Life Starts at College by Nyerovwo

Life Starts at College by Nyerovwo - October 2024 Scholarship Essay

When one thinks of school, some words that immediately come to mind may include learning, homework and stress; That definition does not change much once you get into college, what does change though, is the fact that you are able to choose. Choose to be committed, choose not to be late, choose to keep up with deadlines. Absolutely everything becomes a matter of choice. Granted, the foundational ability to make these choices should be acquired in high school, thankfully, college gives extra time to learn the skill, with distractions that will make or break students and make doing the right thing at the right time even harder. If students make it through all those hurdles though, they come out stronger than ever before. Having seen most of what the world will throw your way to distract you, coming in all shapes, forms and sizes, there will be little to nothing that will be able to phase students from making commitments.
Those words that you associate with school are the trials that build you up, test your grit to persevere. In my sophomore year, I enrolled in dual credit classes with a community college affiliated with my school. Granted, this was not an actual university, but the amount of le-way that I had compared to a regular highschooler was unbelievable. There were many times where distractions came, and I would easily succumb to them and forget all about the work that I had to do. Close to the end of the class, I was almost guaranteed to fail until I read a book called "Eat That Frog". This book, as the name suggests, talks about how to avoid distractions and get to "eating" the frog as soon as possible because there is a spoon of sugar that is coming immediately after. This along with my experience, taught me to not procrastinate and realize that to do things to the best of my ability, I needed to start doing them as soon as possible.
In college, effective communication skills are fostered through many kinds of academic and social relationships. Students participate in group projects, debates, and discussions in the classroom, all of which call on the ability to express ideas clearly and listen attentively to others. Writing assignments, like essays and research papers, help students become better writers by teaching them how to communicate difficult ideas clearly. Moreover, giving presentations and participating in public speaking events helps students develop their verbal abilities and confidence, which helps them communicate well in front of an audience.
Colleges can also be a great place to build a student’s networking skills and form long lasting social relationships. Through clubs, school events, and even casual outings, college campuses are a great place to form connections with many kinds of people; These connections could turn into strong and long-lasting friendships. The people that students engage with and even other students, opens doors for endless connections and opportunities that would be valuable to these students as they are still trying to figure out life.
Passion is something that some people spend their whole lives trying to discover. In college, there are a plethora of choices in degree plans that branch out to even more professions and areas of expertise to choose from. Finding your passion is made easier in college because students are exposed to more options than they could have possibly imagined and more options than they were exposed to in high school alone.
College is a place where students can learn and grow in so many ways. Just these few mentioned are some of the most important skills that functional individuals in our society have at their disposal. College builds success stories and people that will grow to be self-sustaining, people who will grow to think, and people who will grow to be independent and make the right choices. If that isn’t a good reason to go and get a degree, I don’t know what is.