Faith, Focus, and Perserverance by Brenda

Faith, Focus, and Perserverance by Brenda - December 2024 Scholarship Essay

One of the most challenging academic experiences I have gone through was during my junior year, where I had a lot of responsibilities to juggle. Being the student council president, a leader at Fish Camp, and a trainer at Whataburger, I felt pulled in every direction. The pressure to excel academically while leading in various roles had begun to overwhelm me and I began to run purely off of other people's expectations of what I could do even though I often questioned whether I could balance everything.

One of these specific challenges was my pre-calculus class. Math has always been one of those subjects where I've had to really work a little bit harder, and adding in everything else I was balancing at the time seemed like a mountain I just would not ever get over. Sitting in my room after some long shift from work, looking at practice problems that basically could have been written in another language, was frustrating to say the least, and eventually made me doubt myself.

In those moments, I fell back onto my faith. I prayed for strength and clarity, asking God to lead me through this season of doubt and difficulty. Philippians 4:13 was a verse that I would say over and over in my mind: I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. These words reminded me that I didn't have to carry the weight of everything alone; God was with me, equipping me to persevere. I reminded myself of the purpose God had placed in my heart: to create a better future for my family, to be a nurse and, one day, a nurse administrator who could change healthcare for the better. That purpose gave me the motivation to keep pushing forward, even when it felt impossible.

So I began setting small goals for myself: allocating specific time to studying, which meant either waking up much earlier than usual or losing some rest time. I prayed for discipline, also, and reached out for the support system God had blessed me with-praying with my teacher and fellow classmates while studying in groups. Soon, the problems were no longer incomprehensible to me; I felt confident, even in confronting situations that seemed insurmountable.

For me, however, conquering this academic obstacle meant more than passing pre-calculus; it was to prove to myself that any obstacle in life could be overcome by resilience and resourcefulness. This experience was a time of re-entrusting my faith and learning to trust God's plan, even when the path forward is not clear. That lesson will carry me forward as I step into nursing and beyond, trusting that God will equip me to thrive in any demanding environment I face.