Bring it on, Mr. Taylor. by Brooke

Bring it on, Mr. Taylor. by Brooke - December 2016 Scholarship Essay

“I usually choose seniors, but let’s see how you do, Brooke,” Mr. Taylor said in my Advanced Chem class junior year. Each November, he chooses one senior in his class to lead the class in an experiment where he gives zero direction whatsoever. In 2015, things changed, and suddenly I was at the front of the classroom, my computer connected to the smart board and my hand shaking slightly as I typed. I was so nervous — why was he testing me like this?
The task at hand was one we had never attempted before, and no one knew where to start. Our ideas were fragmented; on their own they made no sense at all. When I began piecing together the individual ideas of the 14 students in the class, we began to see a real game plan. Everyone was contributing from all four corners of the room, enthused by the prospect of proving to Mr. Taylor that we, as a class together, could do the impossible.
As the time ticked by (we only had 90 minutes!), I began delegating each table a task. I found my peers to be not only responsive to my leadership, but excited by it. I realized that it wasn’t just me vs. Mr. Taylor, but it was my entire class standing beside me, titrating, diluting, and eventually solving the problem at hand. When the bell rang signifying it was time to take off our goggles, wash out our equipment, and hand in our final report, we were all smiling with joy. The numbers were flawed as human error is inevitable, but the experiment was a success. Working together was never so exciting.
Mr. Taylor hand picked me for that grueling task. He knows I am a leader, but I will hand it to him: this could have been a time where my leadership skills fell because of my grade, age, or even my gender. Yet, through this challenge, my leadership skills only got stronger. The true triumph of this moment did not appear to me so great at the time; instead, it slowly came over me, until I finally realized what I had done. Not only did I prove to Mr. Taylor what I could do, I proved to myself what I can and will continue to do in college and beyond: step up to the plate.