A Success Story by Jordon

A Success Story by Jordon - July 2019 Scholarship Essay

There was a little girl, no more than six years old. Her head was deep in a book, so deep that the bridge of her nose nearly touched the page. Her mother knocked on the door and turned head to the side while observing her daughter. She turned away, her long housecoat catching at the dust on the floor, before walking out.
A little girl in middle school. Her nose nearly touched the bridge of the page in her novel. The teacher asked a question and called on the little girl. Without looking up she answered correctly. The girl blushed and sat the book upright, smiling beneath the pages, not once looking up.
A young lady in high school. Her hand furiously wrote notes as she looked up every so often. The equations were written out almost faster than she could comprehend them.
A young woman in college. She stumbled over her feet and avoided eye contact as she walked into the science building. she sat down in a seat in the back and opened up her statistics book. In the back pages were notes of short stories she had scribbled behind them in the index pages. Tears hit the pages as she pulled out her calculator and her protractor. Every question she answered wrong. Her test was slammed back down at her desk, and the big letter “F” was circled in red. The young woman closed her book and walked out of the classroom.
The next day, the young woman got up early and went into the administration building. Armed, she had a book under her arm and a large sheet of paper noting a declaration of a major change. She gulped and didn’t make eye contact, hoping that she wouldn’t change her mind.
The girl never gave up. She had the courage to be herself on her own terms and didn’t let old expectations stop her. Moving forward, she did what she wanted and made her happy. What is education to me? It is the passion to keep moving forward. It’s knowing that I shouldn’t let anyone stop me, or let life stand in my way anymore. I follow my own passions and do what I love. I recently got accepted to art school, and am fighting for what I love. I look around at every single person on campus. 50,000 people had never seemed so daunting. It gave me chills. But one thing I couldn't decipher is why in a sea of faces, but I still felt like I wasn't too different. I looked down at myself, Converse tied tight so that it almost cut off the circulation to my ankles. I had to appease everyone. I was now in my second year of grad school and the clock was winding faster and faster. It seemed to be moving at the speed of light, but it was really just the cars whizzing past on the freeway a few miles from school. I could almost smell the summer fever on the campus, the way it blanketed everyone in a cloudy haze. I had to get them out of this off fog before it was too late. Back to the studio, I went, to my small cramped four by four room to experiment. It was laptops, it was sketchbooks, it was everything strewn about what one could think of. How was I going to pay for grad school in the midst of all of the student loans?
Graduation came sooner than I thought. Nothing but smiles congratulating me, but what they couldn’t see was underneath what an uncertain future I had. How I knew that my bachelor’s of art degree wasn’t going to get me the type of job I was yearning for. What to do? Armed with all of the knowledge I achieved throughout my schooling, I worked to look for an alternative way to pay for college, and I came upon scholarships. What scholarships are for me is a passageway. They are a key to unlocking the opportunity to pay for expenses that my financial aid won’t cover, like school supplies, meals, and housing fees. Through my matriculation, I have learned the value of money, and how to be more frugal with it. In order for my education to be a success story, I must remember to be humble, frugal, and grateful for the opportunities I have received while sharing my knowledge with the world.