As a martial artist, self-discipline and dedication are essential; I had to learn both in order to earn my blackbelt. However, as I’ve gotten older and become more advanced in my martial art, I learned that exhibiting these behaviors in my dojo alone are not enough. I had to display them in my everyday life, and a chance to live according to the lessons my sensei taught me came in my junior year of high school. My mind has always struggled with math and that portion of the ACT was incredibly difficult for me. The first two times I took the test, I scored a 20 and 19 on the math section. I knew that if I wanted to get the scholarships necessary to attend the universities I was looking at, I had to do better. My parents helped me to find a tutor. It was grueling work; 25 total hours of nothing but math. As someone who suffers after one period of math a day, attending the class, which was five hours every Saturday, was mentally and emotionally draining. There were some questions, especially ones that dealt with geometry, that I was certain I would never understand. In addition to the strenuous subject manner, the class fell at exactly the same time as my martial arts. I had to miss something I enjoyed, a kind of stress relief, for something that I hated every minute of. I realized, however, that I had to work the score I wanted. That meant sitting through the 25 hours of mathematics training and doing everything to the best of my ability. I am not accustomed to giving up easily and I forced myself to abandon my frustration and look at the ACT as simply another obstacle to overcome. Using the things that I learned in my dojo, I managed to raise my math score seven points and earn a 32 composite ACT score.
