Third Times the Charms by Stephanie

Third Times the Charms by Stephanie - June 2016 Scholarship Essay

“Throughout this semester, you will have a midterm and a final. The midterm is composed of 150 multiple choice questions, 10 two-page papers based on 10 different articles, and a 10 page paper on the assigned book. The final will be in the same format.” Those were the first words of my Sociology professor that I took the first semester of my Freshman year. This is what everyone was talking about when they said that college was a lot harder than high school.
Being a legal studies major, sociology was a requirement to obtain my degree. I had no idea what sociology was before I walked into that class so I never thought that I wouldn’t enjoy it; well I was wrong.
Of course, in college, you are going to take classes that you don’t prefer or have a professor that you aren’t too fond of and that was the case. Sociology was definitely on the top of my “don’t ever take again” list. And my professor was also on the top of my “don’t ever take him again” list.
I got through the midterm and I thought I would have a second to breathe but I was wrong. As soon as I finished the midterm, it was time to start working on the final if I wanted to pass with a good grade. I wasn’t too concerned with the multiple choice or the articles but that book report was haunting me. I knew I needed to get started on it but I really didn’t enjoy that class and I definitely didn’t want to read a whole book on a subject that I didn’t enjoy.
I picked up the book and I was pleasantly surprised! It was actually an amazing book! Being the slow reader I am, it took me about two weeks to finish it but it was worth the time. As soon as I finished, I whipped out my laptop and began to write the paper while it was fresh in my mind. I figured that since I genuinely enjoyed the book, that I could really write a good and thorough report on it.
My professor was the type that accepted copies of a paper before the due date and would give feedback on how he thought it could be improved. Right after I finished my paper, I gave it to him with my head held high and a smile from ear to ear because I truly believed I had written an amazing paper that was worthy of an A+.
The next week, he called me up after class to talk about my draft and I couldn’t wait to hear what he had to say! I knew he would tell me that he loved it, but he didn’t. He actually told me a million things that were wrong and that it was probably worth a B-. I probably could have cried in that instant, I was so proud of my work but it wasn’t good enough. I took his comments and just sat in front of computer for a few days. I didn’t know what to fix because I truly thought it was perfect.
It took a few more days but I came up with a few more things to add and fixed all of the things he told me to do. I handed it in again before the due date to see if there were anything else I could do but this time I was SURE that it was A+ quality.

Wrong again.

This time he gave it back with many more comments and said it was B quality. I wasn’t even upset this time, I was just so frustrated! This was the hardest I have ever worked and probably the best paper I have ever written and he kept tearing me down. So instead of walking away with the B, I sat back down and I made it even BETTER than the first two drafts. I went back into the book, re-read chapters and read between the lines in order to make this paper into something he would want to give an A+ to.
I worked for days and days until it was the day it was due. I walked in there with such confidence and put the paper on his desk. He said that in a few days he would accept emails asking for your grade.
“Congrats Stephanie, you got an A+, I knew you could do it. I could see that if I just pushed you hard enough, you could write the perfect paper that I knew you had in there” He believed in me. He believed that I could go beyond what I thought I could and write something that he thought was almost perfect, something that deserved that A+.
I couldn’t stop smiling. I wish I had had the chance to tell him how grateful I was that he believed in me and pushed me as hard as he did. He not only helped me get the grade I wanted but he helped me to show that I can achieve the things that I strive for.