Overcoming Obstacles Makes a Student Successful by Allison

Overcoming Obstacles Makes a Student Successful by Allison - March 2015 Scholarship Essay

Author Booker T. Washington once said,” Success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles which he has overcome.” Although leadership should be thought of as an action, today’s society views it as a social status. This is why leadership itself is not necessary for a college student’s success. Instead, a successful student will be the one who tries their best, lives with the flaws, and making something positive out of their mistakes. My mistake throughout my education was trying to achieve perfectionism.

In eighth grade, my best friend told me, “If you try to do your best, there is no failure.” Failure—the word itself sent shivers up my spine. Perfectionism was the enemy of my creativity, productivity, and sanity, yet I did not realize it at the time. I was living in a world dominated by black-and-white, by absolute precision.

At a young age, I was told to reach for the stars. I wanted to become a dancer, so I did. I desired to be a cheerleader, so I was. I also played soccer to display my athleticism. At such an undeveloped age, I took on a “no pain, no gain” mentality in pursuit of greatness.

By the time I reached middle school, it was no longer about mere success; I was trying to achieve utter perfection. Helping others became imperative. In sixth grade at Minersville Elementary, I began to tutor my first through fourth grade peers during my lunch periods. Around this same time, I also helped out at my church’s nursery every Sunday. I strove to make my life an endless report card of accomplishments. Most people hated school, but I loved it because school was quantifiable. There were assignments, grades, feedback, and teachers whose purpose it was to pat me on the back for a job well done. "Work hard, do well, be rewarded" was a comfort, and it continued to be my mantra throughout my first two years of high school.

During my sophomore year of high school, I took the most frustrating roller-coaster of a course, British Literature. I struggled with my grades for the first time in my life. I thought of myself as a success one moment and a failure the next, all based on my most recent accomplishment or failure. Almost every week in British Literature, I was hammered with a grade way below my standards: an F. I thought back to what I was told two years prior: “If you try to do your best, there is no failure.” I always had a persistence to be perfect, a drive to constantly outdo myself. It was like a never-ending race between me and the world. However, I knew I had always tried my hardest, so what more could I do?

Through my many experiences, I came to recognize that frantically chasing those straight A's—in school and in life—could only lead to a lifetime of frustration and self-doubt. In the real world, success is measured differently; it has nothing to do with being perfect. General George Patton once said, “I don't measure a man's success by how high he climbs, but how high he bounces when he hits bottom.” This realization has made me less critical of myself and more optimistic. These two traits are necessary for a student’s future success.