AP English...Ugh by Logan

AP English...Ugh by Logan - August 2014 Scholarship Essay

I thought I knew what I was getting into. I thought that I knew what I was doing and that I could handle anything that was thrown at me. I had an air of confidence that bordered on arrogance. Nothing could bring me down, I was at the highest point I had ever been in my life. Then AP English happened.

It started with the summer assignment. All I had to do was read 1984, take some notes and read some articles and write a summery and analyze them. It was easy, I was done in three days. I breezed through it. I got the work back with the grades on it and I expected what I had always received, a high B or an A. Apparently, I had not understood the assignment at all and went on my own little tangent. I think the work received a 33%. It was not one of my better moments in life. I was pretty much down and out and ready to quit. This was in the first week of an entire year of this English class. I thought to myself "I cannot do this. I do not even really like English. Why am I doing this again?".

I was in the class for the long haul so I figured that I should buckle up and focus and maybe I could make something positive out of this. This was the first class for which that I actually had to work and study. I had never done that before, everything always came so naturally to me. I think that failing the summer assignment and struggling in the first week of class opened my eyes to the fact that I am not as good as what I think I am. It really humbled and humiliated me. Now that I have finished, and passed, the class, I understand that the things in life that are worthwhile do not come easily. They have to be worked for and earned, they are not given.