Special Snowflakes by Natalie

Special Snowflakes by Natalie - July 2016 Scholarship Essay

A teacher is an educator. An individual, who in the scheme of reality may never had planned on becoming a role model for young minds. Just like everyone else, they dreamed of fulfilling their childhood aspirations, but instead became the ones to fill the children’s minds with the inspiration to become someone great. Through the eyes of a student, the lessons a teacher provides seems tedious. However, it is not until the student reflects on the lesson in the future, that they realize the impact of the teacher’s wisdom.
Many people say the first year of high school is eye opening. Although, I started my high school experience at a school that taught grades seventh through twelfth. Therefore, instead of being the low man on the totem pole, I already had experience on a high school campus, or so I thought. I walked into my AP World History class my freshman year unexpected of the lessons that would come out of my experience. I knew high school would be tough, but I was not aware of the journey my teacher was about to embark my class upon. Due to bus malfunctions, I arrived to my first period class twenty minutes late. Upon arrival I walked into the class as one may call the “perfect time”, for my teacher was in the middle of discussing the consequences for being late to class. I hurried to my seat, embarrassed, but attentively listening to what my new teacher had to say. I remember it clearly for it seemed he would never let my class forget, “I just want to let you know the national pass rate is 5%, so the exam will be difficult.”
I remember walking in one morning and the kid that sat behind me was messing around with little paper boats along the windowsill. No one thought of the tampering as disrespectful until my teacher walked in with a mighty howl. He exclaimed how touching the property of others is disrespectful and is shamed upon. He later continued how we as individuals are not special snowflakes. How we all have to work hard to become someone great and respected. How diligence is the key to success. He wanted my class to grasp the understanding that life is difficult and should be pursued with great intentions and the willingness to strive to be inspirational. That if we want to get somewhere in life we have to show how we stand out. We cannot all be special snowflakes. We have to strive to be greater than the laws of conformity.
On that AP World History day, I was shocked and upset for how my teacher reacted to what my friends and I believed was a simple mistake. We all believed that because other teachers let us mess around why can we not mess around in our history class? Although, what I did not understand at the time was that my teacher was trying to get us to look beyond. He was a tough and strict teacher because he wanted us to learn to our full potential. He assigned multiple pages of reading and required us to write extensive essays. However, he understood that if he let us slid by in class our ultimate goal of passing the AP exam would be difficult to achieve. It was through his class that I learned preparation, endurance, and success.
People can cram for a test by studying the night before or even the morning of in order to achieve adequate grades. Because in the eyes of the student, they are just trying to please others around them and if receiving excellent grades in school is going to grant them satisfaction from others, they will put in an effort to receive well-renounced grades. Although, once the test is over how much did the student learn? In the scheme of things, what a person remembers in the future is what they got out of the class. For instance, maybe a teacher told jokes and stories about their past; the student in return remembers the joy and excitement associated with that subject. Maya Angelou once said, “I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” Similar to this rational, a student may be able to compute arithmetic or tell a person about the Byzantine Empire, but what they put forth in life is their experiences. The experiences, which made them feel something. Therefore, the most important lesson I learned in school was how we are not all special snowflakes, so we have to work hard in life to accomplish great things.