Never Stop Reaching for Your Goals by Samary

Never Stop Reaching for Your Goals by Samary - May 2014 Scholarship Essay

During my time at Phoenix Military Academy in Chicago, Illinois I was fortunate enough to become the Varsity Captain of our Debate Team, in addition I had the honor of being a National Conference debater. Due to my “high” level of debate skills, I was able to travel to various debate camps such as the UTNIF program at the University of Texas in Austin, Texas and the ISIF program at the University of Iowa in Iowa City, Iowa. While at the UTNIF program I meet Jairus Grove, a man who at the time was a graduate fellow at John Hopkins University and who is currently a professor at the University of Hawaii. Jairus became a very good friend and mentor for me that summer, helping me to cope with my grandmothers death from Alzheimer’s a mere two weeks into camp and helping me exponentially grow my knowledge of philosophy, politics, social issues, and my debate skills.

When a cousin notified me of my grandmas passing via Facebook, I immediately began to cry and wanted nothing more than to go to her funeral and be surrounded by family. Unfortunately, that was not an option at the time; I had made a commitment to be a part of a seven-week program and everyone including my family wanted me to finish the program. While I was coping with her death Jairus sat me down and shared various stories with me about various obstacles that presented themselves in his life and how he used them to propel him forward in his educational endeavors. Part of what he shared with me has stayed with me till this day, “Although things happen in this life that push us down, we cannot let them win. We have to gather strength from our hardships and push forward to attain our educational goals. Only by reaching our goals can we ensure that others and ourselves never have to experience the same hardships we faced.”

This piece of advice has propelled me forward in my life and more importantly in my academics everyday, whenever I face a situation that test my endurance and commitment to my education I analyze the situation and find a way to come out on top of it. This advice also helped me solidify what subjects I wanted to major in and ultimately what career I wanted to have. It reminds me to everyday push for what I want, not just as a way to help my future, and myself but also to help others. As such I am majoring in Spanish, psychology, and philosophy with a minor in legal reasoning at the University of Texas at El Paso, with the goal of attending the University of Puerto Rico Law School to become a family lawyer in Puerto Rico. I want to become a family lawyer to help and mentor the next generation and to help them push forward through their own obstacles, as I was so lucky to have someone help me with mine.