The World is Your Classroom and Life is the Subject by Rachelle

The World is Your Classroom and Life is the Subject by Rachelle - October 2013 Scholarship Essay

Every day is considered a “life lesson” for me. Education is not limited to the classroom. Truly, the greatest trials which require learned skills in critical thinking, decision-making, and execution of action is out in the world where tests in real-time affect you and those around you. I would have to say that the most important and valuable life lesson I learned that could not possibly be taught to me in a classroom was the decision that changed the course of my life for the foreseeable future: the journey that took me over a thousand miles from my home of twenty-six years to the place that I now warmly call home.

Transplanting has to have been the greatest challenge I have ever faced. I could never before understand what it was like for my classmates who have lived in different places for different reasons. There is a great deal of stress involved in coordinating such an event. However, what I learned is that diligent planning and preparation is the key to reducing these stresses. Within the course of a week, with the offering of a job as the beginning of the clock, my boyfriend and I arranged for a weekend trip, visited apartments, secured an apartment, married, and began packing. I was in the last month of my quarter at my previous school with final assignments quickly approaching, I had to separate from my job, and, perhaps most difficult of all, leave the places and the people I had known my entire life.

However, I readily welcomed this experience. It was a moment that I knew had to occur. It was the opportunity for me to grow; to do the things that I felt I could not do back at home. It was the moment that allowed me to advance myself academically, professionally, and personally. I had to explore a new environment, meet people I would have never expected to meet, and set a path for myself without the security of familiarity in which to retreat. I had to push forward despite insecurities and uncertainties. It was a difficult lesson, but a lesson that I was never able to learn in a classroom.