College Admissions Essay: I Love My Passion For Perfection

I’m awesome. It’s true. Everyone who meets me will agree, and by the end of this essay, you will too. I am from the small town of Mexico, Missouri where I haved lived my whole life. I was born on January 4, 2000. I am the millennium baby because I was the first baby born in 2000 in the the town of Mexico and I got to ride home in a limo. I went to elementary school at Hawthorne and then to the Middle School and now I am a Junior at The Mexico High School. I play basketball, football, and baseball. This summer I worked at the City Pool as a lifeguard. Last summer I worked at Pearl Motor Company for my dad. That job was definitely a lot harder than being a lifeguard, but I enjoyed both jobs. One of my favorite hobbies is hunting. I love to Turkey hunt and also deer hunt. I’ve killed three turkeys and one deer. One of my other hobbies is snow skiing. I usually get to go to Colorado every year with my church and I've been three times with my family. This is just a little bit of who I am.

I started dancing at the young age of two years old. My parents tried to enroll me in many different activities. Such as soccer, play ball, judo, horseback riding, basketball, and more. Yet, there was nothing I loved more than being able to dance and prance through the studio, in my pink bodysuit, tights and shoes, during ballet class.I started as a Mini, then was moved up to junior level, then to intermediate. That’s when my parents starting asking me if this was for sure something I loved to do, because this was the level where the nights started getting later, and the costs increased. Of course, my answer was yes. My love for dance soon greatly grew, I started taking tap, jazz, and then started moving into taking more challenging styles, such as lyrical, and pointe. Dancing makes me happy when I am down, relieved when I am stressed, and I can honestly say that I have made friendships that I will cherish for the rest of my life through dance.

The pursuit of happiness can be achieved in many ways and people mostly associate happiness with getting everything they could dream of. It is possible to achieve happiness just from the desire of our dreams, because it give you something to look forward to. If there is a desire for something, it gives a feeling of excitement and a strive to work towards something you want. On the contrary, having everything someone would want seems unrealistic and a desire for everyone, so if it happened it seems it would be a dream come true, but maybe overtime it would not be so great afterall.

I remember the time I started dancing like it was yesterday. I was in 7th grade when I first joined a dance team. Dance became important to my life, due to the fact that when I was younger I would constantly get hurt a lot by being bullied, and also had my parents fight all the time until they reached a point they wanted to get a divorce. I got tired of it , and I started looking for horrible ways to blow away the pain I felt inside, finally I found the appropriate way to do so. Dancing was the perfect way to escape from all the pain that was holding me down. I look back so many times to the day I first did a solo;It felt like the wind was blowing towards my face every pirouette I did. It felt like if I was a bird flying free in the sky. I

My mother once told me I was born to dance. Ballet, jazz, and hip hop nourished me from the time I was three years old. Whether helping my parents clean or walking in the grocery store, my feet sashayed beneath me to an unknown rhythm. Some of my earliest memories occur in a small studio in a converted barn, where I spent hours at the barre. Unlike performance schools depicted on reality television, my dance studio required less excessive makeup and more polished black leotards and pink tights (we did, however, have a fair share of screaming stage moms).

At a very young age my mother asked me “do you want to do dance or gymnastics?” and I remember my reply was instantly “dance!”. From that moment forward I completely fell in love with ballet, and a couple of years ago I decided I would like to see myself grow up to become a professional ballerina.

I dreamt of walking on Commonwealth Ave. I envisioned myself entering the Morse Auditorium, books in hand, eager to learn. Ever since I had visited the eclectic city of Boston in 2006, I knew it was the right fit for me. I knew that the city itself, along with the remarkable academic resources that Boston University offers would allow me to grow socially and mentally. Until this day I ask questions on end from my comrades at the BU, impatient to learn more and more about their lives on and off campus. From all the feedback I have received I have come to one conclusion: BU is the place where I will get a rich, broad background in all my studies. BU will give me the foundation and preparation I will need to enter any field of study.

I was a dancer for fourteen years, beginning at the age of four and ending at the age of 18. I participated in basically every type of dance including ballet, tap, jazz, hip hop, modern, lyrical, and contemporary. Each year, I would participate in more classes than the last, and it eventually got to the point where I would be attending dance classes five or six days of my week. It definitely got tiring, but I still loved it. Dance is a great way to be able to portray emotions through movement, and I think that is very unique and special to participate in. It was a very huge part of my life, and so were the people teaching me. Dance and everything that came with it was a huge influence on my life, and it helped shaped me into the person I am today.

Some choices in life are difficult to make. However, making a difficult choice can help you grow and develop new skills. Ever since I can remember, I’ve always been in ballet. Friends often ask me why I continue with ballet because they don’t understand it. They ask me why I do not play soccer anymore, but choose to dance instead. Even though ballet is artistic with graceful moves and beautiful costumes, ballet is also a sport similar to soccer, football, and basketball.

I was born in a seaside city where people enjoy the first ray of sunlight of a day. Running and playing on the beach is my favorite routine of my childhood life, and all my friends said that I was good at “dancing.” Frankly, I did not know what dancing was at that moment, but every time I moved my body that made me satisfied to see how it could move and make all those beautiful curves. Noticed that, my parents sent me to an after-school dance class to study when I was five, and I kept studying for seven years during which I got to be more attracted to this form of movements. In 2005, when I was twelve, I started my professional dance study in a local technical secondary school. Then，I realize that “dancing” could be my future and my life.

I am constantly writing. I write to reduce anxiety, to plan out my day, to jot down a hilarious joke (probably made by me) that I don’t want to forget later. Slowly, I am penning my own musical and I have written several short stories as well (which will be hidden in my room until my untimely death). One may assume that due to my love of creative writing I’m a skilled essayist and all of my former English teachers adored me. Unfortunately, that was not the case. Throughout my high school career not only did my papers never did pass an AP rubric they received harsh critiques as well. This ultimately discouraged my passion for writing.

For seventeen years, I have dutifully fulfilled my role as the Asian stereotype. From a young age, I was instilled with the belief that happiness was procured through achievement and success. Rigidity and structure dictated my every action, and as I grew older, the pressure to distinguish myself from my peers intensified. I felt as though my entire life was pre-determined. And as my disillusionment grew, I became conscious of a startling emptiness. I began to crave a greater purpose.

Ever since I was six years old, ballet has defined me. I was extremely passionate about making a career for myself through dance, and I spent all of my time in dance classes instead of other extracurriculars or social activities Ballet for me began in a small basement studio, doing twirls and jumps and receiving stickers from the teacher when I worked well. At age six it was fun, but as I turned eight, it became something different. I began attending the Boston Ballet School, and a passion for dance emerged.

Dance has been apart of my life ever since I can remember. When I was young, before I officially started my dance training, I was always up on my feet and moving. No matter what hobby I took interest in (whether it was cheerleading, musical theatre, or jump rope), I would always find a way to choreograph little routines a show them to my friends and family. Even when my parents tried to put me in sports, I would do cartwheels and dance on the playing fields, completely oblivious to what was going on during the games. When I look back at how I started my dance training, I just smile and laugh because I was so naïve and unaware that it would become such a huge part of my life. In 5th grade I was put into my first dance class as a hobby. It happened because I watched the Disney Channel movie High School Musical and immediately fell in love with it. I showed the movie to my parents and told them, “This is what I want to do.” At the time I thought I excelled in both signing and acting and that all I needed were dance classes. So in 4th grade I was put into my first dance class and I began to scratch the surface of the basics of dance. What I didn’t know then is that dance would slowly but surely influence my entire life and

Perfection is a deadly sickness. It is a wicked plague which clouds the mind, destroys focus, and eliminates any value you may hold for yourself. We are all told that perfectionism is, well, perfect. A flawless way to live where you make no mistakes, avoid any challenges, and are loved and cherished by everyone around you. But this cruel mindset is like a collar that chokes fun and kills passion, constricting joy and creativity in favor of the one and only best decision. The decision that will get you perfect grades, a perfect reputation, and nary an ounce of criticism. Now, while this might seem good, I can tell you for sure that it’s not. How? Because I’ve tried it.