Education, Changing as I Did by Kirsten

Education, Changing as I Did by Kirsten - October 2022 Scholarship Essay

The Webster dictionary defines the word educated as ‘having an education, especially having an education beyond average.' As a child, the prospect of pursuing an education beyond high school was both terrifying and exciting. The thoughts and emotions I underwent will forever be ingrained into my memories, surfacing once again as college looms just right around the corner. There were countless negative emotions surrounding a future education, but the push from my family and past teachers to not waste my potential ensured that I focused on the positive.

Forever ingrained in my mind are the late summer nights when my search history was crowded with questions regarding the cost of college and websites that could calculate tuition with a few numbers and clicks. Yet as the years droned on, education began to have a dual meaning within my mind. I was enthralled by the concept of further pursuing my interests, amazed by the amount of knowledge in the world, and adored the very idea of entering a new community where I could continue to grow and explore who I was.

As I familiarized myself with the concept of education, I began to explore my passions even further. To me, my adolescent and teenage education were crucial to my development as an individual. With no financial barriers present or hurdles to jump through, I was able to dive into the philosophies surrounding the constitution, wrap my mind around both historical and current political issues, explore complex mathematical problems, and immerse myself in countless fictional worlds. Education became more than a nightmare, a pit in my stomach, a feeling of dread. It slowly blossomed into a newfound hope, a way that I could succeed and carve my path in the stone of the future.

One of the leading factors in my desire to change the world stems from the large portion of my life I have spent in a rural conservative area, where I was ostracized for a variety of reasons, including my sexuality, gender identity, and personal political beliefs. I was constantly forced to suppress my identity and faced blatant hatred from those around me, who viewed my identity as nothing more than a political statement that they happened to disagree with. As I was able to travel to events outside of my small town and eventually outside of the state, I found that I learned and interacted better in an environment where I felt safe and secure. To me, education is a desire to change the world. It's a desire to help the people around you learn and explore their passions, helping guide them through their hardships, whether it be academic or personal. Education is not definable as a single thing, it's a wide phenomenon that humans will never truly understand, we can only try to.