What makes you so special? by Sienna

What makes you so special? by Sienna - July 2016 Scholarship Essay

We were nearing that time of the year again. It was the time where students beginning to stress over a test that can either pass them or fail them. It was the time where some students can either prepare to relax, and stay in bed their entire summer, or they can be bombarded with loads of summer assignments. Whichever summer you are taking, you cannot get there without the final weeks of school. The weeks where you either sit and watch movies, or take your finals until the very last bell rings, releasing you into your freedom you call "summer vacation." Before all of this happens, though, you usually get the teacher who "releases you off your leash" or who gives you something to think about as you leave. I received both.Whether you listen to them or not, teenagers these days have grown to hate speeches given by adults, yet this one did make me realize something.
I walked into my fourth period class, as I did every other day, and sat in my seat. We are preparing to turn in parts of our final assignment. Once everyone turned them in, or so we thought, our teacher turned to look at all of us and held up her stack. "This is it," she said, "This is all the work I've received from this whole class." We all looked at the stack of papers that could prove there were only about half of the students who turned in their work. "This is very upsetting," she continued, " You've had a couple of weeks to do your assignments, yet there are only half of you who did." She then went on to say something along the lines of "You guys put everything else before your school work. Social media, sports, clubs, everything; and yet you expect to get an A in this class without giving 'A' effort. Unless you are Michael Jordan and ready to play in the NBL, then don't expect sports to get you anywhere." She then started to say how we think we have it bad, and how we think we have it hard right now, but there are people worse than us finishing all their assignments on time, getting into the top universities, and not sacking off. She gave us this entire "speech" on how by not doing something so "simple" as this assignment, can easily reflect who you are and how you'll do in life. She ended up showing us video entries of students who were , as she said, "worse off than us," and yet they are EXCELLING in school and their community.
Once class was over, I went to my best friend and cried. I cried because that same morning, my first period class was yelled and said horrible things at for the same reason, only this teacher made us feel like failures. Like we were worthless because we could not do an assignment. It was then that I realize that this teacher and my fourth period teacher did not give us the same speech. My first period teacher wanted to make us feel like we could not do anything, but my fourth period teacher made us feel like we could do EVERYTHING, but we choose not to. I cried because I felt like I failed my fourth period teacher, whom I admire so much.
That speech she gave us taught me that I could do anything we wanted to do. I could prove the people who look down upon me wrong. I have so much potential that I did not use. I cried because she taught me this lesson, that was not from her lesson plans, in order to show me that it does not matter where I come from, or how "bad" my life seems to be, but what matters is how I show people what I can do to break the odds. I knew it was no longer about the assignment, but it was about us as students. That one question that she asked that changed my views on everything forever. That question that taught me what no other lesson plan or teacher could ever teach me. That sarcastic question that she made so serious that it shone a light on my reality. That entire lesson began with one question, "What makes you so special?"