Sister Marlene by Kaitlin

Sister Marlene by Kaitlin - July 2014 Scholarship Essay

For the most part, I always liked going to school. From kindergarten through eighth grade, I went to a small private school in a small town in Vermont. My class was never larger than 20 students and a handful of us had been together since kindergarten. I would not say anything when I was sick because it meant I would have to miss school. Everything changed the summer before I started high school.

I moved with my parents from small town Vermont to Springfield, MA for my dad’s job. My parents enrolled me in a Catholic high school with about 80 students in each grade. I was not as enthusiastic about school anymore. I had moved away from my family and friends. There were three main elementary schools that fed into the high school, so almost all the other students knew each other and had their friend groups well established. I ended up making friends with a girl who nicknamed me “Little Pineapple,” so I was not super thrilled about school.

My friend situation did improve over the years, and as things settled down, I felt more comfortable, but I did not care about school as much as I used to. There were so many teachers that I just could not take seriously. I had a Spanish teacher who talked more about the second job he worked than teaching Spanish. I had an English teacher for two years who put no effort into teaching. She actually gave us a quiz she printed from Sparknotes, but lectured us when she felt we did not put in enough effort. It was difficult, but I had to take the work seriously since I had college to think about. I hated every minute of it.

During my senior year of high school, I had a new English teacher. She was the only nun who worked at the school and had been teaching there for over 40 years. She had very high expectations for her students, and she did her part to help us meet them, but gave each student the freedom to decide how hard they wanted to work. The first day of the year, I remember being taken aback by her. She was so different from the other teachers I had experienced at the school. I was trying because I wanted to try. She was so receptive to all forms of participation and encouraged us to work to always search for more answers.

I cared about school again. I had three years of teachers who did not inspire me to care about my work and try to achieve more. I wanted to meet those high expectations, not just because she wanted me to, but because I chose to. She inspired me to take pride in my work again and push myself to work harder. My study habits improved drastically over that year and I carried those new and better habits to college with me. I think about her all the time now, especially since I started student teaching this year. I want to inspire my future students to do their best the same way I was inspired.