College Admissions Essay: A Place That Changed My Life

Initially after high school I decided to move across the country in order to find myself, my passions, and my career goals. I attended WW-P South in Princeton Junction where many of my friends chose TCNJ. I always loved TCNJ but I knew I wasn't academically ready to be part of the community just yet. I started at a private university in California which turned out to be an amazing experience but also a lesson learned that it was not for me. Everything was new and overwhelming and it was the first time being completely on my own. After completing my freshmen year, I moved to a community college to do better academically and work a little on the side. My passion for pursing a degree boosted during my second community college that I attended.

“You know Kwesi, I only came to this country with forty bucks in my pocket and the clothes on my back and look where I am today.” -- words from my father I thought to myself the first time I saw a rifle plummet down to my head.

People are always saying that it’s all about connections. Usually, this idea conjures up a mental picture of firm handshakes confidently protruding from starched business suits. But for me, the idea of making connections is more meaningful than that. Life is a series of intertwining ideas and people so intricate that thinking about it makes my head spin with potential. Really, we’re all just a series of unrelated things, connected in just the right way to create a unique person. The family members who raise us, the places that shelter us, the friends who shape us. It’s in our DNA, our roots, spiralling forward from the day we were born like a rollercoaster that only gets faster and more fun.

Of all of the people I have encountered in my life so far, my father is the one to leave the greatest impact. I remember my dad would always ask me “ do you want to be the boss or be bossed? ” These word are what drives me to work hard and try my best in everything that I do. Maybe it was the fact that I have seen him grow so much over the years that his words and actions have affected me so much today. Through these words and actions I have been able to think of what i want to do and where I want to be in life after I graduate high school.

I did not know my grandpa until I was sixteen years old, sitting in a dim hospital room staring at his massive hands. I studied their calloused tips, beefy palms, and oil stained nails. I knew what crimes those hands had committed. I knew they had beaten my grandmother, cheated her, and abandoned my mother’s family. What I didn’t know, is that those blundering, graceless hands would change the course of my life and guide me on my path to becoming who I am today. For a reason unknown, I would find myself at his bedside every day after school, watching him slowing recover from a stroke that caused extensive damage to part of his brain. Brushing his teeth, playing memory games, and observing his team of healthcare providers moved me to want to pursue a career doing the same thing; caring for others.

“Where did you come from?” is a question that many people commonly asked me. The reason why it is so commonly asked is because of the way I look. My parents are hispanics, and they came to the U.S. twenty years ago. When my parents barely got to the U.S., they were poor and they were always looking for jobs. My parents are hardworking people that do not want me and my brothers to be lazy and doing negative things in the community. They want us to create a better future for ourselves and our children, they always told me to “be better than them”, and that I should make better decisions, because they never had the opportunity to be able to get an education and that they could not afford classes because of their financial state in the foreign

My college application would be incomplete without me explaining how I got to where I am today. See there for awhile there was a pretty good chance I wasn’t going to graduate. I have a brain condition called Chiari Malformation, which means that I was born with my brain to low in my head and while I was growing it was slowly squeezing my brain. This caused me to have debilitating migraines that made me lose all control of my body. I couldn’t talk, couldn’t move, every muscle in my body tensed up as tight as they can be, and there was nothing I could do to communicate what was going on with me. For awhile doctors had no idea why it was happening just that we had to get it under control soon because the pain was so bad I would almost have a stroke. I still remember how scared I was every time because I never knew if this would be the end for me.

Education has not been an option for me, growing up in an African household. Many children would have been bothered by this request, however I took it upon myself to implement it in everyway that I could. That I thank my mother for. As a person who values education as a key to having a successful life, I also know that simply believing in yourself will lead to bigger and better moments. I was once told that “Highschool is like a door of opportunities. All that you do will lead to a door either opening or closing.” It stuck with me and I have since been thankful for it because it allowed me to see what and how I wanted to live my life, even at such a young age. Loving myself for who I am, and knowing that education is power kept me on track and intack to achieving fulfillment within myself. And in the moment I cut all of my hair off, my sophomore year in highschool, I knew that this one little change of my appearance would bring loads of realization to my life.

Surprisingly, I did not plan to be an engineer; it was my Dad’s last wish before he passes away. However, I started to love engineering when I worked on my third college year project for the blind. When my team mate and I were done with the project, which was a tactile computer screen for the blind displaying the text in Braille codes, I felt that this was my aha moment. Since then, I volunteered in various projects for the blind and worked for about a year in a company that develops applications for them in Arabic. Unfortunately, the care for the Arab blind is so minor and the governments marginalize them. They live in terrible conditions, isolated from the society, and even in their education, they are restricted

Essay 1 College has always been a priority in my life since I have graduated high school. In my college years, I have had many experiences throughout my life including, having opportunities to gain more skills and knowledge in my choice of career, Human Services Counseling. College also has broadened my understanding of different religions, world history, and psychology. The achievements I have received throughout Murray State College and East Central University have shown success in areas of academic and social involvement.

I have made it a point in my life to learn as much as I can through traveling the globe. From the age of one I have been traveling to Canada, but the boarder is only four hours away. At the age of fourteen I began to travel and experience other cultures. This complete changed my life. I went to OchoRios, Jamaica, with Project Timothy and volunteered at a children’s camp. I went not knowing anyone I would be with and it changed my life. Since then I have volunteered at two children’s Orphanage and feeding houses in Bluefields, Nicaragua. I have traveled to Bermuda with my family. Just last December I also stayed in the United Kingdom for a month on my own. In January of this year I went on a European Union trip, on this trip I went to London, Paris, Somme, Versailles, Berlin, Brussels, and Luxembourg. This was a four credit class about the European Union and politics. Traveling is something I love to do and my favorite way to learn about life, myself and my studies.

My throat tightened as I struggled to hold back the relentless tears that threatened to overtake me. My empty gaze rested upon the dreaded product of neglect, a cold weight tugging at my heart. A taunting tear tumbled down my trembling chin as my grip drove further into the aggravatingly bright paper below me. My bleak orchestral surroundings only drilled the remembrance of my neglect further into my unforgiving mind. I had lazily put off practicing the violin

Everyone has something that has helped them go through life with a sense of purpose and happiness. Some people have a safe haven, some people have a special person, and some people have a special pastime. However, the luckiest of people have all three, and I consider myself truly blessed to be one of those people. My religion has been a longstanding outlier in my life, because it has proved to always fulfill my life with serenity and happiness. Growing up, I was not always the star child in any given place. I acted out in school, I was stubborn to my parents at home, and I did things I knew were not okay in life. However, after a transformation of myself through my faith in religion, I can confidently say that I now have so much to give to Rutgers University. Although I was not always this way, I now hold self confidence, determination, a hard work ethic, and plenty of honor in my school life.

On October 30th 2008, my father died in my arms. He had succumbed to a short, but painful fight with lung cancer. It was the defining turning point in my life, Leading me down the path to become the man that I am today. It was the first, of many hard lessons. None of which I regret experiencing. Yes many of these moments have been incredibly painful, and seemingly unsurvivable at times. They have however made me a strong and diligent young man.

A vision I’ve always had of myself years ahead of now is a wealthy business woman that owns an art academy, and is a world-wide well known artist. I will have graduated from a bachelor in fine arts from college, as well as a master in painting and business administration. My institution will give art education to people