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I get decent grades, but my poor study habits made success in AP Chemistry impossible. The only way I could graduate was to pass summer school, somewhere I never thought I’d be.
It was an early morning at the start of summer break, and I was trapped in a room full of tired teenagers. I sank low in my seat, embarrassed that when another student recognized me in the classroom earlier, he had joked, “What are you doing here? I thought you were smart.”
However, as the class progressed, I realized I had just under-applied myself in a challenging course. My teacher this summer was strict, but her lessons explained each unit concisely. Work seemed less daunting than it had during the school year. It wasn’t easy, but the four weeks passed and before I knew it, so had I.
I didn’t just learn chemistry, I learned that trying something over again is an opportunity, not an embarrassment. I can’t help making mistakes, but I can control how I handle their consequences. And there’s one other thing that this experience has taught me: I’m not interested in a chemistry major.