A Something I Overcame

I’ve come to understand the importance of being a hardworking individual who is willing to take chances in order to accomplish their goals and I’ve found that these are the most important characteristics that characterize a good person. One of the most difficult obstacles I overcame was writing my final thesis, which was based on a French article. After stumbling several times and giving up on writing the article, I defied all odds and managed to push my personal boundaries to write one of the best assignments of my college education. I remember vividly that the incident occurred during the fourth year of studying, which was my last year in the university. To begin with, it was mandatory that each student came up with a final essay of their own, and this time the task was to compose an essay for the nineteenth century French literature class. I, however, never considered it a huge challenge as such because I had got used to writing French literature papers, and this one also presented a similar case that I had previously. The French literature inherently is all about philosophy, and while some of the students found it a difficulty covering philosophy, for me, it was one of the best subjects since I enjoyed literature and reading content that involved critical thinking and reasoning beyond the contemporary world.

As the students were at liberty to choose the part of French literature that they were confident in writing about, I decided to focus my work on comparing two post-revolutionary books that we had read in class. I selected Pauline by Geore Sand, and Adolphe by Benjamin Constant as I enjoyed reading the stories after I realized that they inspire me to think objectively and improved my critical thinking skills. I had high expectations of my ability to come up with the best essay in class because among all other students, I would have the easiest path because I was very conversant with the books that I intended to include in my final essay paper on the French class. However, despite my high hopes, I began to feel the lack of motivation even though I had great expectations initially.

I started feeling extremely lazy and unable to execute a simple task that involved doing what I used to enjoy previously. I realized that the essay was becoming a daunting task in my life since I could not figure out how I would start writing it and even how much time I would need to dedicate to achieve my goals. I was, however, aware of all that was happening at the time but, interestingly, I found that I was less influential in guiding my life and in making tough decisions. I began to grow restless because I was still physically and psychologically weak to begin the essay yet the deadline was fast approaching. It was clear that I had to do something as fast as possible because the time for assignment was almost due. I started realizing that I almost failed, and the hope that I had nurtured before was rapidly fading, therefore, I could not comprehend how I would work at that time. Worst of all, to further complicate my situation of lacking the enthusiasm to write the essay, I understood that even if I decided to make up the essay and overcome my challenges, I would still end up being slow, and the time that was left would be insufficient to complete the paper.

After thorough soul searching and analysis of my life, my accomplishments, my dreams, and everything else I had appreciated and dreamt of attaining, I decided that one essay would not be a setback. I came up with the idea of trying out a new aspect of my life because I knew that it was what I needed in such a situation given that I had tried all ways and still continued to fail. I chose bravery and risk that seemed to be the best solution I came up with at the time given the fact that I was facing an obstacle that appeared to be winning in my life (unclear, rewrite). I reconciled my passion and the past triumphs and decided that I would use the past to justify my dedication to succeed in the present hurdle. I decided that I would dedicate the rest of the remaining time to completing the paper regardless of how much time I had wasted in coming up with the idea.

For three full days and one night in a row, I concluded covering the essay and compiled the final term paper. I realized that it was simpler than I thought initially since I never felt any challenges in combining my ideas into a coherent paper. I made so much effort, therefore, I even do not recall anything else that was happening in my life except the essay. The philosophical concepts appeared to be free flowing, being motivated by the fact that I enjoyed the subject more. Within a short period of time, the essay was done and I was thinking of how to complete it in the most appropriate way. I remember smiling at myself when I was writing the final paragraph of the assignment because it never occurred contrary to my expectations, I would have such a simple way of overcoming a challenge that was proving to be a huge threat in my life. I submitted my assignment joyously knowing that I had given all that I had to offer for the assignment despite the odds I had about it initially.

I was much more focused on improving the previous grade that I had got in my past essay. Furthermore, I was hopeful that the paper would be among the few I had managed to get an excellent grade. I also thought that considering how much I had dedicated to the paper and the time I had wasted despite my late heroic intervention the most appropriate grade would be 82%. However, I did not pay all my attention on the grade because I knew that regardless of the mark I got, I had already put all my efforts in the paper, and it was upon the examiner to decide on my fate. However, one month later, when the professor gave back the essays, I was reluctant to get mine since I always believed that I would score in the range of 82%. I unwillingly took the piece of paper and look through the last page. Surprisingly, I had hit and surpassed my target as I had managed to get 92%. I was extremely happy with the result because I knew how much time I had wasted and had lost hope in getting a good grade for the paper.

Nonetheless, I was able to draw in the positives and learned about the origin of my success considering how much I had lost before writing the paper. As I loved critical thinking and philosophy, I used the concepts to assess the origin of my success given the setbacks I was facing before I started the essay. I realized that I undertook the risk to try out something entirely new by introducing bravery in my academics. It had not occurred to me that I would have to fight with myself one day to succeed. I discovered that no matter how much we have wasted, it is still possible to make up for the lost time and excel in what we have engaged ourselves. I understood that how much we fail should not be the core factor, but instead, we ought to focus on the potential we have. Overall, I realized that dedication, hard work, bravery, risk-taking and extreme motivation are what everyone needs to overcome any challenges.