Take the Gift by Rachel

Take the Gift by Rachel - April 2020 Scholarship Essay

“Wake up!” I moan as I am shaken awake by my little brothers. “Come on,” they insist, “It’s Christmas! You can’t be slow today!” I roll over and look at their big, excited, shining eyes. “Alright, alright! I’m coming,” I reply with a smile. As soon as they scurry out of my room, I roll out of bed, throw on a sweatshirt and my slippers, and gallop down the stairs. At the bottom of the stairs, I pause. There they are; I take in the glorious moment. Beneath the tree are so many sparkling green and red presents that I can’t count them all. After a few eternal minutes, we are given permission to dig in. Paper and bows are soon flying everywhere; my heart is pumping with energy.
The joy that I felt on that Christmas morning and many more, is the joy that we all have when we are given a gift. The beauty of a gift is someone gives you something that you don’t deserve or you have been wanting for a long time. Education is that way, too.
Most people in the United States don’t think of education as a gift, they just assume that they will be educated to some degree. However, education is a gift here. Education is not provided to people of all nations. According to WorldAtlas, in Equatorial Guinea, Myanmar, Central African Republic, Zambia, United Arab Emirates, Monaco, Lebanon, Liberia, and Sri Lanka, less than 2% of the government's GDP, or gross domestic product, is spent on education. Many other countries in Africa and the Middle East have bad education systems or barely an education system at all. Here, the government pays for education, spending 6.1% of their GDP on education. That is above the international average, 5%, for educational spending (Investopedia). We have something special offered and I want to take advantage of that.
Especially because I know that many of the young ladies around the world, just like me, do not have the opportunity to learn in a classroom. Unfortunately, the opportunities available to women here in America are not open to women of all countries and cultures. It has been thought and taught for centuries that a man is “the head of the house” and that women should be submissive to that, lay low and “keep in their place”. Elite Daily shares that India, Pakistan, Nepal, Afghanistan, and other countries in the middle east exclude or discourage women from taking part in education. Fortunately, this kind of attitude is not dominant in the United States, giving people like me and other young ladies the opportunity to learn about the world they live in.
The wonder of learning something new, understanding a new perspective, becoming the best version of yourself are all part of the gift of education. I would like to take this opportunity, take this gift - relish in it. My goal post-high school is to become a teacher. I guess growing up as the oldest of five children has given me teaching instincts. However, going to school to become a teacher is a struggle financially for me because of the number of siblings that I have. With this scholarship, I could make that happen. I envision passing on the precious gift of education; handing off the baton. I want students to have the joy of receiving such an amazing gift - to be as giddy to hear about something new as a young one on Christmas morning is to open a gift.