Exceed Expectations by Tiara

Exceed Expectations by Tiara - November 2013 Scholarship Essay

The most valuable lesson I learned in high school was to try to exceed expectations.

I was a B+/B average student and was comfortable in being that. I didn’t believe in myself enough to push myself to become better than what I was. I was never really there mentally in my classes I was just passing through each year. I didn’t start to pay attention until my third year of high school. I was a very arts student and fell in love with graphic design and art classes. My teachers loved their jobs and taught their subjects with such passion and excitement. I couldn’t help but be in tuned with the classes. I am not saying they were the easiest but they made me want to find my own passion. I was missing the motivation to do better than a B because I couldn’t find or wasn’t attentive to the things I was passionate about.

Close to my senior year I joined the FBLA (Future Business leaders of America) and traveled to different schools and saw people who use to be in my shoes in work environments that were different from what I expected them to be. The speaker enjoyed her job, flexible schedule and stated, “If you find a job/career you love or are passionate about you won’t think of it as work.” During one of our last FBLA meetings before spring break our advisor said for us to write down our hobbies, likes/dislikes, and goals for short and long term plans. This was one of the first times I actually sat down and wrote down what qualities I had to offer, what career choices I wanted to pursue and the grade point average I needed to get into the schools I wanted to apply to. I realized in order to obtain all of my goals I couldn’t just be average I had to exceed expectations.