Grit In High School Essay

For Anyone Who Feels Different
Do you feel different then everyone else? Grit: firmness of mind or spirit; Unyielding courage in the face of hardship or danger. Grit is not a trait you are genetically born with, but a trait you acquire from years of hard work and relentless dedication. Every person has their own individual method on how to pass High School, but High School is like a game and the more you play it, the better you become. There is an abundance of factors that can contribute to ones’ grit. I used perseverance, passion, and inner strength to help motivate me and push me to persevere through the wild jungle known as ‘high school’.
First, if you have ever knew anything about me, you know I never really was fond of sitting my anxious,

disobedient butt down at a desk for eight hours but developing perseverance aided me in finding friends I could suffer with. To start, advancing into high school still looking short and chubby like a jet-puffed marshmallow from my middle school days, was not exactly what they call a ‘brilliant idea’. To elaborate, as fresh meat in a new high school packed full of hungry ferocious seniors, finding friends became more of a mission then a simple task. To demonstrate, every day I walked through the abnormally wide hallways of South High School with my head down and my hood up, scanning for a weak link like myself to befriend. I introduced myself to different groups of people, sent online friend requests to fellow classmates, and even lied to try and fit in, and all because I desperately wanted friends.

Consequently, by the middle of freshman year,

the only friend I managed to find was the tall and slender lunch lady everyone called ‘Ms. Mole’ because of the mole she had on the bottom right corner of her crimson chin, but even then I and Ms. Mole did not engage in conversation frequently. Towards the end of the year I discovered perseverance; steadfastness in doing something despite difficulty or delay in achieving success. It opened up a portal to a whole new world for me. To sum up, after months of lonesome trips to the lunch room and awkward interactions between I and the lunch lady, the combination of perseverance and puberty assisted me in completing my dedicated mission to find friends.
Second, my passion to succeed in life awoke me from my dream world and upper-cut me in the face with reality.

For instance, because of my tendency to subconsciously slack off when it comes to school work, I failed the first three years of High School and found myself involuntarily placed in an alternative High School. Haysville High School, the school full of “bad asses”, people looking for a fresh start, and early graduates. I was discouraged and baffled on why I ended up here. As I scavenged anxiously through the archives of my brain looking for an answer, I followed every possible path and it led me back to the same eye opening answer. The problem was me. While attempting to locate what group I should converse with at lunch and what girl I should try and talk to next, I lost the path that I was traveling on and essentially forgot the entire purpose of school. My mind was in the gutter, but the alternative high school altered my mindset and allowed me to redeem myself. Consequently, eight months later I managed to catch up on the majority of my missing credits and preparing to graduate with the class of 2017, and all the work is credited to the burning passion I have to

succeed.
Finally, I owe whatever success comes my way to my family, friends, and loved ones who gave me the inner strength to persevere and conquer the struggling battle between High School and me. Specifically, there was a point where I had reached rock bottom and I was contemplating on throwing in the towel. It was towards the end of my junior year when I transferred into Haysville Alternative High School. When I first arrived at HHS, I only had 13 credits and all odds were against me. To graduate from HHS, 21 credits are required, so I was 8 credits shy, and that resulted in an overwhelming amount of school work. I felt like I was just running in place, until my family persuaded me otherwise. It was a rainy Friday night and my family occupied the living room like they usual, while I sat in the kitchen mentally drained from the ever growing pile of homework. I was about to pack up and hibernate in my room when my dad yells from the living room, “just keep swimming”. Ever since that day, those words constantly play in my head like a broken record player. Therefore, my loved ones gave me the strength and motivation to look High School dead in the eyes and say, “I am going to graduate”. As you can see, without inner strength, High School would have been a completely different ball game.
To conclude, perseverance, passion, and inner strength were the keys that unlocked the door to success in my High School career. Without my stubbornness, and hot headedness to never give up, having friends would have seemed like a copy and pasted fairy tale. Luckily, my passion to be something great in life allowed me to overcome my educational struggle, and unleashed my full academic potential. Also, I owe my individual success to my loved ones for giving me the inner strength to achieve greatness and set a standard for myself. “You just have to get through High School because high school sucks for anyone who’s the least bit different.” ~ George O’Malley