No Reservations

So I was cleaning out my email, and I came across this scholarship essay I wrote:

At your ten-year high school reunion, you look around the room seeing what your peers have made of themselves, and wondering if you were only friends with them because you had classes with them your whole life. You still somehow feel a pressure of competition as nervous questions dart through your mind.

            Are you as successful as everyone thought you would be? Did you accomplish all that you sought out to do? Did you accomplish your goals? With the help of this scholarship I hope to be able to answer these stinging questions in the affirmative. I want not only my high school peers, but everyone I meet to know that I did what I always said I would, and that I am successful doing what I love.

            I have wanted to be a cosmetologist since age 10. All of my life people have tried to discourage me, telling me in good faith that I could do better. I could be a doctor or a lawyer, and I would simply reply, “I wouldn’t be happy, and I wouldn’t be doing something that I loved.”

            Among goals of success, happiness, and prosperity my main goal in life is to be happy. I want to wake up every morning and be excited to go to work. Being in school for almost a year now I know that I made the right choice in coming to cosmetology school. I love everything about this industry; the possibilities in cosmetology are limitless.

I can do whatever I want to do in this field. As of right now I want to work in a contemporary salon, and live the life I always thought I’d live. The feeling I get when someone walks away from my chair with their head held high and a huge smile on their face is worth more than words could possibly express. I love making people happy, and I love the personal satisfaction I gain from that.

            I am a business license yielding cosmetologist, just as I always told people I would be. I have accomplished at least half of my goal, which was to graduate with an AS in business. The second half is to graduate from cosmetology school. I am almost graduated, but as the graduation date speedily approaches I am wondering how in the world I will ever be able to afford to pay off the loans.

            Money is always an issue in the world today, and I would love the extra monetary help in accomplishing my goal of cosmetology. My parents work very hard to make a life for themselves, but in today’s economy they are struggling, and simply cannot support me through my schooling. All through business school I made it without having to take out any loans. It was an amazing feeling to be able to pay cash up front each semester, as good as that felt, my savings account is depleted, and I am living paycheck to paycheck working part time every day after school which I do full time.

            As the days go on I cannot help but think how much debt I am accumulating. As much as I work it never seems to be enough. I feel at this rate I will never be able to pay off my debt for school. With the help of this scholarship I hope to be able to take out a chunk of my loan, and be able to make bigger payments when I start working to get out of debt as quickly as possible. Thank you so much for taking the time to read this essay. I hope I will be highly considered for this scholarship.