Over the course of this semester, I have developed my mindset about my future a lot. Coming into college I did not expect it to be much harder than high school since I took many accelerated classes and did well. I expected to be able to continue with the study habits I developed in high school an do just as well. I learned that I was very wrong. To be able to excel in college I have had to change how I look at my assignments and my future. Making it to medical school and to become a doctor is a long, slow process throughout which I will need to give my best effort nearly every day.

The way I look at school and how I learn is the biggest part of my mindset that has changed. I have learned to be much more open minded to experiences that will benefit my future and I have developed a lot of discipline in a few short months by forcing myself to just sit down and do what I have to do to be read for whatever exam or quiz is coming which is a skill I’m going to have to use for a long time. I have learned that in college and in the real world there are no excuses, and to be successful I will have to just shut up and do what I have to do. Resilience is so important and I will have to be able to take bad test scores, move on, and do better the next time.

An important event that I think taught me a lot about discipline and making a goal and sticking to it was training for the Cap City Half Marathon last year. I began thinking I wanted to run a half marathon at the end of my high school cross country season when I realized how much I enjoyed running and how much progress I’d made in the last year. My mom and I decided to sign up for a half marathon together in the spring and we made a plan to train together and run it together.

Once my senior winter track season started though, I was hit with a knee injury that took me out of running for a few months. It really slowed down my training for the half marathon and took me out of the winter track season. I trained hard through the injury however and worked on getting better so I could rejoin my team for the spring track season and run the half marathon after.

As I got closer to the date of the half marathon I realized my knee would likely not be healed in time to run the whole thing. I was going on 6, 7, 8 mile runs and still experiencing pain. I cut down my milage to only a few miles a day to not over work my knee but still try to keep up with the training. I got more and more nervous as the date came. The week of the half I began to panic and I went out on an 8 mile run just to prove to myself that I still could. I was surprised when I felt no paint the whole time.

When the race came, I went out with my mom and felt good for almost 9 miles. Then I felt that familiar pain in my knee and I knew what was coming. I ended up running the last 4 miles with my knee aching but there was no way I was going to stop. I’d worked hard to try to get better and fix my knee and there was no way I was about to give up.

Training for this half taught me so much about how to persevere even when you can’t see the end of your struggles. I had no idea if and when my knee was going to get better and it only worried me more as the half marathon came closer. I learned how to stick with my goals in the face of adversity or outside factors you have no control over. I know this will be very important for me in the future.

The path to become a doctor is a long, hard one. Many students say that you just keep working and working and you have no idea when you’re going to stop and take a rest or when all your hard work is finally going to be recognized. Working hard for this half marathon taught me how to do that and I will absolutely take those skills with me into the future.