A Lesson of a Lifetime by Kaitlyn

A Lesson of a Lifetime by Kaitlyn - July 2016 Scholarship Essay

When I entered my junior year of high school, I was a high strung sixteen-year-old with goals so high I only focused on school. I was constantly stressed and didn’t have much of a social life. My attitude and social practices had been my norm since freshman year and was something I thought was necessary until I met my nursing teacher. Mr. Peters would be the one teacher to make finally me realize that there is more to life than studying. He taught me that I didn’t need to work so hard to achieve my dreams and that it’s okay to have fun in the process.

It was in my LPN class, the most challenging class in my entire high school career, that I would learn how to manage school and my outside life better. Mr. Peters had sat me down one day during the fifteen-minute break in between the middle of nursing. He asked me why I was so stressed because my face had given me away. I quickly explained the course load I was trying to balance ( four dual enrollment classes), working, clubs, and volunteering for school. Most teachers when they hear how much I’m doing tell me to breathe and I’ll be okay, but Mr. Peters was different. He had looked at me shocked and advised me next semester I needed to give myself time to be a kid. He suggested cutting my course load, getting out of the house more, or quitting my after school job. I told him I didn’t want to cut classes or quit my job because I needed to look good for colleges. As for the getting out of the house more I simply didn’t have the time.
The thing about Mr. Peters is he’s like a dad; he makes sure that everyone in the class is doing what they need to be doing and that they're happy. So I think he took it upon himself to get me to lighten up. It wasn’t long before he had come up with a nickname for me, little miss nursey nurse, because I was always so prepared and he would tease me with it. He also soon began to get us as a class to joke with one another and act like the family we are currently. In a matter of months, I had forged new friendships and had started to feel more like a normal kid. I would go out after classes to play Ping-Pong with my new found nursing buddies and go on all sorts of adventures. I was talking to kids I had never talked to before as well. Most importantly I was no longer stressed, and I had learned to have a balance.

I can confidently say that if it weren’t for Mr. Peters, I would still be stressing out over the littlest things in life. I believe that it is the real world lessons that we learn from our teachers that are the most important but this one for me was the key to being healthy. It is amazing what a teacher can show us, and I am grateful to Mr. Peters in particular. If things continued to go how they were going, I would still be having panic attacks and would feel sick at every test. It should never be downplayed the importance of a balanced work and social life.