Do It by Riley

Do It by Riley - January 2016 Scholarship Essay

I flip through my new journal, looking through blank pages until I come to what I’ve been looking for: the page filled with goals for the year 2016, the year I graduate. The year I turn 18. The year I finally break away from the small southern Michigan town I’ve been stuck in all my life.
I know I’m going to make it my year.
I have a list of New Year’s resolutions scribbled in metallic silver pen, shiny and shimmering like the fresh snow that fell on New Year’s Eve. There’s the cliche goals: eat healthier, exercise. Then there’s some others, and below them all are two words in black underlined five times: DO IT.
Do what?
Everything. Everything I’ve wanted to do, everything I have to do, everything I feel I’m meant to do. Everything I’ve dreamed of doing. Like Shia Labeouf in his famous video, “JUST DO IT.”
Out of everything, this is what I’ve struggled with the most. I know I’m not the only one; surely almost everyone has needed someone to scream “JUST DO IT” to them at some point. So many things hold you back, encasing you in a state of inaction, a state of rigidity, where you will never progress. Without moving forward, without doing something, you can either stay the same or find yourself falling backwards. And, at this age, at this time, doing something is vital.
At 17 you have to choose a college. At 17 you have to choose what you want to do with your life. At 17 you have to choose to grow up. At 17 you have to choose to keep true to yourself. At 17 you have to choose to do something.
But, it’s a choice.
Are all of these choices life and death? No, not at all. However, they are choices about yourself--- will you do the exercise, will you eat better, will you teach yourself how to draw, will you teach yourself how to be a better person--- and are the difference between not life and death of your physical body, but the life and death of your motivation, inspiration, drive, and self-respect. These choices shape your life, so, if I may quote Shia again, “JUST DO IT.”
‘It’ can be anything. ‘It’ can be getting your homework done the night before instead of five minutes before, taking up a hobby you’ve always wanted to do, joining a club you have no friends in, taking a challenging class, or just sticking to your other resolutions. We humans are all talk. We say this and mean that, we mean this and say that. Be someone who does what they say and says what the do.
You are the only one that can hold you back. You are the one who thinks of all those silly, senseless fears to begin with. Do it. Conquer your fears. Conquer your laziness.
Do it.
“But how exactly does this help you become a better student? Is your goal only to do your homework on time? Why would we give a scholarship to someone whose goals are so low like that?” Shh. I’m getting there. I actually have more than 200 words for a limit here. I’m going to make use of that.
Anyway, where was I? Oh, yeah. How does this benefit me as a student? Well, you see, I refuse to see grades as the only important element of an education. Shocking, right? Grades aren’t everything. In fact, they’re the least important element. I know this because I’ve had a perfect 4.0 for as long as I can remember. It hasn't helped me in the ‘real world.’
School isn’t just about learning who shot whom in what war, or what does what in what cell, or what word means what, it’s about learning, and learning isn’t just academic.
In school, you learn the way the world works--- who’s popular and why, how hard it is to get everything done, how awful stress can be. High school, especially. It leaves a festering wound of fears and anxieties on most... including myself. These fears are heavy chains to drag around. You have the key to unlock them, but you have to DO IT. You have to unlock it yourself and shed that weight one cold mental link at a time.
And that’s exactly what the five-time underlined ‘DO IT’ means to me. Like I mentioned earlier, I had other resolutions above ‘DO IT.’ In gold pen they read (and I will quote them exactly): Stop being lazy. Help out. Reach out. Call out. Speak up. Stop being so shy. Be shameless. Draw more. Write more. Draw what’s difficult. Write what’s difficult. Finish that painting. Finish that novel. Finish homework. Get scholarship money so you aren’t broke. Get organized. ‘Get adultier.’ Get confident.
And the final one:
Get where you want to be.
Schoolwise. Hobbywise. Healthwise. Lifewise.
Do it. Just do it.