Don't Follow The Money by Maryam

Don't Follow The Money by Maryam - January 2016 Scholarship Essay

Last summer I was sitting in my grandparents living room talking with my grandmother. We were discussing the usual things one discusses after being away from a minute. Things such as how have you been?, how’s your mom and sister? and the question I generally always dreaded ever since entering college which was… how is school? Now you may be wondering, why was I dreading this question. Well I’ll tell you, I was dreading this question because I had failed my first class as a college student and as a result had become highly uncertain about what I wanted to study during my college career.
Before entering college I had already decided that I would go into physical therapy. I even spent sometime during summer break shadowing a physical therapist. I did enjoy the experience and I definitely enjoyed seeing what the paycheck could look like. After that summer I would have sworn up and down that I knew what I wanted to do for the rest of my life. Imagine how shocked I felt when after looking at all the required courses needed to get my bachelors in physical therapy and one class I no longer felt the drive needed to accomplish something. Now granted I no longer had much of the drive for it but I still was going to do it simply because I didn’t exactly not like physical therapy and I still liked the idea of the how much my paychecks could be.
So sitting on the carpeted floor of my grandparents house I pondered how to answer my grandmother's simple but yet so complicated question. I could just tell her what I assume every family member that asks hows school want to hear which is, “ school is going great... classes are a challenge but i'm handling them pretty well. ” On the other hand I could tell her the truth which was “ college is a lot harder than I expected, I barely passed my english class and now I have no idea if I really want to get on this terrifying emotional roller-coaster for something I might not want to do for the rest of my life. ” Clearly the second option wasn’t about to happen and the first wasn’t to great either. I decided to say a little bit of both.
As I opened my mouth to speak my grandmother beat me to the punch. She must’ve seen what probably looked like a million emotions run across my face at once. My grandmother looked at me with a sympathetic expression and said “ Baby-doll just because you don’t do great on something doesn’t mean you're terrible at everything. Give yourself a break, whatever God meant for you no one can ever take away from you, so just follow your heart because God has already written down what’s destined for you. I know the money may look great but when all that schooling is over and you're working in that field the paychecks may look great but you won’t be happy.” I sat there almost star struck. Processing everything she said, my mind stop running a mile a minute and this big weight that I didn’t even know was on my back was lifted and a feeling of relief rushed through me. I had never been so thankful for such a wise grandmother.
So this following year of 2016 I’ve decided to follow my heart and not the money. Following my heart has landed me in Detroit, Michigan waiting to attend college for creative studies to major in graphic design. When looking for my passion art made since because ever since my early years of childhood I had always loved arts and crafts. I did anything from drawing, painting, beading, tie dying, crocheting, and knitting. I had a lot of talent in drawing and really loved to draw. When the realization hit that I LOVE to draw, going into graphic design became the obvious answer to me. By studying something I love I believe that, that will make me a better student in 2016 because I know what I want to do and have a strong drive and genuine interest in learning more and mastering more in my desired field of study.