College Admissions Essay: A Place That Changed My Life

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.

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.

At the age of 39, I decided to return to school and finish my undergraduate degree. Being a single mother I wanted my kids to see how hard work and dedication can really pay off if you commit yourself and push through any adversities, you will win. I received my degree in Healthcare Management and I have been working in health insurance for over fifteen years. Working with people and helping others is my passion. I love to see a smiling happy face.

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.

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

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.

Growing up has been an adventure for me, being raised in a family that cares and loves each other I have been taught the importance that one can create for another. From vacations around the world to community services around the city my family and I have experienced it together. I have been raised by a Mexican mother where the cultural values are different from the traditional American lifestyle, in where she lets me stay on a longer leash unlike the helicopter parents that my friends had growing up. This made me to stay on top of things without being asked to, or looking after my own grades and missing assignments. When it came to manners, that was a completely different story. Both my parents heavily reinforced the need of being polite,

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.

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

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.

High school has been an experience to say the least. I’ve spent the last four years at Father Ryan attempting to find myself and my place in the world, much like puzzle piece. A puzzle has many pieces that contribute to an entire image when properly placed among each other. High school is similar to this idea because throughout the past four years I have constantly been trying to find my perfect fit and where I belong. When I was a Freshmen I molded my personality to fit anywhere just to have friends. Then when sophomore year began I realized how much of myself I was sacrificing to fit into the wrong place. Once junior year arrived I was getting closer to my perfect fit and now that it is senior year I’ve finally found my fit in the big puzzle called high school.

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.

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