Goodbye Fear by Yvette

Goodbye Fear by Yvette - January 2016 Scholarship Essay

My New Year’s resolution is not only to acknowledge my fears, but to overcome them. This resolution will make me a better student in 2016 because I will no longer be held back by my enemy: myself. For years now, I have tackled obstacles that have been in my way, but with a fair share of forced effort. For example, my Calculus class this year was terrifyingly difficult; numbers had long ago been replaced with letters and trigonometry words, but halfway through my first class I began to long for them. Despite the difficulties I pushed through, going in for help before and after school. The decision to get help though was one that I tossed and turned about for too many days. I didn’t want to seem incompetent or incapable. There were students in my class that seemed to remember every minute detail we had learned over the course of our math classes while I couldn’t seem to remember what I had just eaten for lunch.
This idea that I’m not intelligent enough has fueled my anxiety at school for too many years; in 2016 I want to have the power in my own hands and shut down those thoughts. I am no longer going to allow my fears to define and control me. My senior year is going to be full of breakthroughs and new experiences; I will raise my hand to question the answer on the board, volunteer to be the chairman for a school project, and jump into new activities with an open mind and confident attitude. This New Year’s resolution can mark the year that I decided to live my life and go after what I wanted. In college, I can keep brushing off my fears and take those monumental steps towards potential success.