Changing My High School, One Action at a Time by Zachary

Changing My High School, One Action at a Time by Zachary - November 2019 Scholarship Essay

One way that I believe I have positively impacted my high school and its student body is through no organization or programs, but through the way I grew up and was raised. My parents believed in helping others to the best of our ability. I have transferred this lifestyle into my high school that many may not have noticed before. I simply follow a rule that I’ve carried all throughout my high school career and even implemented while still in 8th grade. Every day I am in school, I try to do something nice for someone, at least once, but usually I find three or more things to do. It can be as simple as helping someone who has crutches or a sling around their arm carry their books, or picking up books for someone who has dropped them in the hallway while others are, quite literally, stepping over him/her. Sometimes it is as simple as complimenting someone on what they are wearing or smiling and saying hello in the hallway. But, it could also be something else more people do not consider, such as sitting with someone at lunch when they are sitting alone and talking with them, or spending time with some of the special needs kids.
It is not that often that someone sits alone at lunch, and sometimes that person may just have all of the people he sits with either absent or doing something else, so I do not just go up to someone the first time I see it, because usually that is the case. However, when I see a recurring theme of the same person sitting alone, day after day for a week or two straight, that is when I take action. I sit with them, asking about who they are, what they are involved in, and I just try to give them some support and a friend that they may need.
I also have spent some time with the kids that have special needs. In many instances, it would be through one of my classes, wood shop, in which they would come down to help us paint or draw something out and I would sit and talk with them, along with helping paint and draw. Other times when I see them in the hallways I will either just smile and say hello, or even stop to talk with them when their supervisors allow it.
As mentioned before, I also try to do the little things that nobody usually thinks about, which I even did the day of completing this essay. There was a kid rushing in the hallway because he was going to be late to class, and he had many books and folders in his arms. When trying to rush, he tripped and dropped all of his books and folders, and the papers in all of his folders went everywhere. I was also running late, but he looked very emotional and worried so I decided I would rather take a few seconds out of my day to help whoever this kid was than to worry about my teacher getting mad and asking why I was late to class. So when helping pick up all his papers, I simply asked him where he was going and what teacher he had, because he seemed very worried about being late. He told me the teacher, and I just smiled and told him that I had that teacher my freshman year, and that the teacher was very understanding, and that they would not be mad at him if he simply explained what had happened. He seemed to relax and when we finished gathering his things I told him to have a good day and I noticed he walked away with a smile. This was the most important thing I did that day, and I hope it made his day better as well.
I did not help this person pick up their books, sit with those people at lunch, or talk to the special needs kids for the recognition. As I mentioned before, many people in my school do not know I do this, many do not even know who I am, since I am not popular and am not part of a large friend group. I do these things in order to try to make the day of whoever I am trying to help, and to make at least one part of their day positive. I have seen far too many people, such as these kids, that do not have someone to help them. Then, sometimes even just weeks later, I will see them spending time with the group of kids that do many bad things and that end up not doing well in school, some not even graduating. It has broken my heart to see these people fall into this which is why I have tried to start doing these little things, to help them become more successful in high school and hopefully after high school. The one thing that I did for these people may just lead them to do more in life, but I cannot control their future, I can only control what I do. And what I do, is try to help others to the best of my ability so as to make their day better and add just a little bit of positivity into their life.