How Bad I Was and How I Improved
Academic pursuits rank among the toughest yet most rewarding adventures you can decide to engage in. Excelling in your studies is a process that not only educates and improves you, but also changes your entire worldview as you grow and develop. In this essay I reflect on how much I have improved in my studies after a rocky start
The metamorphosis from a struggling student, who had to master my second language English, before achieving academic stability, has been quite an adventure. Initially, just being able to speak and write in English was a great challenge that required extraordinary effort on my part. Some of my early essays such as ‘My struggles as writer’ act as witnesses to a time when even constructing a sentence in English would result in a clumsy effort laced with unclear communication. An example of the opening paragraph “It has been a while since I wrote in English and still nothing haschanged: “Iam bad at writing”. Over and over on my mind: “English as asecond language and that’s why I will never improve”. It’s like a huge door and I am down there alone trying to open it. I have several weaknesses and the most overwhelmingis thinking less of myself like I can’t do it, it’s hard. “ Working hard is important, but there is something that matters even more: believing in yourself”said Harry Potter (Rowling).” shows some of the basic struggles I had with simple expression.
The inability to bring out what was in my mind at the time, due to the natural human attribute of thinking in one’s native language, made understanding subjects and expressing them back during tests, assignments and exam a herculean effort.