Lessons Found in Life Detours by Benjamin

Lessons Found in Life Detours by Benjamin - July 2026 Scholarship Essay

As the mental fog of summer vacation descends, most high school students could not recall the specific date that ended the school year. However, any student that took an Advanced Placement course, could quickly respond when asked the day that test scores would be released– July 6.

This year I took my first Advanced Placement course, AP Modern World History, and it was the most challenging academic topic that I have undertaken. I have an interest in history topics and have excelled in previous courses in the content, but the rigor with which this course was taught and the expectation for applying critical thinking to the material taught was a new challenge. I began the year with the goal to not only complete this course with an “A,” but to also receive a “5” on the Advanced Placement test. I worked tirelessly toward this goal, literally. Each evening following cross country practice, I would spread my textbook and notebook across the kitchen table and work until I could no longer stay awake– sometimes actually falling asleep across the book and awakening hours later with creases of the pages seared into my cheek. I read, annotated , and then re-read my annotations. I took notes, highlighted and color-coded them, and then revised the notes. I took practice tests and watched online tutorials. I visited my teacher during his planning period with questions and organized study sessions with friends in the class. There was no strategy overlooked in working towards excelling in this course.

About two months into this endless routine, my path to academic success took an unexpected and sharp detour. I awoke on a Saturday morning with a sore throat. Within a couple of hours, it had swollen to the point of compromising my breathing and I had to go to the hospital emergency room. I was diagnosed with mononucleosis and prescribed simply, rest. This was not a hard prescription to follow because I was exhausted even after I could return to school. It took over a month to feel completely healthy and have the energy to return to normal activities like cross country, and pouring back into my academic goals. With this experience came a new discovery though– the importance of managing time effectively and not simply studying endlessly. I reevaluated my approach to AP World History and with this unexpected pause was able to understand that the critical thinking skills required for this course were not achieved by intaking volumes of information, but by using the knowledge I acquired to make connections and support my own arguments on the topics we were discussing. In terms of simple math, I began spending less time “studying” and more effectively using that time for more meaningful “learning.” This was a hard adjustment because my instinct was that success could only be achieved through working harder, working longer. However, both my grade in the course and my overall well-being increased as I shifted my critical thinking mindset to focus on authentic ways of demonstrating my mastery of course concepts.