College Admissions Essay: How My Father Changed My Life

Growing up, school was not a major factor in my life. I come from a hard-working, middle-class military family. My mother, a Filipino immigrant, was a homemaker. My father was a 21-year United States Marine veteran. They were my first impression of what I thought my future would be. Being the youngest of four children, I was expected to fall in line behind my siblings when it came to education. I was never pushed to excel in my studies, so I did just enough to get by. As I watched friends escape the grasp of a military town and ascend to their respective colleges, I was left wondering what was next for me. I attended my local community college for a brief period of time. I treated college no different than high school. I

Throughout life I’ve experienced a rather unpleasant childhood with the absence of my guiding figures: my parents. Seeing them rush in and out of the house to go to the hospital with my younger brother shaped me in a way nothing else could have. It made me who I am today, as well as aspired me towards what I want to be one day.

All little sisters look up to their big brothers, and I was no exception to the rule. I remember watching my brother Brandon, cheering him on at his high school football games, golf matches, and basketball tournaments. I was only six or seven at the time, so of course I wanted to be just like him. I proudly yelled his name in the bleachers, dressed in his big cotton sweatshirts. My little eyes saw Brandon as a superhero out there, on the courts, fields, and everywhere I saw him. I have forever held that notion in my mind, ultimately holding him on a high pedestal. Even though I regarded him as my utmost favorite human on earth, something happened that changed me and him.

There are many times when a person comes into your life and changes it for the better. I was happened to be blessed to be born with that person that changed my life, my dad. He has always been there and guided me in the correct way. Just like in Sedaris “Me Talk Pretty One Day”, how something negative leads to a good outcome, my negative event resulted on how dads’ actions impacted my life in such a significant way. (635). My dad became a great example for me to look up to, by showing me how dependable, adaptive, and hardworking he truly is. My dad gave me the ambition, to continue my education, and become a dependable mother for my daughters and family.

Fortunate to be a first-generation university student in my family of loving and caring supporters. I have wonderful parents who work day and night, to provide for my education, as well as my sister, who is soon going to become a freshman at UNLV. My mother, who worked as a porter at a Las Vegas casino since before my existence, as well as my father, who has been in the transportation industry for 25 years, work hand in hand to save up for my siblings and my education. Education is a key factor in my household. If my father and I aren’t talking about current events or the Bible, there’s no doubt that he’ll bring up anything related to school and education, and lecture me for hours about how he wasn’t granted an opportunity like I was. He has always wanted to be an engineer, and had the full potential to do so, but due to the adversity that he as well as my mother had gone through in their home country, their only choice was to flee and start a better life for my siblings and I in America. They couldn’t imagine raising a child in horrible conditions. They were a few of the fortunate one’s who have made it alive and well in America and now they work continuously to provide a better life for us.

  The  screaming and angry comments are made from a personal state of mind. Parents do and go through more than what most teens could imagine. My grandfather was one. My grandfather, Jesse was a strong, emotionally and physically. Apart from all the laughs and smiles, he is one of the most adventurous men  Ive ever met. To be realistic, no one's life is perfect with only happiness. In his early years, life was pretty rough for him growing up. His life consisted of hard work. He was only human to manage through such horrible events he had to go through. Such adventures formed my grandpa into the strong man he was.

I am a fortunate soul. I have two loving parents who raised me in a Christian home. We went to church every Sunday, both my parents worked, and they gave me everything I needed. My mother and father both gave me everything that I wanted, or better yet everything I asked for they tried to get. They didn’t just give me anything, no questions asked, there was discipline, respect, love, and humility. They thought I deserved the world and they tried to provide it. Was that so bad?

Breathing heavily, a million things run through my mind. I’m dying. I can’t feel my feet. My lungs aren’t taking in oxygen fast enough. However, the finish line and the satisfaction of knowing that I had gotten myself through three miles loom ahead. Clenching my fists, I force myself through the indoor track at JCC. The excitement and pride that I feel when I finally achieve my goal is indescribable.

My Dad didn't go to college. He worked long hard hours at southwire and traveling. As I was growing up he told me to keep working harder, and not to give up in life and just work for things. He wants me to go to college or the Air Force that way. I have a better job and I don't want to start my life off struggling. Instead of struggling he wants me doing good. College is not worth the cost, because some people can not afford it. With college being expensive a lot of college kids having to work and study and go to class some kids just can't handle it.

Purposely messing up at the 5th grade spelling bee because I didn’t want to be the smart brown kid. The worry or how I will be seen by others since 5th grade, has held me back from my ambitions and potential. The pattern academic failure lasted all the way until this past year. Last year I was a freshman at Saint Louis University, I was kicked out because I had a GPA of .27. I couldn’t tell my parents that so I pretended like I didn’t receive that letter and moved back in the start of my sophomore year, this past fall, and tried to petition. My petition was denied; I was given a 3 day move out notice with nowhere to go. I packed my bags, headed to a train station and was homeless for 3 days so I slept at a train station. An elderly white couple, who had “adopted” me as their grandchild when I was born was who I decided to reach out to. They offered me to live with them in Arizona but encouraged me to go home. I sent a text at 4:00am and took a train to come to a home where I wasn’t looked at, talked to, or valued. After being academically dismissed from Saint Louis University, I woke up to adulthood. My parents were very disappointed in me and they couldn't even look at

I cannot say that growing up in the family I am in hasn't been difficult for me, because it has. However, to say that it is something I'd like to change if I could, I also cannot say. The turbulence and commotion I have experienced has sculpted my character. Had I not grown up the way I did, I would not be as tenacious and ambitious as I am today. Through the struggles I've faced and whom I've faced them with, I have not let them define me, and I have even grown more because of them.

My Mom, Dad, and younger brother survived. If it's not medicine, my family would not have lived.

See growing up in a large family like mines education was very important. Despite we didn’t have many to graduate from college put a lot of pressure on me. See my grandparents didn’t go to high school or college. So, they were real hard on their kids about go to school and graduate. So, made my parents hard on my brother and me about our education. My brother and me will be the first in our large family to graduate from college. My mom was real hard on me because she didn’t want me to go to in be like her. She had

Entering into college, I wanted to do public health, but I wanted to be a doctor to please my father and to satisfy his hunger to have a doctor in his family. My father made sure his children went to college, and if they didn’t, it was clear they couldn’t stay in his house anymore. My parents struggled to support all of my siblings and supply each of us with everything we needed. I never realized the struggle until I got older and understood the value of money and time. My parents never wanted my brothers and I to work while we were in school, they wanted us to focus on our grades and activities that would help us get into college. Overall, the support from my family and seeing how hard my

"Never forget the past…because it may haunt you forever. Regret all the bad things…cherish the good things. Look ahead always…but don't let the bad things from the past get in your mind." As a young child, there were so many incidents in my life that made me become the person I am today. There were rough times as well as good times. If I were to tell you all of them, I would remember half of them. I think some of my incidents really had some impact, and some were just simple ways of life. To tell you the truth, the incident that had the most impact on me has to be when my real father left me at the age of three. I never knew my father. I mean being a baby, you really have no experience or recognition of somebody else.