Scholarship Plug Essay Corner: August Reflection

August is summer’s last big hurrah! For many, it’s a quickly passing time of sun-filled days, vacations, cookouts and pool parties. Visits with family and friends mark good times we hate to see end. Ads herald back-to-school sales and a welcome-to-a-new-school letter comes in the mail. While the politically minded plan for elections, and young and old envision what awaits them come September, many look forward to fall, relief from the heat, and the exuberance of festivities that usher in another change of season.

In many states, there may be brief passing showers and prayers that another hurricane season passes quickly, graciously leaving most of us unscathed. Regardless of the fortune we may have or lack, let us face what lies ahead with gratitude, always best when enhanced by acceptance. We hope to be prepared and ready to face a new school year, or perhaps a change in job or school or residence. We may need to adapt, set or modify goals, and show resilience even when hardships seem unavoidable or imminent. In the words of a song by Howard Jones (1985), “We’re not scared…future dreams we have to realize, a thousand skeptic hands won’t keep us from the things we plan…I won’t stop and falter, for things can only get better.”

Enjoy the rest of your summer. We at the Scholarship Plug look forward to seeing you in those last days of August, and then together we will anticipate, as Jones’s song title emphasizes, when we put our hearts into a good life, “Things can only get better.”

See you next read! 📖

 ~Dr. Lesley Scharf

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