The Non-Traditional Path

Each time was a desperate attempt to score higher because I needed a good score to get into a good college. I hoped my athleticism and extracurricular activities would give me an edge, but I still needed a respectable SAT score. It was the only way. But no matter how many times I took the test, my score barely limped forward. I was a horrible test-taker and just an okay student. In 9th grade my mom placed me in Honors classes - because my older brother and sister were in honors classes and breezed through them. I did not. After one week I had to drop all my classes except one - English. It was the only Honors class where I wasn’t looking around at everyone like, “Are you guys all following this?? Because I’m lost.” So I was bewildered when one of the schools I applied to invited me into their Honors Program. Mom had taken it upon herself to send the college essay I’d written to all the schools I applied to, regardless of whether they required an essay or not. Monmouth University did no

Each time was a desperate attempt to score higher because I needed a good score to get into a good college. I hoped my athleticism and extracurricular activities would give me an edge, but I still needed a respectable SAT score. It was the only way. But no matter how many times I took the test, my score barely limped forward. I was a horrible test-taker and just an okay student. In 9th grade my mom placed me in Honors classes - because my older brother and sister were in honors classes and breezed through them. I did not. After one week I had to drop all my classes except one - English. It was