Regrets by Karen

Regrets by Karen - April 2016 Scholarship Essay

After all the hard work that I have put into my life and my school life for my college application to be a little bit more simpler, I can confidently tell younger students that working hard does not pay off in the college application. What actually helps in the college application is the communication skills that are developed. Throughout my high school career, I have worked hard in all my classes and joined so many clubs and extracurricular courses; I have also taken on leadership roles; however, none of those matter since my communication with people was not great. I never had the confidence in myself to start even the smallest conversations with people because I was so shy. For me, starting conversations with people turned out horrible because I would make it very awkward with my shyness.
On the other hand, other people who do not have problems freely expressing themselves to others, such as the admissions office, allowed them to be more understood as a student and human being. Having good communication skills allowed them to be seen in a good light which gained the admissions’ favor. Not only does communication help with the college application process, but it also helps in school and life as well. High school is the place where the development of communication skills should be taken advantage of because talking to other students and to teachers is preparation for the kinds of people that you are going to interact with in the future. Communication also leads to great connections and networks which is amazing to have for the future.
Knowing this now, I wish I had not stayed stagnant in my communication skills. I had no idea how important this skill was in life, so now that I understand the importance of interacting with other people is, I want to stress it’s importance to the younger generation that still have time to open themselves to interact with other people. I regret not taking advantage of my four years in high school to learn something outside of the academic fields, and now have to start in my college years.