The Advice of Self-Reflection by Kristina

The Advice of Self-Reflection by Kristina - April 2016 Scholarship Essay

In my opinion, the best piece of advice that I can offer students of all ages is to focus on his or her own educational experience, not the experiences of others. No matter how old a student may be, every student can be easily distracted and overwhelmed by either the success or failure of other students.

A student may observe another student achieving highly-ranked grades while simultaneously balancing other extra-curricular activities. Because they may not see the extra work that is put into attaining such success, as a result they may assume that such success is easily attainable for the given student. Moreover, despite handling busy schedules and balancing challenging coursework, students are often likely to conceal their stress from most people around them. They may not even reveal the struggles they endure to people as close as their best friends or family. This is done because either they do not want their “imperfections” to be known or they do not think others around them will be able to adequately help them. Such students can easily make a difficult workload seem effortless while, underneath the façade, great struggle is occurring. When a student observes only the positive aspects of her peers, she will easily form a skewed opinion of the students she goes to school with. She will begin to ask herself why she cannot achieve the grades that those peers can, balance her schedule with as much ease, or keep as low a stress level. She will start to think that she is not as capable as her peers, and as a result low confidence will turn into lower standards for herself. She will no longer strive to achieve excellence, but rather she will accept poor grades and performance because she believes she is not as good as the façade she has witnessed in her peers.

It is also possible for a student to be influenced by the poor performance of individuals around him. When attending a difficult school, taking a challenging course, or simply attempting a difficult goal, a student may hear the negative comments of students who previously attempted the same goal or took the same class. The more negativity he hears from the students around him, the more he will start to dwell on the negativity. As he starts to dwell on the negativity, he will start to believe that only the negative is true of what he hopes to achieve. He will no longer believe that he is capable of achieving what he originally set out to achieve. Alternately, a student may be doing well in a course until he witnesses the high levels of stress in the students around him. They may be worried about an upcoming exam or speaking about the high intensity of the professor. Simply considering that his peers’ stress should also apply to him can begin the process of self-doubt and fear of failure within him. If he allows it, this fear will only grow until it breaks down his self-confidence and ultimately brings a previously successful student to failure.

The issue of students being negatively influenced by focusing on the educational experiences of those around them is an extremely widespread issue. It occurs not only in institutions all over the world, but it also occurs wherever students have a strong desire to succeed. The only way to battle this issue is for a student to consciously block out the opinions of other students and consciously stop formulating opinions as to how successful another student may be. Instead, it is vital for students to focus on their own educational experience. Instead of considering how successful other students may seem, they should ask themselves questions about their own success. Questions such as “what do I want to achieve in this course?”, “what am I currently doing that is effective?”, “what am I doing that is keeping my grades from increasing?”, and “what can I do to lower my stress and more effectively handle my schedule?” are all healthy questions to ask. To guide them in answering these questions, they should consult teachers, teaching assistants, advisors, and if necessary tutors, who can all provide them with information to achieve success that they did not know before. If they start to feel overwhelmed by stress, instead of concealing it and allowing it to grow until it’s too late, they should immediately talk about their stress with friends, family, and their professors. Unless they communicate their issues with others, students will never know how another individual may be able to help them.

If students stop looking at other students to define what their own success should look like, their academic experience will be much more fulfilling. If they aim to achieve their personal best and work slowly but surely to achieve it, never being dismayed by others who have achieved success sooner, they will only grow in their accomplishments. It is, in fact, extremely likely that such students will in the long run achieve even greater success than students who seem to succeed so quickly. Not only will their academic success be greater, they will also have a great time achieving it.