"Impossible" is IMPOSSIBLE by Sophia

"Impossible" is IMPOSSIBLE by Sophia - July 2025 Scholarship Essay

“Something you claim is impossible is impossible, if you give it your all.” That is one of the most important pieces of advice I would give to my past self. During my middle school years from 7th to 8th grade, my academic grades were always suppressed to be the salutatorian of my class. Hours of studying each night, pushing through moments of drowsiness, soon became a dread to me, and I finally gave in to living in comfort, the comfort of lying beneath the magnificent wings of the prodigy. After that, the relief was so overwhelmingly calming that I began feeding myself with an excuse - he is supposed to be better because he is a prodigy, whereas I am just a regular girl, and that it is taken for granted that I am no match for him, for my humiliating laziness. Near the end of the school year, during graduation practice, I learned that I was, unsurprisingly, the salutatorian. I knew it was too late to change anything now, and that it is hilarious to say that I felt sorry for myself. It was during this time of struggle that I learned about the idea of “growth mindset,” which inspired me. From one of the TED Talk videos, Carol Dweck talks about the concept that people with the mindset that failures will become lessons and turn into strengths and future power are more likely to learn and grow from those mistakes. From that moment onward, I began trying to incorporate this mindset and change my perspective about this defeat as a lesson for me to learn and never repeat the same mistake.

Upon learning this, I decided to reset everything, both physical and mental goals, starting in high school. To set off the new journey, I need to first step out of my comfort zone, which I determined that learning a completely new and unknown sport, volleyball, would do. However, the adversity was much more than I expected. I would be coming home each day after 4 hours of practice, both corporeally and psychologically worn out, with bruises all over my body and the mentality that I was the worst player on the court. Yet, I continued the tryouts for the team, but in the end, I was again struck with the concept that I was not good enough. The start of the new journey soon failed. But I refused to tell myself “no, I can not do it” ever again after the incident of the first failure in my middle school years, without even persistence in practicing and determination that I would succeed.

I continued my sports journey by practicing extra hours each night in my bedroom and outdoors against my house walls and holding onto an unwavering belief that I would succeed as long as I was willing to keep trying. Indeed, the next summer during the tryout, my efforts paid off as I successfully made it into the junior varsity team. That marked the first success of my journey into the development of a “growth” mindset.

The same obstacle that I came across in middle school, once again, appeared in my path during the start of my sophomore year. Once again, the pressure from a prodigy messed with my mind, of how they would always ace the test, whereas I would be struggling despite the hard work I put in. However, this time, I refused to give in to this mindset. I started working extra hard in studying, searching up videos of effective learning tips, and keeping my mind focused. I began to see results as my grade became more consistent, and eventually, they kept up above the high A’s range. However, I was not satisfied. I wanted to keep on climbing, climbing, and climbing until I surpassed all those that once surpassed me - the prodigies, the fixed mindset, and most importantly, the unwillingness to give effort. I started to max out the limits of advanced classes and honors classes that I could be able to take in my school. I applied for school clubs and external programs, such as Science Olympiad and Root2Success, to help me achieve a higher level in my conceptual knowledge. I have started to grasp the edges of the true meaning behind the growth mindset.

Yet, even now, moments of despair still come back in times of stress and pressure, but during these periods, I would revisit the growth mindset and encourage myself to hold onto that perspective, the idea to keep striving no matter where others are, in comparison to your own results. This mindset really taught me the ambition to keep endeavoring, opening up a lot of new opportunities and playing a significant role in the development of a completely new me. Now, whenever I am to come across an obstacle upon my journey, I would once again remind myself that “nothing is truly impossible if I were to give it my all.” I have learned and absorbed all that is within the power of those words that “impossible” is impossible.