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In the beginning senior year, I was really stressed about deciding on a college, so I put everything off and didn’t think about college for a while. With the applications approaching, I frantically applied to schools and thought I would never get in. However, I worked hard on my applications and essays, changed my attitude and began to be more excited about my future, and I committed to my school today!

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I showed grit during my transition into high school. Throughout middle school I was always left out.  As I entered high school, I began opening myself up to new clubs and was able to find things that I was passionate about. While doing that I found my people amd didn’t give up on firming these friendships

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In 7th grade, I tried out for the volleyball team at my middle school, but I didn’t get in because there were a lot of other people who were better and I was inexperienced. But I practiced a little bit and I tried out again in 8th grade, and I got in, but I was only a bench player. I practiced a lot on my own and with my team outside of school and I got better, I started being able to serve the ball over the net and hit it, and my 8th grade volleyball team one 3rd place on our conference with a nearly undefeated record.

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For my first years of high school, I wasn’t very social. It was hard for me to make friends and it was also hard for me to keep my previous friends. I rarely spent time with them outside of school. I was too antisocial to tell them that I cared about them. I persevered through that and now I have so many more friends. I talk to them everyday and we hang out as much as we can outside of school. I am a lot happier and I had grit. I worked on myself and my relationships.

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When I used to do track during sectionals I fell a couple times on hurdles and got a concussion but I was determined to cross that line even though I was in so much pain and didn’t win.

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An example of a time I showed grit was when I was younger I went to baseball camp. After the first day I had a rough time as I still didn’t know the rules very well and wasn’t doing well during the practice. I showed grit by continuing to go for the remaining three days and I ended up having a lot of fun and getting slightly better plus learned how to play

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I was put into a math class that was way beyond my abilities. That was the class I’ve struggled most in in my entire life. I cried most nights because I couldn’t understand the material and I felt very stupid. I went in before class and after class as well as asking lots of questions during class. At the end of the day I did not get an A but I did get a B and I was proud of myself for putting in the most effort I could and still getting a B.

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Known for its competitive nature, academic rigor, and countless national awards, Adlai E. Stevenson High School is home to 5,000 students and tasks each with the impossible: standing out when excellence is all around you. My efforts to overcome such a challenge began early in a World History class. While I understood the content, completed all assignments, and actively listened during class, my test grades weren’t an accurate representation of my efforts as I got 20% on the first exam. Thankfully, I had a tremendous support system in my teacher as his approachability encouraged me to ask for additional help early on. This led to one-on-one meetings covering misunderstood content and previous assessments.  I would spend all of my free time studying, dedicate lunch periods to meetings with him, go early to the tutors and stay after school at the ILC. As the second exam grades were released, I noticed that my grade had doubled, confirming the benefits of our meetings and self-advocacy. Improvements continued as I ended with a B for the semester, something I never imagined to be possible. While on winter vacation I received an email from my teacher expressing his admiration of my resilience, work ethic, and tenacity. He then offered to raise my first semester grade if I earned an A second semester. This motivated me to continue my studious habits and meetings with him, ultimately earning me the A I deserved for both semesters. Through this I learned that challenges aren't a reason to give up, but a reason to fight that much harder. Experiences like this one helped create my greatest strengths that are the recipe to my success: Grit, perseverance, drive, passion, and dedication.

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During wrestling my freshman year I injured my wrist. I was determined to go to sectionals but I couldn’t practice as much because of my wrist so I stayed after practice to train more.

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I had a goal to become a better person by being more nice to others, although it was hard because of my own emotions making it challenging for me to be nice to mean people... I still persevered and reached my goal of becoming a nicer person all around.

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One time I had AP Physics. It was the hardest class I ever took and the homework was a whole hour a day. The content seemed impossible to understand. But multiple times a week, I studied with the teacher during study hall, and I stayed overtime to complete assignments. It was my most rigorous year of high school, but I did the homework, got help, powered through and got an A. I’m really motivated to get into a good college and get a good scholarship.

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I showed grit during my transition into high school. Throughout middle school I was extremely introverted and because I was still new to the area, I never made any super close friends. As I entered high school, I began opening myself up to new clubs and was able to find things that I was passionate about and focus on that.

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Last year during a poms competition, my friend and I messed up a lift in our first dance which left my arm completely numb from shoulder to finger tip for the rest of the day. After coming off stage I burst into tears because I thought that I had severely injured myself and I wouldn’t be able to compete for the rest of the year. But after visiting the trainer we knew that it was nothing very serious that would keel me from dancing. Even though my arm was completely numb and I could really move a feel a thing I continued to compete for my team. My coach and I worked together to adjust the dance so that I could be able to perform  without having to use my arm. We were successful because we ended up winning first place even though I was injured and we had changed the dance right before going on. This injury then affected going all the way to the end of the season. So I ended up having to go to physical therapy because after every time I performed my arm was left numb. The struggle with this injury was not the pain of numbness it was not being able to perform go the best of my ability and the weakness that I felt because of it. But I kept pushing through and kept dancing.

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A time where’d I had shown grit was when I had lost my dog freshman year, I had been woken up at 5:30 am by my dad saying that Jackson’s cancer had spread rapidly over night and we were going to have to put him down. I was so upset and devastated at the time but I also knew that it was for the best. I also knew that I had been extremely behind in my school work and if I had missed another day of school it would make things much worse and start a spiraling trend downwards. I knew I was going to have to deal with both of these issues at once, so I had decided to go to school after my dog was put down so I was able to make up and not fall behind anymore assessments that I had. Even if you lose something so close to you at a time, it doesn’t give you the okay to give up on the things that were your priority in the first place which is an example of how I had showed grit in that situation.