Always Strive to Be Better by Jessyca

Always Strive to Be Better by Jessyca - July 2016 Scholarship Essay

A short, trim woman with wrinkles on her hands that showed her age finished her lecture on the chalkboard. Her sharp voice echoed around the small classroom as she slowly walked around the circle of desks that faced towards the middle of the room. Faces of students fell as the professor passed out the essays one by one. I was one of those surprised students as the grade on the paper was one I had never received.
Coming from a difficult private school that prided itself on teaching its students proper English and how to use the language, I was sure that I would receive a decent grade in my first honors class at college. I was wrong. The large D on the last page of my essay brought stinging tears to my eyes. Unlike some of my other classmates, I held myself together until after the class ended. That first essay sparked a love-hate relationship with my honors professor that was the best thing for me and my education.
Dr. Hagen was the strictest teacher I have ever had. Any paper or presentation I brought to her, she promptly tore to pieces, marking most of the white pages with red ink. She forced me to revise my work over and over again, and I was a student that despised revising. Once, when my presentation group got a low A on a project, the entire group cheered, mainly from shock that decent grades could be given.
But what did Dr. Hagen teach me? Through the meetings and lectures, my honors professor impressed upon me the ideal that anything I can always strive to be better. This meant that I could always improve in my writing, my studying, and my presenting skills. The principle that my professor taught me applied to all areas of my life, from school to softball and my future career. The lesson has proved valuable to me in many aspects of my life since taking the class.
So now I am not the shocked student when receiving essays and presentations back from my professors. Instead, I know that the work I have turned in has been edited and revised to the best of my ability. I know that my professor can always find ways to make my work better, and I look forward to learning what to improve on for my future work. I hope that other students can learn other valuable lessons from their professors and teachers and will apply them to their lives like I did.