How I Overcame Adversity

What Does it Mean to Overcome Adversity

In my opinion, overcoming adversity means being faced with a problem or challenge and having the strength to successfully handle it. Adversities can come in many different forms such as job stress, school stress, car trouble, family stress, and many other issues. For this post, I will be talking about adversity in an academic sense.

Background

During my four years of high school, l I always knew that I wanted to graduate with an academic honors diploma. An academic honors diploma was a step higher than a regular diploma. This diploma meant that not only did you graduate high school but you graduated at an advanced level. This diploma meant that you took a lot of honors courses and excelled academically. To graduate with academic honors, you have to fulfill specific requirements. These requirements included things like taking a certain amount of honors classes, maintaining a high GPA, having a good attendance record, etc.

So, I spent all of my four years of high school aiming for that academic honors diploma. School was always naturally easy for me so when senior year came I knew that I had worked hard enough to earn that diploma. However, during my second semester of senior year, that diploma didn’t look so promising. Not only did the academic diploma require you to maintain a high GPA, but you also had to pass every class with at least a C. This was a simple task until I had to take trigonometry.

The Situation

Trigonometry was the hardest class that I had ever taken as a high schooler. I was typically good at math but trigonometry was far from my strongest course. I just could not understand any of the material. It got to the point where I stopped doing the homework because I couldn’t figure out how to do it. After failing so many quizzes, and missing a few homework assignments my trigonometry grade was in trouble. With only a month left in the semester, my trigonometry grade was a D. This meant that I only had so much time to bring my grade up to at least a C. I had worked so hard all throughout high school for that academic honors diploma but this one class would determine whether or not I received it.

How I Overcame the Situation

Within the last month of the semester, I worked really hard to improve my grade. I started staying after school and going over the lessons one on one with the teacher. I also signed up for tutoring sessions during the week. I was glad to see that my work seemed to be paying off. My grade went up to a C and all that was left was the final exam. I studied for the final every day for a week. Then to my surprise, I passed the final and received a pretty decent grade. This class seemed like it was going to be nearly impossible to pass and part of me was starting to just accept the fact that I wouldn't be getting the academic honors diploma. However, after putting in all my effort toward my goal I passed the class and received the honors diploma. Overall, I learned that it is important to not give up when you are faced with adversity. Obstacles can be difficult to deal with but that just means that you may have to work a little harder.