Passion and Persistence by Michael

Passion and Persistence by Michael - December 2018 Scholarship Essay

You are going to be a successful person if you persistently pursue whatever it is that you are passionate about. Easier said than done without a doubt; however, it is extremely important to remember the quote from Anthony J. D'Angelo that reads, "Never let your persistence and passion turn into stubbornness and ignorance." If I were on the committee that awards the Nobel Prize, my recipient would need to be someone who has almost infinite amounts of persistence and passion. It would need to be someone who I trusted to maintain the same level of persistence and passion both before and after they were awarded the Nobel Prize. One of the most difficult aspects associated with living in the modern era is learning how to deal with fame and recognition. With the accessibility of social media and smart phones, it is almost impossible to shy away from media attention, especially if you are about to be recognized with one of the most prestigious honors in all of society, the Nobel Prize. In my recipient, I would look to find someone who will be affected as little as possible by the fame and recognition. I think that the easiest ways to ensure that this happens is to find someone who is both immensely passionate and immensely persistent about their studies. If a recipient has both of these traits, I do not see any way that they will be negatively impacted with the recognition of a Nobel Prize.

Out of all of the traits that I could choose, I chose both passion and persistence because these are two traits that you just cannot fake. When looking at difference between people who win the Nobel Prize and people who are so close but don't, I truly believe that the only thing separating them is passion and persistence. Once you get to a certain level, everyone will be brilliant, hard-working, and dedicated; everyone will do whatever they can to take their studies to the next level. Thus, the only way to tell the difference between the good and the great, the great and the best, candidates for a Nobel Prize is to try to evaluate how passionate and persistent they are about their studies. I understand that both of these traits are extremely difficult to quantify, but at the same time, I also think that you can tell when someone puts everything they have into something, when they talk about their studies as if it is their life, because quite frankly, it has become their life. People love things that others are passionate about, and this is exactly why my Nobel Prize recipient would need to be both a passionate and persistent person.