Successful High School Student Essay

Many of my peers ask what has made me a successful high school student. Within the last four years, I took fifteen Honors-level courses and seventeen AP courses. I also won awards in academic, musical and volunteer areas, and maintained a GPA high enough to be junior marshal and a possible valedictorian or salutatorian. However, such a student was not formed solely from my merit or my natural ability. In fact, much of this I owe to factors beyond my control. The most important of these factors are my parents’ immigration, my mother’s cancer diagnosis, my family’s values, and my responses to these events.

When I was two years old, my parents decided to immigrate to the U.S, which gave me an

American identity and American values of freedom and

My earliest memories are of my parents building this foundation of family prosperity and my strong work ethic. They also read books to me and encouraged me to study with positive reinforcement. With only pleasant memories associated with books and studying, I was set to enjoy school. Another factor that impacted me was my mother’s diagnosis with stage 2 breast cancer. I was not a diligent diary writer at that time, so I forgot most of the experiences except a blur of recurring images: hospital waiting rooms, the Lord of the Rings books I used to occupy my waits, sandwich meals, my bedridden mom, my mom’s wigs. I still have not fully organized my thoughts and feelings of that time, but I guess I did not fully grasp the situation since I was only 10 years old. I found no reason to pity myself even though I was living on only sandwiches because I believed my mother’s treatment would be effective and I had schoolwork to focus on. I’m not an optimist, but I am also not the type to fall into despondency. However, I took this time to learn about the importance of family unity. My family life fell apart outwardly, but the bonds between us grew