Undergraduate / "GPA of 4.0; AP English" - Achieving My Academic Goal (personal quality, talent) [2]

Prompt: Tell us about a personal quality, talent, accomplishment, contribution or experience that is important to you. What about this quality or accomplishment makes you proud and how does it relate to the person you are.

My heart was beating as I saw a distinct white envelope that said, "To the Parents of Christy Huey." It was in my mom's hand and I couldn't help but wonder what my grades were. In the past, I've always felt pessimistic about my report card because in my mind, I kept thinking that I could have done better than what my grades show, but for this particular one, I felt confident and optimistic that I had done well. As I watched my mom slowly open the envelope, my mind was racing, thinking 'I worked so hard throughout the second semester, and if I didn't do well, my mind and body will shatter.' "

For the last six years of my academic life, from the start of sixth grade till the end eleventh grade, I've always hoped to get a 4.0 GPA, a reward of all the hard work. But in those last six years, the closest I've ever reached to getting a 4.0 was in the last semester of sixth grade, which I received a 3.8 GPA. At that moment in sixth grade, I felt that I would do well in my following academic years. And I did do well, but not well enough to receive that precious 4.0 GPA on my report card. In the past, I've received GPA's averaging a 3.5.

When junior year of high school came along, my mindset for the whole year was to do better what I'm capable of doing because junior year of high school is the most important year of my academic life, this is what's going to help me get into colleges and pave my way into the future. Though I only took one AP during my junior year, it was definitely a challenge that I took in order to show colleges that I feel confident in doing college level work. At times I felt regret during the year when I struggled in AP English and Pre-Calculus, but I felt confident that I could do it. This was my opportunity to show colleges that I could do it.

Taking AP English was definitely a wakeup call for me. Though I worked hard in all my classes, there comes a time when procrastination kicks in. Throughout the whole year, that one class was one where I had to do more than what I could do. Understanding American literature and writing essays was my weak point, but I took the challenge of the class, and I attempted to try my hardest in succeeding. Adjusting to the feeling of an AP class took some time, but I got used to the amount of work we get and the pace of the class. And though the results from my AP test didn't show the amount of work I put into the class, I felt that doing well in the class was my number one priority. There are many factors when taking the AP test, and I felt that one test couldn't show all my efforts in the class, only the class can show the effort.

So as my mom opened up the envelope, I prayed so hard that I passed English with at least a B-. When she opened up that small piece of paper, she smiled and showed me the paper. At that moment, my heart felt like it was going to just out of my chest from the joy. I did pass English with a B, a mark that I've waited for my whole life was on that sheet too. It showed that I had a weighted GPA of 4.0. This accomplishment is at the top of my list of accomplishments because I worked very hard and put in a lot of effort to get that GPA. Not only was I proud of myself, but I made my parents proud too.