Talent Development Oppertunity by Madison

Talent Development Oppertunity by Madison - February 2017 Scholarship Essay

Talent Development Opportunity- A reflection based assignment that is meant to give time to perform something that normally would not fit into a normal schedule. This was first introduced to me by my favorite teacher/mentor four years ago and originally I could not stand not being told what the expectations were, but I have grown to love the process. For my first semester, senior year TDO, I decided to do something art-based and out of my comfort zone because of my perfectionist tendencies. This process has caused me to confront new realizations about my character that I had never considered. I realized that I find most of my happiness through interacting with others; when I go to college I want to be able to find happiness outside of human-to-human interaction. I want to find happiness within myself.

The entire process of my Talent Development Opportunity, I have attempted to force myself to engage in creative activities despite constantly telling myself that I do not enjoy creative activities and have tried to change this by performing them. I chose to compose a journal-like/scrapbook to push me to embrace a new found interest. This project was supposed to be an easy and fun project, yet it has caused me to encounter much more self-reflection than I was expecting. I have found that I do, in fact, thoroughly enjoy artsy projects and that I am a very creative person- these traits have just been suppressed because I do not feel they compare to the talent that I see around myself. The perfectionist and people-pleasing qualities that I have still stand strong and I am trying to figure out a way to extinguish them because they have prevented me from using my full potential and have only brought me down. I am so involved. Often times, I am the first to volunteer, but also I am the one who doesn’t sleep because of the workload that I force upon myself. This is why I felt that a journal would be the appropriate outlet for reflection and happiness to aid me through many stressful situations.

While being a senior in high school has meant being incredibly busy and anxious for my future- life and friends always seem to have a beautiful impact on my happiness level. Knowing that the majority of my happiness comes from human-to-human interaction is no epiphany that was brought on by this project, I just now have a term for it. Just by looking at my weekly schedule, anyone could see that busyness is a theme within my life, but I enjoy spending my time being busy. I regularly bounce from activity to activity and rarely spend time alone because I would prefer being around people and am afraid of missing out on opportunities. However, with college nearing, I feel that I need to be able to find happiness within myself. Unfortunately, I cannot take my wonderful group of friends and teachers with me to the place that I am going to be living for the next four years which means that if I solely rely my happiness on the happiness of those around me, I am going to fall hard at college. This project is making me realize that sometimes being alone and just thinking is not necessarily the worst thing in the world, and I am slowly learning that reflection is a key producer of happiness and growth. A main point that I am going to focus on throughout the rest of this project is capturing people when they are genuinely happy, and recording it through pictures. This simply allows me to focus on enjoying other people’s happiness and interests while not necessarily being the cause of it-just a bonus if I am the cause.

This journal/scrapbook might be the ugliest thing that I've ever created or it might be the best, yet the amount it has made me think just in this short amount of time makes it worthwhile. Even though this process is challenging my current beliefs by making me think deeper and second guess some of my quick decisions; I would redo this experience in a heartbeat. By challenging my beliefs about myself, I hope to find wholesome happiness in the end not only through others, but through myself and my accomplishments.