Making The Grade by sarah

Making The Grade by sarah - December 2016 Scholarship Essay

The past six months I have been doing something extraordinary. I have been working full time, going to college full time, and being a full time mom to an infant. There has never been as much on my proverbial plate as there is now. In spite of that, I have been more successful the past six months than ever before.
In April of 2016 something extraordinary happened in my life. I became a mother, for the first time. My first child rocked my world by arriving three weeks early, and not a day has been the same since. My life became more joyful, more vibrant, and more meaningful. After I made it through the first, and hardest few weeks I began thinking about the big picture of our lives. I have an important job. I have been a teacher in public education for the past 8 years. The thing is my husband is a teacher and a coach as well. Neither of us has any room for income growth. He passionately loves his job, however my passion, my reason has become my son. After those first few difficult weeks, I started factoring childcare, and a college fund into our budget. While I was looking at the budget I realized, we can pay for childcare, but we cannot save for his college. I want to be able to provide for my son in all the ways I possibly can.
I always knew if I went back to school it would be for accounting. My father is an accountant, and I love numbers and problem solving. After I had deliberated over our budget for a few weeks, I decided it was time to go back to school. In July, with a three month old I started back to school. I took six hours in a summer term, and I am currently finishing up a fifteen-hour semester. I have spent every moment that I am not with my son or at work, working on my college classes. At first I was very overwhelmed, but the farther I got into the semester the more I continued to add on to my plate.
I began to realize that the challenge of judging it all was making me do better, it was making me more determined. I ended up adding a late start class, because I was so far ahead in all of my classes. Now I am sitting at the end of the semester with all A’s in my classes. This is the biggest accomplishment of my life. I have worked harder than I ever have before. I am so proud of the work I have put in, and feel very grateful to have the support system that has made this all possible.
I have learned a lot about myself in the past few months. I have never juggled so many things in my life, and I have realized just how far determination can get me. I am blessed to have a supportive family, and friends that have helped make this possible. I am thankful for the inner drive I have, and the work I have been willing to put in to make my dreams come true. I am thirty and this was my first semester in college in eight years. I never imagined I would be here, but now that I am I know I can do amazing things. I am ready for next semester, and another set of A’s to go with the ones I have now!