AP Language and Composition by Makayla

AP Language and Composition by Makayla - October 2016 Scholarship Essay

Advanced Placement Language and Composition, or as my class called it, AP Lit, was a class I had taken last year, my sophomore year. The summer before my sophomore year, I was terrified, as I had never taken an AP class before. I read up on everything I could find about the class whether it be the words of upperclassmen who had taken the class to online sources. But, none of these resources would tell me this class is life-changing. Even if I had been told, I would have laughed, saying "it was only a class, how could a class affect you that much?" By the end of my sophomore year, I had an answer.
The class had so much effect because it went beyond preparing you for a test, but preparing you for understanding the world around you, especially yourself. It would ask me what I believe. It would ask me why I believed it. It would ask me why someone else might believe differently. It would ask me why our beliefs matter and why others beliefs mattered as well. But, it didn't ever tell me any of the answer and it never could, because there is never an answer to self-understanding.
I would want to teach this class so I could teach the next generation to question their beliefs, just as the class has done to me. The class would show how many ideas aren't ours. It would show how many of these ideas are from our parents, church, schools, friends, acquaintances, social media and everything else in between. The information is so quick and accessible, we have very few moments to question a belief before two-hundred more are shoved down our throats without our knowing. I want the class to be a time of questioning and understanding in order for them to know who they truly are and what they believe.