To Mrs. Deserae Good, by Madison

To Mrs. Deserae Good, by Madison - June 2021 Scholarship Essay

The summer before my freshman year of high school, my life was changed forever. I grew up in a small town in West Texas and that is all I knew, but my father's office decided to relocate him to the Dallas-Fort Worth area. I went into high school knowing absolutely no one and couldn't quite seem to fit in. It took me a little while, but I finally starting making friends and becoming close with great teachers. High school was like a long and terrifying roller coaster ride. It particularly isn't a time I like to look back on, but remembering some of the very few people like Mrs. Good make me realize that I learned many lessons.

我记得一个特定的情况,我不确定f she does, but it was the morning after I had torn my ACL in a high school soccer game. I was on crutches barely able to move through the school on my own. I was struggling down the hallway tears running down my face in so much pain, and she stopped me in the hallway. She stood in front of me like she was trying to save me the embarrassment of crying in front of everyone and had me take a deep breath and relax. It seems like such a small gesture, but I will never forget it. No matter what the situation was, she never failed to make me feel safe and loved. She never let me sit and wallow about how sorry of a person I thought I was. She never hesitated to build me up and she is one of the main reasons I am so strong now.

Graduating from Argyle High School was the end of our relationship. She became my mentor for a management class I took my second semester at Baylor University. We had multiple Zoom calls that lasted hours full of therapeutic and productive conversations. I have always struggled with severe anxiety and the mentality of being a people pleaser. Unlike most people, she didn't make me feel bad about how I was as a person. She knew how I was because she was the same way and explained that I only had a big heart and cared for people more than others. She taught me that, yes, it is okay to care for other people and want to take care of them, but there is a point in time where I need to ensure that I was okay myself, which I was slacking on.

Not a lot of people have understood my anxiety, people pleasing tendencies, and many other things like she has. I don't always have the healthiest relationship with my father and no matter what, she was always there to help me with my problems that my father couldn't understand himself. I am not the best with words, and this essay doesn't do her much justice, but she is a wonderful women that has had a significant impact on the person I am today.