Change and Conquer by Kyah

Change and Conquer by Kyah - February 2023 Scholarship Essay

New situations, new teachers, new skills, and new environments,these are all different battles that each and every student has to experience. How these students respond depends on their skills to adapt. Adaptability allows students to change the way that they perceive different information and overall helps their understanding of information in school. Students who are adaptable have more control over their success without worrying about how a new challenge will drag them down. Not only does this soft skill help your success in the Academic world, but it also prepares students for real world everyday challenges that they are bound to face. I truly believe that adaptability is not only the greatest tool for better education, but one of the best skills that a successful person possesses.
Imagine it's your first day in high school, you are in a new building, with new teachers, new classrooms, new people, and new teaching styles. How are you supposed to overcome this new challenge that is called high school? Some students may crumble under this pressure of an entirely new environment. However, students who are equipped with the ability to adjust and overcome these changes are much more likely to prosper in their new school. We should be teaching our kids at a young age that if you aren't ready to deal and change to new things, life is going to be ten times harder.
When teaching children how to be adaptable, you are setting them up for an easier time in the classroom. Almost everyday, kids are given new information or even an entirely new unit that they have to understand and learn. If these kids don't know how to change their thought process or perceive a subject, how are they supposed to do well on that unit? If we do not show these kids how to adapt to new subjects, we are essentially setting them up for failure. You are ten times more likely to fail if you can not adapt to new subjects you are learning. I really do believe that adaptation is a huge part in the learning process.
Being adaptable allows people to truly face any challenges they may face. One of the greatest challenges that a person may be forced to face is adversity in life.This basketball season, in our first home game, I tore my ACL. This injury not only instantly put a halt to my basketball season, but also ended my softball season before it even started.My whole life revolves around sports, it makes me who I am, which is why this injury was so detrimental to me. I have been forcefully sidelined for the rest of the year with no true understanding if I will ever come back the same athlete. However, the only way to face this challenge, is head on. I can not shy away or feel pity for myself, I have to overcome, and beat this adversity. In my mind, I have took this injury and turned it into opportunity given to me by god. I can now take this time and mold myself into a coach for our underclassmen. I have the opportunity to share my knowledge and love for sports. If I did not understand how to adapt to this new situation, this problem could have gotten progressively worse, with no change in sight. As I was forced to convert my skills into a different perspective, I was able to learn more about what it feels like to be a coach, and who I am outside of sports. It really has been a very educational experience. Being adaptable truly helped me get over this challenge and even make a good thing out of it.
If we really want to enhance our students learning, we should focus on making them adaptable. This skill will help them work with different teachers, subjects, and people extremely well. It will also help them throughout life with different challenges or even in the workplace. We should be pushing students to be able to overcome these challenges instead of hiding away from them. I truly do believe that adaptation needs to be focused on more, and if our school system could see that, we would be setting students up for an extremely bright future.