What type of person are you? by Carolina

What type of person are you? by Carolina - August 2026 Scholarship Essay

What type of person were you? I’ll start by saying I was the type of person that hated to not workout, and pretty hardheaded about it. I was that way because as a kid I would be in many sports so working out just became a part of my daily routine without much effort. Even though it was a norm for me to workout I never saw it as a burden, I genuinely loved it. But, it wasn’t all sunshine and rainbows. Throughout the years I began to need to workout intensely, if I didn’t I felt like the workout didn’t count. I was hardheaded because even though I was told to take it easy or to listen to what my body needs, I never listened. Which was my downfall.

That injury made me rebuild myself against my own will. It was my enemy. I hated my shoulder for getting injured, I hated myself. I knew that taking it easy and giving myself the time to recover was what I needed but I didn’t listen, all I wanted was to go back to wrestling and working out. Which if you can guess was not the answer because it only prolonged my recovery. But when one doesn't like what they are being told they won’t listen, even if it's in their best interest; which is exacty what I did.

I finally listened to my mom and went to physical therapy. At first I was making good progress but it wasn’t because I was getting better. I noticed this when I tried to workout and my shoulder ended up hurting more. My physical therapist then suggested I get an MRI with contrast. With that she learned that my shoulder wasn’t better, my shoulder socket didn’t work properly, so my progress was solely due to me being strong and using surrounding muscles to make up for the lack of movement in my shoulder. That diagnosis made me start from zero which made me hate life because I thought I was finally getting better. We went through the whole process again this time though the beginning was even slower and my progress was slow. In total I spent a year going to physical therapy and two years with pain. That's how long it took me to recover only because I couldn’t just accept I was injured and needed to take my recovery seriously.

So fast forward a couple years, what type of person are you now? I’ll start, I am now the type of person to listen to her body and do what's best for it. Don’t get me wrong, it is still hard to give myself the time to recover or to give my body easy days, but I learned that life will find a way to slow you down if you don’t slow down yourself. And you can either get on board with life and reach the end quicker, or prolong your recovery by being hardheaded. You best believe now I get on board, even if at times I fall short.