Find Your Resources by Mandi

Find Your Resources by Mandi - July 2016 Scholarship Essay

In my second year of college I was enrolled in a basic history class to cover one of the requirements for my associate’s degree. When I sat down in class that first day I had no idea how much it would challenge me. The professor was among the toughest in the entire school. He didn’t cover everything in his lectures, and expected his students to remember very specific details from the textbook. I quickly learned how luxurious my previous courses had been.
The hardest part of the course was the big final essay on how slavery had impacted America. While I had tried hard to stay caught up on the reading when I sat down to start writing I didn’t feel confident on what I was even trying to say. However, I have a strict no Cs policy and I intended to keep it. I consulted the internet only to find that the only information available was extremely basic and I knew that was not good enough for my difficult professor.
For a while I stumbled along trying to understand the textbook and the extra material provided. I began to piece together a rough draft, but still felt the essay lacked a central focus. The essay felt jumbled, like nothing connected. I decided the best thing to do was to show my professor the rough draft and ask for help. My professor was glad to offer advice. I took everything he said to heart and made the necessary revisions. I can’t remember how I did on that paper, but I passed the course with a solid B.
I learned many things from that class, but the most important was that there are so many resources to be utilized for information. If you need it, help is available from so many different sources. In fact, the professors are often the ones providing resources and offering help. No one ever has to fail simply because the material is hard or the professor is tough. If you are brave enough to look for support you can find it.
This lesson has guided me throughout my college career. At the beginning of every course I always check the syllabus for office hours and other information on where to get tutoring. Whenever I find the material difficult to understand or hard to keep up with I don’t feel overwhelmed anymore. I know there are resources for me to use. I just have to find them.