People’s lack of effort. It doesn’t always arise itself to be something important, but in reality, it really is.

I am a student athlete. My sport goes all year, with travel softball and high school softball overlapping. I am a member of the National Honors Society, French Honors Society, National English Honors Society and High School Scholars. I am also in Young Republicans club. I maintain a 3.8/4.0 GPA, along with being part of the top fifty of my class. I mentor two young students two times a week. I have softball every day, some days, I have two practices and/or workouts, and for travel, I drive an hour by myself during the school week to get there. I go to the gym and work out, I am also to maintain and keep my grades all A’s as they are, along with keeping up with chores. I am also running the softball boosters at my high school. I am currently working on being recruited to play collegiate softball. This year, I was also faced with an ongoing health issue, which at the beginning of my junior year, slowed me down tremendously, and I’m still and will always be facing this issue.

Last week, we had a huge chemistry exam, during the months of November and December, we had time to complete an assignment that was due the day of the exam, it was to help us prepare for the test, and it should have been easy points. The day before this packet was due, fifteen students asked me to give them the answers to my packet. The day after, an acquaintance of mine asked me to give him the answers to an eighty point test that he somehow snuck pictures of while a substitute was in, and he was taking the test on a different day due to absences.

I have a problem with all of this. I understand people are busy, I really do, but when I know that several of my fellow classmates go home each day and get to relax and do whatever they want, or the only thing on their agenda is homework, and then I am working my tail off and I still complete my work and they don’t, it is honestly ridiculous. There are nights I stay awake way later than I should, to complete assignments, or I get up early to complete them. It is one thing to ask for help on one or two problems, it’s so vital that classmates help one another, but, to ask someone to blatantly give them their work, is insane. High school is so important that we help one another get through, but, when a student works as hard as I do, to help them and get nothing in return is terrible. I work way too hard for someone to think it is okay to ask me to give them my hard work. I know some students participate in band, or sports, or clubs, but if you really look, not many participate in more than one or two extra-curricular activities. I also know some student’s home lives may not be that great, but each one of us has to find it within ourselves to get our work done, and figure it out, because when high school ends and some of us go to college, some into the forces, other straight to the work environment, each and every one of us is going to have to find it within ourselves to do our own work, and be on our own. No one is going to do it for us.

In seventeen years of my life, never have I asked someone to help me like that. I have never been given anything. I was raised to know that if I wanted something, such as good grades, or being a phenomenal athlete, it was up to me, and no one was going to hand me it, and everyone needs to realize that.