Pick up the pace by Austin

Pick up the pace by Austin - July 2025 Scholarship Essay

One piece of advice I would give to my past self, is to always hold yourself accountable and do the work that needs to get done before anything else. Because I made that mistake, and the people who were holding me accountable realized this, shortly before they all stopped hounding me about any and all things I wasn't getting done. I learned the hard way that the only reliable person who can hold you accountable, is you.

Sometimes it can be hard to hold yourself to the same standards everyone else does. You can get lost in what you want to do and lose track of the things you are supposed to be doing. This happened to me, and when it did, it wasn't nice. We are our own best motivators, but also our own worst enemies, it might be easier to push everything off and leave it to your future self to deal with it. But as that future self, I would highly advise against doing that, because it makes the future person's life a lot more difficult.

So if given the chance to go back and fix my mistakes, I totally would. And if I was given the chance to give my past self a piece of advice. It would be to stop pushing things off for your future self to worry about, and hold yourself accountable, because when everyone else stops, at least you'll be there to do it.