My time with Adversity by Joanna

My time with Adversity by Joanna - May 2022 Scholarship Essay

We all grow up listening to different stories of the tough times our parents, family members, or friends have passed in their lifetime. I myself never thought life would be as hard as some made it seem. Growing up I would always daydream about what my life would be like growing up or at what age would I get married. Truth is, at this point in our life none of that really matters. Unfortunately my senior year of high school got cut short because of COVID. Never in a million years did I imagine something like this would happen. Our class of 2020 was classified as "COVID year". What happened after that though was highly unexpected. We all thought it was going to be like a short storm that would pass by and be gone in a day or so, little did we know that this disease would go on for a whole year. To this day nothing is the same. We lived by wearing masks everywhere thinking that would be our new normal. Even though this was a set back I continued to have hope and move forward. I decided to stay back in my hometown for my first year and a half of college and was able to graduate in December with an associates in General Studies. Soon I had to make a decision on what my next step was going to be. This was where real fear an difficulties started setting in for me. I had made plans to continue my education in a bigger city than mine three hours away from home. In my mind I was beyond ready to leave to the point where I got all the way into first day of class at this school. On that first day I realized it was not at all what I wanted. We had to have class online for the first week because of COVID testing and such things, so that night I quickly made the decision of staying back home. It was nonstop crying for me at the point because I felt like I was disappointing so many people but most importantly my parents. Coming to Texas A&M Texarkana though has been one of the greatest decisions of my life. Do I regret not going away? For me it is a yes and no answer, simply because I love to explore but there is always that peace in my heart knowing that I am home with all of my loved ones. Being an only child and a first generation student is not easy because I don't know where to seek for help sometimes, but I could never imagine my life without my parents in the room across from me or having my friends down the road.