Utah by Tiani

Utah by Tiani - April 2016 Scholarship Essay

Twelve years ago, I started my journey down the road of education. As a small kindergartner, I did not know what obstacles, adventures and joys lay ahead. As I jumped from grade to grade, year after year, I soon realized the importance of the decisions I was making in my education. By the time my ninth grade year rolled around, I knew that the grades, accomplishments and decisions I made were going to be especially important. From that day on, I knew that those were the things that would determine what college I went to, what future occupation I could have, and basically what would determine my life ahead of me. But it's what I did with those things that make me who I am today.
Currently I am 17 years and a Junior in High School, with a 3.5 GPA. Now if you asked a student who does what they can to get by in school, what they think of my GPA; they may say, "Well, that's a perfectly fine GPA." In a way, they may be right because with a GPA of 3.5 I can still have a pretty comfortable lifestyle in the future. I probably wouldn't be able to be a doctor and make a ton of money, but I could very well live comfortably. But if you asked me what I think of that GPA, I would tell you that I could have tried harder, put in more effort and worked a little harder to earn that 4.0 GPA. Because I know in my heart, that I did not put in the full amount of effort during all my years of schooling, to earn that 4.0 GPA that I could have. And now, I am suffering from that lack of effort in my past.
Now, I am trying to figure out what colleges I can be ACCEPTED to, not what colleges I WANT to go to. Because some of the colleges I would love to attend, would not accept my application because of that GPA, which represents the effort I put forth in school. This experience has had a great impact on me, because I wish that when I had the chance to succeed, I took it. But sadly, now I am telling you from experience that I did not take full advantage that chance. If I could go back and change the decisions I mad in the past, I would. But there is obviously no way I can do that, that is why it is so important to live in the moment and do the best you can do.
What I wish to tell the generations that will come after me, is take advantage of your education. The effort you choose to put forth in your education today, will determine your future. And that effort should be nothing less than the best YOU can do. I know that if you put forth YOUR BEST effort not only in your education, but in life; you CAN succeed and nobody will have the right to tell you that you that you could have tried harder, because you did YOUR BEST and that is the most important thing in life and specifically in your education.