The Way She Saw Me by Alejandra

The Way She Saw Me by Alejandra - August 2026 Scholarship Essay

During my junior year of high school, I went through a period where I was not the student I knew I could be. Personal issues made it difficult for me to attend school consistently, and once I started falling behind, it became harder and harder to catch up. What affected me most was not only the grades or missing work, but the embarrassment I carried with me. I started to feel ashamed walking into classrooms because I assumed my teachers were disappointed in me.

One teacher, however, never treated me that way.

Throughout the year, no matter how often I had been absent or how behind I became, she was patient with me. She would remind me that she knew I could do it and that I just needed to sit down, focus, and do my work. She did not ignore the fact I was struggling, but she also never made me feel like my struggles were all that I was.

I do not think I fully understood how much that mattered until the first day of my senior year.

I was walking into my new classroom, still nervous about starting my senior year, when I heard her voice from the room next door: "Hi, sweetheart!" Then, while talking to the teachers around her, she described me as a hardworking student and a sweetheart.

It was such a small moment, but I remember feeling almost confused hearing her describe me that way, because it was so different from how I'd been describing myself in my own head.

For almost an entire year, I had been looking at myself through everything I had done wrong. I saw the absences, the assignments I had fallen behind on, and all the times I knew I could have done better. I assumed my teachers saw me the same way. Hearing her speak about me so highly made me realize that maybe I had been judging myself much more harshly than the people around me were.

She had seen me during my hardest year in school, yet she still saw qualities in my that I had started to forget were even there.

That moment changed the way I think about feedback. Before then,I thought feedback was mostly about someone pointing out what you needed to fix. My teacher showed me that feedback can also remind you of what is already good in you. She never told me that my choices didn't matter or acted as if I had done everything right. She still expected more from me. The difference was that she made me feel like I was capable of reaching those expectations.

After that, I started looking at school differently. I stopped seeing teachers as people waiting for me to mess up and started realizing that many of them genuinely wanted me to succeed. I became less afraid to walk into class after falling behind and more willing to ask for help instead of avoiding the situation. I also started trying to not let one bad day become an excuse for another.

I am still learning how to be more consistent and responsible, but I approach school with a different mindset now. I try to show up determined to do better than I did the day before. When I make a mistake, I remind myself that it does not have to decide what happens next.

My teacher also changed the way I look at other people. I know what it feels like to worry your mistakes are the only things anyone notices. Because of that, I try to remember that someone can be struggling and still be hardworking, kind, capable, and worthy of being believed in.

My teacher saw those things in me when I had stopped seeing them in myself.

Now, I am doing my best to prove her right!