less and less about getting work done early and became more about just getting it done. I would get an essay or powerpoint assignment with a deadline two or three weeks from now. It was a major grade with a lot of components so of course we had some time to get it done, and I would. I would get it done the night it was due, maybe the morning of if it was an in class presentation. The problem was it worked for me. I would get it done in the hours before it was due and get a good grade, every single time. Therefore, I never saw a problem with it because it didn't affect my grades, and grades were what mattered most right? It just affected my sleep schedule and general routine, my memory, and of course my stress levels. On a good day, I would go to sleep around 12:30 or 1 and wake up around 7. That’s a pretty sustainable amount of sleep if you think about it. Now on days of a test or project due date, I either slept around 3 am or pulled an all nighter which isn’t too bad if you’re a college or high school student, but it’s pretty strange as a 7th grader. I ended up starting to fall asleep in all my classes and get the notes from my friend so I could learn the material later and continue the cycle. It never affected my grades so why mess with the system. Of course, I never remembered any of the information I jammed into my brain in one night so when it came time to use it in upper classes or later units, that’s when my stress skyrocketed. Instead of learning the topics in a paced out manner, I continued to procrastinate everything because I wasn’t interested in learning or understanding anymore. All that mattered was the grade, the gpa, and the rank. Anything else, like mental health or comprehension, was simply an afterthought.
If I’m being honest, I would still be in the same cycle if life stayed the same and school was in person. Strange enough, the pandemic that changed our lives and forced us to adapt is the reason I am a better student now, but it took some time. We went into online school the last quarter of my sophomore year. Since teachers were still adjusting to webex meetings and complete virtual learning, we never had any meetings and each class would give one or two assignments due the following sunday. I procrastinated on those because we weren’t learning new information and it was all just review. It was when I started my full online junior year that I started to change things. It was all new classes, all new material, and the upcoming SAT and ACT tests. I genuinely had no idea about how to conquer everything and still do good. How was I supposed to know these new topics when my classes were only meeting twice a week to teach? How was I supposed to do the five or six assignments from each class before 11:59? The first three weeks were not the best. I still turned in my assignments last minute and had no schedule whatsoever and I hadn't even started studying for anything so I just decided enough was enough. I began to pay attention in my meetings and take notes. I did the extra work the teachers assigned and watched the boring but helpful additional videos. I stopped depending on others for the answers or help and learned it myself. And it worked so well for me. I would do all my assignments for the day and finish by 1 or 2 pm. The rest of the day was for learning the topics for the next day and doing my test prep.
Now I’m an A student because I actually understand what I’m learning and am better prepared. I put more effort and time into my work and it shows. I have time to study and do good on my tests and I’m definitely a lot less stressed. I changed a lot over the course of the pandemic and this is one of the ways I’m better for it. I will be going back to school in person next year for senior year and I’m not worried because I know I’ll be better equipped to handle the problems that come my way and do my best.