The search is on for those college scholarships

BY Spencer Massicot

“Some succeed because they are destined to, but most succeed because they are determined to.”

The future is a very scary place for anyone, especially for a teenager. A lot of teenagers, like me, will become worried and stressed out when thinking about what our goals are, what we want to do with our lives, and how we are going to pay for the expensive college we want to go to.

A way that thousands of teens have been able to make that trip to college is with scholarships.

Some people need to be very determined and know what they want to be able to create their future, and that may be very hard to do.

I know from personal experience that scholarships can be very frustrating and mentally taxing. I say mentally taxing because going through the same process over and over again with no result will soon get old, and it will be harder for our minds to keep going.

I have spent so much time applying for those “one minute to apply” scholarships and getting emails stating things like: “Your application is being reviewed, we will send you an email about your application status soon,” or “We will get back to you with a message when your application has been processed for information on the written essay.”

With no actual responses, those messages became so frustrating and annoying that I stopped applying for scholarships for awhile.

When summer began getting closer, my parents were on me about how I needed to start applying for some again. I searched through countless scholarship websites saying, “We will find the right scholarship for you,” getting the same kind of emails as before.

I again got annoyed with that response and wondered what other people, who are having so much success with scholarships, are doing that I am not.

I have heard endless stories of kids who had payed for college and more with just scholarships, and it really bothered me that I was not getting anything close to the results that those kids had, even though I was trying so hard.

In the middle of the summer, my parents had me watch a webinar about getting scholarships. The webinar was taught by a woman who had payed her own way through college with scholarships. I, who had not had any success, decided that it could not hurt to listen and see what I was missing.

One of the main points that I took away was that those scholarships offering quick applications or random drawings for money are not the right way to go. I need to put in a lot more effort if I wanted to be successful.

She told the class that we needed to apply for the essay scholarships – the ones that we would normally scroll by because they seemed harder and more time-consuming – even though they offered the same or a lesser amount of money than the easy application scholarships.

I realized that, with all of the people going for scholarships just like I am, so many people are constantly going for the easy scholarships, making the odds of getting them very very small. I needed to start writing those essays because with all of the other people like me out there, who are making the mistake of scrolling past the “difficult” ones, the odds of me starting to have success will majorly increase.

There are so many different kinds of scholarships out there that a lot of people do not actually go for. I heard a story about a Caucasian guy in my school a couple of years ago who got a scholarship for Asian-American girls because no one else applied. There are so many scholarships out there that are specifically for minorities, asking how life has been affected by being a part of that minority.

There are also scholarships out there that can fit our interests. We are able to write essays about things we are interested in or believe in, like creative writing, the arts, helping the environment, and so much more. Most of the scholarship essays that I have seen are either creative writing or something with an autobiographical connection.

I still have not received any achievement from scholarships, but after I get back into the swing of things at school, I will be back at it.

No matter what the scholarship is, it is something that we need to work very hard for. Getting frustrated by no success will only put us off track of where we are going.

Someone with the determination, discipline and drive to succeed will hopefully find success. The future is a very scary place, but with help from scholarships, grants and other forms of financial aid, we can succeed in creating our own futures.