For the first time in my education career, I find myself in unfamiliar territory.
My classes are challenging me.
Throughout elementary, middle and high school I did not come across a class that I truly struggled with. Despite taking seven advanced placement classes during my time in high school, I never really felt challenged. I graduated third in my class with a 4.3 GPA.
I worked hard to get the grades, don’t get me wrong. I studied and did all my homework, but all of it just came easy to me. I guess I was blessed to have been a good student with a good work ethic.
Working hard in high school paid off when I came to college. I was rewarded in many ways. My assumption was that college would finally challenge me and I would have to work much harder than I did in high school. I was ready for that. In fact, I actually wanted that.
College came and, much to my disdain, everything was mostly the same. The workload was larger and the material was slightly more difficult, but I still did not feel truly challenged.
Until this semester.
I’ve never been an artistic person. I avoided art classes in school. I loved band and music, but in terms of actually drawing and creating art, I didn’t enjoy it and I certainly wasn’t good at it.
I knew coming into this semester I was going to struggle with my digital art class. For starters, I’m not the best with technology. I can learn quick and adapt, but technology and I are not the best of friends. On top of that, I have to use technology to create digital art. Combining these two weaknesses has been a struggle for me so far.
For the first time in my education career, I can truly say I am being challenged. To learn the use of Adobe’s products and how to create my own projects from scratch is difficult for me. The feeling of not being absolutely confident in my ability to ace every assignment and test is a new feeling for me.
And I love it.
I absolutely love it.
Not only am I learning new skills, but I am improving on things that I need to improve on. By conquering these challenges, I feel rewarded for my hard work. I enjoy the struggle, the challenge and the perseverance.
Growth only happens when you face and conquer adversity. At first, I wanted to run from the challenge, push the class off another semester. But I stuck with it, and I’m so glad I did. I still have half the semester to go, but I look forward to it.
Don’t run from adversity face it head on. There is no better feeling than persevering through a difficult time. I learned that lesson and it’s one I will never forget.