From the desk of Jessica Mize, ACE Coordinator:

As we enter into a several week stretch of school work before we head into spring break and SPARC week, I wanted to share with you a personal story and practical application surrounding these two words. Before I do that, however, I would like to give a breakdown of the rest of this second semester.

For those of you new to Brook Hill, the second semester on paper seems to have a bit more time than the first semester, and if you count days, it does. However, the spring semester seems to go by much quicker than the first when you take into account the athletic competitions, spring musical, academic meets, and fine arts performances. Then there is spring break, our amazing SPARC week, and Easter. Over the last two weeks I have helped students pay particular attention to the calendar and emphasized the value of time. While the first grade check, on paper, is over a month away (March 22), there is less time than what appears. Prior to the grade check is spring break and SPARC, so it is of upmost importance for students to be on top of their assignments during this next few week stretch.

Growing up my mom and dad instilled an important emphasis on hard work. They never demanded perfection but always improvement and excellence. Their requirement was that my sister and I work hard, work excellent, and strive for improvement. In fact, my dad still reminds me that practice does not make perfect, but it does promise improvement when done with excellence and focused attention. As I went through life as a student, a college athlete, and now as an employee and a parent, I have seen many examples of the importance and relevance of hard work.

As a sophomore in high school I attended a Baylor softball camp. Their version of work hard was that each person make a commitment to get 1% better at something each day. As a college athlete at Seton Hall when my team would break our huddle before the beginning of another inning, we would break to the words “work hard.” As an underdog my freshman and sophomore year of college to the impressive and dominate softball program of Notre Dame, our team made a commitment to outwork our competition. We worked hard to be better than ourselves, each other, and ultimately, Notre Dame. And to finish the story, we came out on top, beating Notre Dame 4 times in one week to win the Big East Championship and advance to the college world series. It all started with a focused meaning behind “work hard.” In that moment, “work hard” meant and started with doing whatever it took to get better as individual players. And, as a side note, it carried over into our performance in class as well because, during my time at Seton Hall, we were consistently in the top 5 among Division-I schools for team GPA and the number of players that qualified as Academic All Americans. Hard work is contagious.

As a parent, there are 5 words I say to my children each morning when I drop them off at school: “I love you. Work hard.” I help them know and understand what hard work should look like in their day. I encourage them to pay focused attention to working hard, working excellent, and to remember that perfection is not the goal, rather improvement.

As we enter into this stretch before spring break and SPARC week, I implore, challenge and encourage our students to work hard. Find an area of your life to pay special, focused attention to. Find something to be 1% better at. Make up your mind each morning to be excellent and work hard. Hard work is contagious and rewarding. Hard work does not guarantee perfection, but it promises improvement.