Breaking The Habit: Late Nights to Better Grades by Lena

Breaking The Habit: Late Nights to Better Grades by Lena - December 2024 Scholarship Essay

Yawning, I checked the clock. It read 12:15 AM, and I still wasn’t even halfway done with my seminar homework. After finally finishing my work, I try to fall asleep quickly in bed, but to no avail. As my dark eye circles got darker and the time I went to bed later, I realized that I had to get rid of my old habits and fix the way I did things.
I think one of the biggest challenges in both my life and in my study so far was learning to adjust from middle school to high school. In middle school, I barely got homework that required more than 2 hours to complete. I was not ready for the homework bombs that awaited me in high school. I wasn’t used to sitting on the same chair at my desk for hours just to complete one class’s worth of work. I struggled with managing my time and productivity heavily, as I still wanted to play video games with my friends. Soon, I realized that playing video games and completing my homework in the early hours wasn’t healthy at all for me and that I had to fix that lifestyle.
In the end, I deleted my video games and bought myself a planner. Even though it was really hard to just suddenly let go of the game I’ve been playing for years and the fear of missing out on what my friends were up to had me in a chokehold, I mustered up all my courage and clicked that ‘delete’ button. I know I cried quite a bit that night, but looking back now, I’m glad I made that decision. I came to understand that games were distracting me from doing my work, which hurt not only my grades but my sleep schedule and ultimately my health. If I’m going to be honest, I think I was even a bit addicted, and breaking out of addictions or bad habits helped me feel renewed and free. By eliminating what was the big distractor, I was able to focus more on my work. However, I wasn’t very organized, so I bought a planner. Writing things down on the planner helped me stay organized and manage projects, exams, and work in general. It also made me feel good and proud of myself whenever I finished a task and crossed it out.
What I learned was that even though letting things go is hard, sometimes it’s for the best, and to make the choice that’s best for you. Even though I really loved my video games, I had to let it go for the sake of my grades because while the dopamine I get from games is fleeting, the grades I got on my report cards and transcripts were permanent. Although it was hard to adjust to these new changes and a lot of effort had to be put in, I would end off the year with 90s and above on my report cards AND score a 5 on the seminar exam. These lessons I learned would help me improve my work ethic, as I no longer think about the present me but also the future me. When making choices, such as whether or not I should take advanced classes, I think about how the choice would affect me in the future. I think it’s important to realize that you shouldn’t just think about the present now, but also long term.