Education and the Future it Promises by Shelby

Education and the Future it Promises by Shelby - October 2022 Scholarship Essay

When we think of education the picture of crowded high school halls and hours spent watching the clock tend to pop into our heads, this idea may make us wince, boredom and cramming for tests isn’t the best way to spend time. However, education shouldn’t invoke these feelings, education is an opportunity, the opportunity to live your ideal life. This opportunity is often overlooked, but as a person with a disability, I’ve come to appreciate my ability to attend school. I also find that the ability to choose practical classes that can directly lead to a career and college path for my life. This paired with the freedom we have to choose schools and classes that appeal to us is a blessing that can’t be understated. In a world as fast-paced and busy as ours is, we tend to forget just how much education matters, it builds our computers and runs our banks, education built our world and it’s how we’ll keep it running.
In my last few years of high school, I faced a rough patch of my life, I got sick, and due to this sickness lost much of the function of my hands and legs. During this time, however, I became desperate to find some stability, and the ability to go to school and prepare for college became important in a whole new way, no longer was it an expectation from my parents and community but now it was a hope, a flickering light that promised normality and freedom I so desperately wanted. In my pursuit of education, I failed and succeeded but most importantly I tried, I was able to do what my classmates got to and I felt so lucky with every assignment, no matter how painful. Now, as I ready myself for college, I feel the rising excitement, I’ve made it through the worst, and I adapted, I feel prepared for anything that comes my way.
While being able to attend school is one thing the subject matter that schools provide is a whole nother ball game. This has been a discussion around education for a while, what classes are practical for our students to learn and at what point does a class stop being reasonable to teach to the wider student body. This is a difficult question to ask at the high school level because the students range from future engineers to auto shop mechanics. Algebra is used by everyone but should all students be forced to take calc? The loss of funding has gradually stripped these classes from our school system and the classes that some students may need are being lost under the guise of being unneeded. In my experience I’ve made use of advanced classes, namely math, I knew my end goal of engineering and for me, these classes were a perfect way to prep myself for the real world. But like many other things the classes were slowly taken away, this year the calc AB class, next year the BC, people like me, students who know what they want and who try to set themselves up for success are being pushed to the side.
What’s done is done, I can’t resurrect the classes any more than I can turn back time. What I can do however is look forward and make the decisions needed to give myself access to the material I need. Finding colleges and electives that give me an impressive arsenal of talents and abilities that make me a good student and a better employee. I refuse to let the choices of others lock me into a place where my access to education suffers. College is a new opportunity, one that promises freedom, one that lets me be the best version of myself I can possibly be.