Stepping Out of the Comfort Zone by Victoria

Stepping Out of the Comfort Zone by Victoria - January 2016 Scholarship Essay

This year I have made the resolution to push myself to new-unknown boundaries. Last year, for the year of 2015, I made the resolution to do a couple things that were out of my comfort zone. I did, and it made the year one of the greatest yet. This year, I want to do even more than just a few- I want to constantly push at those comfort zones.
As of now, I already study, maintain great grades, and am not afraid to ask a teacher for help. So saying “I will study more” will not help me become a better a student. In fact, you will hear my mom complaining, “Why can’t you be more like a teenager?” (I do go out a lot with friends, my mom just chooses to ignore that fact.) Getting out my comfort zone, however, will help me discover more and more about myself as person- making me a better student. Last year, my major choice that went out of my comfort zone was choosing to give up basketball to do an aerospace engineering internship (my future career choice) and pick up robotics at my school. This was a huge decision for me since I knew I was guaranteed to have basketball season to go well. The whole internship and robotics- not so much. I ended up taking the largest leaps out of my comfort zone with this choice- becoming ones of the best choices I have ever made. I love going to work every day. I love all the robotics members who have become my family. While I may not get such an opportunity to go so far out my comfort zone for the rest of my senior year, new opportunities will definitely present itself in college.
One of the boundaries I want to push when I go off to college is who I spend my time with. I have purposely chosen colleges away from friends and family so that I will be on my own. This will force me to have to go out and meet new people. Partially due to the small size of high school but also because of comfort, I tend to stick with the friends I am most comfortable with. When I go off to college I want that to change because in the end it will make me a better student and person. In college, I am going to take every opportunity I can, even if I am very uncomfortable with it since it is new, and use it to learn more about myself.
This year, as a resolution, I want to take last year’s resolution even further. I want to use it as the year where I tried even more things than I did the previous year. For me, this year will be the year when I can leave everything I thought I knew about me and actually start finding who I really am.