Giving Up by Cristy

Giving Up by Cristy - July 2016 Scholarship Essay

It is hard to choose just one lesson taught to me by a teacher. School teachers teach us many educational lessons throughout our schooling and while math and reading are useful and necessary the most important lessons taught to me were life lessons. The example I keep looking back on was this past year while I was a senior in high school and it was taught to me by my AP Calculus teacher.
My math teacher has been teaching math for many years and is just now getting one of her graduate degrees. She has been working on this degree for a long time and continues to teach high school students while working towards her degree. This is really amazing because this math teacher also happened to be the dean of the math department on top of teaching Advanced Placement or AP classes and taking her online graduate classes. This hard work and dedication is an important lesson in and of itself, not the most important lesson I have ever learned important, but it sets up that lesson.
One day in class, midway through the second semester, the downward slope for most high school seniors, my math teacher started class saying she had something to tell us. She had quit her advanced class. We as a class were shocked, what did this mean for the advanced degree she was getting? She calmed our fears by telling us she was still working towards her degree and she has simply piled too much on her plate. She gave us this advice, some of the best advice I have ever received and the most important lesson ever taught to me by a teacher, "In college and in life sometimes you will feel overwhelmed, and it's okay to drop some things from your life if they are taking too much of your time and preventing you from getting done what you need to done. Take a step back and try again later or try a different path." This lesson meant a lot to me because I interpreted it to mean that temporarily stepping back does not equate giving up and does not equate to failure, it just means to look for another opportunity and work on yourself before you tackle the greater challenges of life. I have taken this advice to use in my relationships as well. Backing off, and going to school out-of-state, does not mean I am abandoning my relationships back home, I am simply giving them room to grow and change into something different, yes, but something better and more healthy.
The lesson taught to me of getting room to breathe will forever stay with me because of its adaptability and flexibility to fit most situations. It is because of this advice I know to choose classes and other time commitments and such wisely, and when something has become too much to handle and needs to be dropped. I will forever remember that math class as the best math class of my life and will miss everyone I experienced it with, including the teacher who taught me so much about life more than just math.