The Growth Mindset by Leo

The Growth Mindset by Leo - December 2022 Scholarship Essay

As I thought about how I wanted to approach this essay, my mind drifted back to the summer of 9th grade, when I had been assigned the annotation and analysis of The Alchemist. Being a reader who, at the time, had run out of new material, the summer assignment was one I took to with a passion. As I traveled with the protagonist of the book, I found that the plot was incredibly beautiful, as rather than keeping both eyes on set goals it divulged simply the path of life, and what the protagonist could take away from it. The protagonist never managed to turn lead into gold as the original goal, but the journey was richer than anything that material wealth could gain.

This had me thinking. What is my philosopher's stone? What journey have I taken that truly impacted my life? If life was that journey, what is the trope that I could use as a metaphorical harness as I scaled the grand canyon of experiences so that I don’t fall into the depths of a nonsensical, bland essay? As I thought, an experience came to mind. I had asked an adult friend of mine how he could deal with the boredom of every day life. I had come to see the world in a filter of black and white, with things that I enjoyed on one side, and another, labeled "work", on another. This is when I was introduced to the growth mindset.

This proposed “growth mindset” first stated that learning was impacted by the way that you viewed the lesson. If you found the lesson something boring and only important to gain an A+ on your report card, you won’t really learn. My friend went on to say that fearing failure and subsequently not giving your all in order to protect your ego is also a deadly trap that unfortunately would lead to you not gaining the most out of the thing that you were challenging yourself to do. In essence, embrace the challenge as even failing the challenge will make you stronger than you were before. This mindset would not only help me in my quest for improvement in my areas of interest but (I hoped) would help me direct my mind in a more productive manner.

This habit, this way of thought has helped me so much this year. Without it, I would've never gotten as far with my passions, and challenges would be viewed as nothing but frustration and monotony.