Fuel From My Family by Brianna

Fuel From My Family by Brianna - July 2019 Scholarship Essay

I distinctly remember the very first homework assignment I was given in the first grade. My teacher had torn out a page of our math booklets and told us to complete the worksheet that night for homework. As a six -year-old at the time I took things very literal and so instead of starting on the worksheet when I got home from school that afternoon I decided to wait until it was dark outside and considered to be night before I completed the assignment. Being a six-year-old I was also very forgetful and had completely forgotten about my homework by dinner time. After dinner as my mother was preparing my book-bag for the next day she saw that my teacher had written about my homework assignment in my agenda and realized that I had not done it when I had come home. I remember both her and my father being very upset with me that I had not done my homework and explaining to me why it was so important that I keep up with my schoolwork.
I believe that this was the first moment that I started to look at school in a different way. Before I had seen it as a place to go and see my best friend, take naps, and have recess. That night I saw it as I still see it today, a place for me to learn and better myself and to make my parents proud. Once I started to see school in this light, I began to pay more attention in class, making sure I understood as much as I could. As I began to perform well, I started to develop a passion for learning. I was starting to realize that if I worked hard and pushed myself along with the help of my parents that I would excel and that feeling fueled my desire to know as much as I could and try my very hardest.
As I enter my final year of high school I often look back on that night. To my family it is regarded as a funny memory but to me it symbolizes the start of the desire I developed to learn. Throughout all my years of schooling my parents have aided me in being the best student I can be, from limiting television during the week to buying summer workbooks for the upcoming grade level. Although these things may have upset me in the past, I regard them as another thing that has fueled my passion for my education and the continuation of it. I believe that my passion for learning would not be as prominent as it is today without my parents and all that they have done.