College Admissions Essay: How Opportunity Changed My Life

Growing up, I never had the warm pleasures of bedtime stories; instead, I would hear about the unimaginable impoverishment my parents faced in their childhood. The immediate reality of poverty obscured their investment in their brighter futures; both were forced both to sell lottery tickets on the streets or trade vegetables for portions of meat: just to help sustain their families. Looking back at those nights, I can only be grateful. As one of the first in my family to attend college, I am piloting a new future, one where I hope to lift not only my family out of their struggles but also the community that has always supported me and global communities today.

“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.

1.Opportunity can totally be manufactured: I have learned this opportunity at numerous points in my life, however, the opportunity that stands out the most for me is when I got the New York Times (NYT) to give me a blog on their website. Every year, the NYT used to select 8 students from around the world to blog for them during their college search. I read this blog series for a number of years and when I became a high school senior, I decided that I wanted to try to be one of the students selected. However, I realized that the NYT would never reach out to my small-underfunded NYC public school so I reached out to them. I told them about the perspective that I had developed from growing up with mild Cerebral Palsy

From the very first moment I sat on the piano bench and touched the black-and-white keys, I instantly felt in my heart that my future would be irretrievably bonded to this magical instrument.

I have always believed that most of the time the cruelest people are the ones who have endured the most pain. I have also always believed there is no reason it has to be that way. There is so much to be said for a person who has received so much pain and hurt from the world, and yet gives back nothing but love and happiness. That is the person I aspire to be, and that I believe everyone else should aspire to be also.

I heard rumors of what life would provide which were spoken by the endless waves of the New Jersey coastlines after they forced me down, under the salty waters and it was my personal duty to rise up again before I was swept away- a lecture on getting up when life pushed its members down. It was a lesson that life itself is tough, and resilience is required for advancement and that example has always followed me in life. I had also dared to follow a trail with my older brother up the Appalachian mountains while in Gatlinburg, Tennessee. The higher up we went, the thinner the trail that ran along a cliff’s edge and the more ice coated the rocks underneath us. My brother was a gritty boy who never showed any affection and often treated

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,

“Two little lines I heard one day, Traveling along life’s busy way. Only one life ‘twill soon be past, Only what’s done for Christ will last.”

I never thought of turning back even though I knew that re-entering society to start a new life and living life well seemed very challenging then. On the other hand that watershed brought hope of a new beginning that became my inspirational impetus. It endowed me with true courage to take on and pursue that intimidating endeavour. When I re-entered society I had nothing else except a promise to myself that I must be determined and disciplined in whatever I do in my life. Then I was poor (monetary), had no qualification, poor in the English language and had a contaminated mind-set with warped attitudes. I had to put in place a strategy to guide me in my learning and growing in order to achieve a distinct transformation of me.

New York City. Despite it’s grandeur skyscrapers, abundance of people, is rather quite an intimate place. This intimacy helped me to reflect back on myself, and who I am as a person. It aided in shaping my sense of independence. Gave me inspiration and motivation to succeed. But most important of all, granted me a way to satisfy my hunger for existential happiness.

I had always thought landing a job that would earn me tons of cash was the key to having a fulfilled life. Lawyers, surgeons, and dentists are high-paying jobs I dreamed of having. With money, I would be able to get all things necessary that, I thought, would have me set with my future life. I was heavily focused on the wealth that would earn me an impressive home, a fantastic car and respect from others. Not only for myself, but I could give my parents an easy life by giving them, and others, what I made. When I was in middle school, I knew I wouldn’t be able to land in such jobs because I was so focused on other activities. Two of those activities were math and art. I went with what I thought was logical and studied math, thinking I would

My life is ineffable. Sometimes I wonder if my life can be counted as an oxymoron? So sour, yet so sweet. An organized madness. A sane insanity?! When one thing happens, another follows; being contradictory to the first. Or maybe an anaphora? Always starting the same tedious way, but always ending differently. Perhaps my life is an idiom. Not many understand how my life goes through its day-to-day basis — possibly being no one except me. How arduous life seems to my eyes, however it appears to be the simplest and “effortless”, implying that I don’t have to work to achieve or receive something to others. Despite the fact that they have never lived a day I have, they still decide to give me a non-asked-for opinion about my life.

Life is hard and we face challenges everyday throughout our lives. I live my life by two quotes that I often hear people say. “Expect the unexpected,” and “get comfortable being uncomfortable.” Transitioning from middle school to high school was not the easiest. I did not “expect the unexpected” coming into high school and thought everything will be okay and the same as middle school. Life hit me, and it hit me hard in the face.

Challenges in life are easily the most important aspect of life. Without challenges, we as people would never grow and evolve into something better and new. I know I would not be where I am now without buckling down and embracing those challenges placed before me. I have taken on an immeasurable amount of good experiences, knowledge and challenges through the past year and a half. Within the past year I have moved on my own, gotten a career defining job and chosen a career path that is truly incredible.

Challenges occur in everyone’s life, but how one deals with said challenges is what determines how well that life is lived. My goal, since I was a child, was to go to college for Biomedical Engineering. The reason was that both my parents were heavily involved in the medical field and while I was in school engineering majors always piqued my interest, so my mission was to combine the two. However, as I got older my parents became more financially unstable, so working became a priority for me to support them. I had already been working when I became sixteen years old, but I never had to worry about picking up more hours until I had to help my family pay off bills.