Everything. by Katelyn

Everything. by Katelyn - June 2013 Scholarship Essay

College always rang synonymously in my head with “future”. At the age of six, my older sister completed high school and continued onwards to UNC to pursue her dream of becoming a teacher--and she did just that. But to my young, impressionable brain, my sister’s path was nothing out of the ordinary for I knew of no other way.
My sister, however, was the first in our family of five to attend college and one of the only members of my large extended family to earn a college degree.
Now, at the still young but not-so-naive age of seventeen, college no longer seems like the “next step” or something that just sort of happens as you make your way out of high school. No--to me, college means...well, everything. College means stability. College means accomplishment. College means success, aspiration, knowledge, independence, maturity. College is my next step after high school, yes, but it’s not a given--even though I may have thought it was at the age of six. Years and years of learning to study and memorize, calculate and balance an intense schedule of classes have led me to senior year where I will walk across the stage, obtain my diploma, and begin the journey to accomplish my own dreams.
Those dreams include classes chosen specifically for a career that interests me, quirky professors, maintaining responsibility for my own actions, failing and getting right back up again; but ultimately, I dream of the knowledge to treat and diagnose frightened patients that come into the doctor’s office looking for answers. I dream of inquiring, listening, and piecing together the information until I can fully explain and assure my patients...specifically, I dream of being able to
answer the question “What do you do for a living?” with “I am a nurse practitioner” and leave work every day feeling fulfilled.
While college may not be the only option presented on graduation day, everything I have worked for up to this point and everything my mind wanders to when I dream of my future points to one place where I must begin: college.