The truth by Madusu

The truth by Madusu - August 2025 Scholarship Essay

According to the Meriam-Webster dictionary website, the noun aspiration has multiple meanings. One of which states it as “a strong desire to achieve something high or great.” As someone like me, who dreams of becoming one of the greats, I have way too many aspirations. However, when it comes to my last year of high school, my main aspiration is to be a risk taker. If you check my college list on my Notes app or my Common App, you’ll see a few names of schools that have less than a 20% acceptance rate like the University of Pennsylvania, Brown University, New York University, and Yale. Every year, these schools receive applications from students with outstanding grades, high profiles, and a strong understanding of who they are. Truthfully, as a senior, I don’t really know who I am yet, but I do know what I want and who I hope to become. I don’t have a 4.0, I haven’t even taken the SATs or ACTs like most have. But I still want to be one of the greats that took a risk. I want those acceptance letters, even if that means getting straight A’s in my four AP classes that I signed myself up to take in an attempt to challenge my mind, or chasing a near perfect SAT score. I’m willing to risk my sense of sanity. However, there’s one thing that I will never give up; That being my senior year. I have 6 months left with my friends who I’m probably never going to see again. I have 6 months left of these moments and laughs with my friends since elementary school. After these 6 months, my chances of being in the same room with them is even lower than my dream schools’ acceptance rates. I can get accepted to the best schools in the nation, but despite it all, the feeling of seeing a “Congratulations! You are invited to join the class of 2030 at….” on my screen will never replace the feeling of being around my favorite people in the world. So, if I’m being honest, out of all the aspirations for this school year that I have, my REAL one is to make every moment a tear of laughter, so that when it’s time to say our goodbyes and go our separate ways, there won’t be any regrets.