What if? by Kim

What if? by Kim - February 2017 Scholarship Essay

Tomorrow’s outfit is only the first of things I have planned out in my future. I knew the route I wanted to take in high school since I was in seventh grade. I knew by eighth grade what I had to do to work so rigorously to even have the smallest chance of being accepted by a good college. By the end of ninth grade I knew my major for college, and knew my medical school plans for after my four years as an undergraduate.

But the world is full of “What if’s.” What if before I entered high school, my parents didn’t get a divorce? Would I still feel like a failed at trying to keep my parents together? Would I still be motivated to surpass my mother, who so desperately wanted me to become a nurse? Would I have the same ambition to better myself, because I would not have the thought of the divorce being my fault? Would I long for the desire to make my father proud as much as I do now?

Would I still be writing this essay to win your scholarship?

The notorious saying, “Everything happens for a reason,” bewildered me as I pondered on the thought of why such an awful experience would come upon me. I soon began to find truth in that phrase.
“Think of something that’s real, like really means something to you,” was what my best friend told me when I was drawing a blank on my college essay. And what matters most to me is school, not because I obsess with getting all A’s and high test scores, like one would usually think, but because I want to do everything in my power to build myself back up from that unfortunate event. And it starts with school. From doing well on a test to being accepted into college, the endeared feeling of accomplishment is the key to a happier me.

With an overpowering obstacle, realizations may not come as quickly as hoped. However the outcome is worth the wait. Everything does happen for a reason. My hard work showed the truth in the famous phrase, because now I will be confident and diligent in anything that is thrown at me.