Paragraph for Scholarships

Over the course of my school years, I believe the biggest challenge for me was maintaining my grades. Most kids don’t really care that much about their school work and how a failing a certain class freshman year impacts the rest of your high school schedule. I’ll admit that there were plenty of times I didn’t want to complete any homework. I always said to just to the bare minimum and you’ll pass with a B. Whether it was my parents stressing the importance of good grades or my inner will preventing me from failing, anything below a B was unacceptable.

Freshman year was a breeze with A’s and a couple B’s. Sophomore year I surprisingly got all A’s. When junior year drew near, I knew my classes were going to increase in difficulty. I signed up for my first college class, Oral Communications. Speech class. I absolutely hated writing speeches and even more that I had to speak in front of an audience. That one class was like a punch in the gut. I realized that I actually had to make an effort. It may have been writer’s block or something else entirely, but I couldn’t get any ideas on what my speech was going to cover. Also meeting a specific time limit didn’t help the situation either. For the first time in my life, I felt helpless. All the other students in my class basically were masters at writing speeches after the first two. Then there was my speech, which sounded like a middle school student had gotten a hold of my paper. I spent hours writing out outlines and searching the Internet for speech writing help. I asked my teacher, took notes, and still nothing.

Then it hit me. I was looking over a few of my previous speeches when I came to the realization that my speeches didn’t sound like me. The wording in each one seemed forced in a way. That was not how I talked. See how I’m writing now? This is my natural mind at work and how I would normally speak. So I reevaluated my thinking and wrote exactly how I would normally respond to a topic. I noticed my grade started improving, which boosted my confidence in school. Outside of school and in life, I realized I needed to be myself. People really respect you when you show them the real you and give straightforward answers. Who would have thought writing six minute speeches about softball and art could teach you a lesson about being yourself?