Wake Up Call by Rebeca

Wake Up Call by Rebeca - September 2015 Scholarship Essay

My cousin Aaron's high school years reflected my middle school years pretty accurately. He never studied, took the easiest classes, and passed with the bare minimum that was required. Adults always talked about how it was such a shame because he was such an intelligent person but just didn't apply himself. Once he graduated however, he saw all his friends moving away and getting ready to start their new lives at the schools that they had gotten accepted to. For him, this was probably the wake up call that the "real world" is actually going to hit you pretty hard in the face when you graduate, and you have to be prepared for it. Unfortunately for him, he was not. He didn't have the GPA or any sort of requirements needed to get into a good school and he ended up still living at home when all of his friends were starting their independent lives and creating great memories. When that sunk in, he realized what a grave mistake he made and ended up going to community college to try and start on a new slate.
Aaron and I have have always been very close, and one day in the summer between my eight grade year and commencement of high school we happened to get onto the topic of school. It started out casual, but when he started giving me advice of the do's and don'ts of high school, I could see that what he was saying seemed like it meant a lot to him. I could tell that he was extremely serious with every word. He explained to me the situation he was in and told me he didn't want me to follow in his footsteps because we both knew that I was pretty much a younger female version of himself. He made me realize that school isn't a joke or a game and that I should take every second of it seriously. Throughout the conversation he eventually made me promise to apply myself. He made sure I knew that I shouldn't take the easy way and that I should challenge myself because he knew I was more than capable.
He was more like a brother to me than anything else and for that reason I did exactly as he said. It was because of him that I decided to take honors classes for the first time when I started high school. From there, I challenged myself a bit more and started taking AP and enrolled in dual enrollment. Now I'm a senior and about to graduate high school with a 3.8 GPA and an associates degree at the same time. If it wasn't for him, I would have never pushed myself and accomplished as much as I have up to this point. I have saved myself two years of college and am now looking at the prospective universities that have showed an interest in me. I will be eternally grateful for him guiding me onto the right path academically and am excited to continue to push myself and accomplish much more wherever I decide to go from here.