I am a scholarship student.

I am so honored to be able to be privileged with the financial necessities required for college. I was not the valedictorian, the salutatorian, or even in the top ten percent of my class. My grades were average at best.

I don’t know how I was selected for the scholarships and grants that I was gifted, but I am able to attend my university free of charge and I am so, so grateful for that.

Sometimes I forget how truly blessed I am as I get wrapped up in the stress of it all. The only negative side to a scholarship is the stress that accompanies it.

For most scholarships, you need to keep between a 3.0 and a 3.5 grade point average. Looking at the requirements going when moving from standard public education to higher level thinking you think it won’t be all that difficult.

False. It’s definitely a big transition going from standard public education to higher levels of learning, especially while you are also trying to learn how to live on your own and take responsibility for your own actions. I don’t know about you, but every time I go into a test I have a freakout and think, “If I don’t pass this test, I am losing my scholarships.” That is a heavy load.

For some reason, everyone thinks that if you are on full scholarship, then you must be Einstein. I assure you that is not the case. I am by no means above average in terms of intelligence. I literally don’t even know basic geography, so when I am told that every move I make is crucial and potentially detrimental to my GPA, and therefore my scholarships, I feel a lot of pressure.

Look, no one has their lives together in college anyway. We are all just pretending so we will intimidate the others into thinking we know what is up from down. Everyone thinks they are going to fail, but in reality, it doesn’t happen very often.

Though the stress of it all can consume you, it is important to remember what you can do and why you got those scholarships in the first place. No, maybe you aren’t Einstein, but you have the motivation and dedication to do the best you can with the circumstances you are given, and that is what is going to take you far in life.