Important lessons stay with you forever by Kai

Important lessons stay with you forever by Kai - July 2016 Scholarship Essay

The most important lesson I have learned from a teacher is perhaps one of the most simple of them all, and perhaps one of the most commonly told one to growing teenagers. This lesson is that life is not easy. I have heard this statement many times as I grew into my teenage years, and yet, I never thought more of it because life always seemed to be easy to me. Young me never saw how life could become more difficult. At least this was the case until I entered the 2015-2016 school year.

Put frankly, the 2015-2016 school year is the year where I truly felt like I have grown up. This is largely due to the realization that life simply is not easy. To me, this is not just an important lesson. It is a life lesson that will stick with me unto death. When I finished the 2014-2015 school year, it was a piece of cake. Actually, my entire life have felt like that. In Australia, where I lived until the late December of 2014, I progressed through school and got good grades with seemingly no effort. Similarly, my first year of high school in America also felt that way, though it was slightly more difficult due to the different grading scale and expectations. However when I entered the 2015-2016 school year, it was only a few days in when I realized that I had to put effort in. Why? Because life was no longer that stroll down the nice park. Instead, it became a hike through an arduous rough mountain.

Of course though, I did not instantly realize why life had become so suddenly difficult. I never made the connection to those statements telling me life would not be so easy. What made me make the connection was my english teacher. After weeks of tirelessly leading class conversations, he asked the class why we would never talk in class discussions. He asked why was he always the one leading and answering his own discussion questions. Ultimately, he came to the conclusion that we had it too easy in the english classes before his, and I am not going to lie, it was true. It was then he taught the entire class that life would not be that easy path we all thought it would be. If we wanted something, we had to work for it. In his case, if we wanted the grade, then we would have to put effort in. Yet, I feel like this lesson has applications outside of his classroom. This lesson he taught us could be applied to the real world, and the growing challenges us students will face as we grow older. It was at this moment I learned my most important lesson. Life will simply not be easy. When my teacher taught me this, he instantly earned my respect. Here was a teacher that wanted to give us a challenge. Here was a teacher that is truly preparing us for the real world ahead of us. Ultimately, this important lesson from my english teacher has come to be a life lesson for me, and I thank him for this. Not only do I feel wiser, but I feel prepared for the path I will soon embrace.