Comfort vs. Growth by Kathryn

Comfort vs. Growth by Kathryn - January 2016 Scholarship Essay

This year, one of my New Year’s resolutions is to push myself past my comfort zone. I believe this will help me be a better student in 2016 because if we stay where we are comfortable, we can’t grow as people. I think that as a society, we have a tendency to stagnate once we find a place in our lives where we are comfortable and don’t have to put too much effort into what we are doing. We sink into our routines and hold onto them as tight as we can, because change is scary, change is hard.
It has always been difficult for me to step outside of my comfort zone. I suffer from anxiety and OCD, so routine has always been a safe zone for me. I am now in treatment and am striving to break my bad habits and allow myself to really live and learn and make the most of life. I know that this will be difficult for me, but I am very determined to push through any discomfort, knowing that it will only help me to grow stronger in the long run.
As a stay at home mother to two children in elementary school, routine is important for my family. The key is to keep enough of a rough schedule to be beneficial, while still allowing for new opportunities. Over the past several years, I have found a place where I am comfortable, and while that comfort is greatly needed at times for self-preservation, so is growth. If we are too afraid to try new things, we keep ourselves from learning, and we should never stop learning.
I believe that by coming out of my comfort zone, I will be better able to learn new things and appreciate any new opportunities that appear. This will help me to be a better student because I will continually be pushing myself to learn more, do more, and risk more to make sure I get everything I can out of my college experience. I am enrolling in an Associate’s degree program for early childhood education, I look forward to being able to share my knowledge and experiences with young children. I hope that this will instill a love of learning in my students.
I am hopeful that my resolution to push past my comfort zone will open new doors, not only for myself, but for the young children that I hope to help shape into well-rounded, productive members of society. I have seen the impact that early learning has had on my own children, and the thought of being a part of that impact for other children is a little bit scary, but will be well worth it if I can help even one child.