College Admissions Essay: My Learning Path

Going through adversity is one of the toughest things anyone can do. But, feeling like you are going through it alone is a completely different animal. I’m sitting in one of the most beautiful cities in the world, Chicago, and studying advertising at one of the top institutions in the country, DePaul University. Yet, despite all the effort, and years of hard work it took me to get to this moment, all I can think about is one cliché line I heard in a song awhile back, “home is where the heart is.” Years from now I know that I will be able to look back at this moment and say that I got through this tough time, and I became a better version of myself. But for now, all I can do is stay patient and keep lacing up my walking shoes.

My parents think of themselves as primarily self-sufficient. Because of this, we live on the peak of a hill in the middle of nowhere, far away from the hustle and bustle of our old home in the city. Although this is their ideal life, they realized that it may prevent me from expanding my own horizons. They have always encouraged me to follow my interests, even when it meant moving away from home at sixteen to go to college. Throughout my entire childhood, they have done everything in their power to ensure that I am prepared for the future. I believe that my parents have crafted me into a well-rounded individual by proving to me that any person can define their own version of success.

Former baseball player Tommy Lasorda once said, “The difference between the impossible and the possible lies in a person’s determination.” The journey of our life is full of winding paths and concrete obstacles whose sole goal is to slow us down, and to attempt to block us from reaching our ultimate goal in life, whatever that may be. These barriers are there for several different reasons, whether it be mental or physical. Sometimes these obstacles are motivated by fear, other times they exist simply because we have to make a decision, and that decision can be life changing. But through our determination, and through our perseverance, we can achieve what these barriers told us was impossible, and can pursue the path in our life that leads us to our ultimate self. Throughout my life, I have had thousands of barriers stand in my path. And the only way I was able to defeat them was through conquering my fears, and breaking my limits in order to achieve excellence.

Curiosity, the search for knowledge, is an essential dimension of human nature. Embracing this as fact is the beginning of ones journey into the realms of the erudite. The path this journey follows has been wearied by the feet of many great travelers, yet it is the one I have chosen to follow.

In fall of 2017, I will be attending college. I’m not quite sure where precisely, but when I do arrive on campus, I will not be alone. I will carry the weight of my mother’s ambitions with me.

Even though my cat has perfectly clean water in her bowl, she regularly goes to the bathroom in order to drink from the toilet. The toilet guarantees water, while the water bowl must be filled. I notice that many people in my community end up, like my cat, favoring convenience over quality. The community’s lack of faith in its adolescents has bred a cycle of unwillingness to strive for anything greater than graduating from high school. This lack of faith has stemmed from a rural upbringing where us students are expected to stay in this deprived town throughout the entirety of our lives. I want to be one of those who have broken that cycle and proved that a small town upbringing does not assure disappointment and unfulfillment.

Ever since I was young, sports have been a way of life for me. I started playing basketball in first grade, destined to be in the NBA. But only scoring one basket a season was not impressing any scouts. Nonetheless, I kept at it and once I reached seventh grade, it was time for tryouts. With my NBA dream still alive, I went into tryouts with a lot of confidence. When I found out I was cut I was crushed. Almost everyone who did not make it quit playing and never picked up a ball again.

Great things are destined for you honey, you have everything in you, and you have no idea how capable you are, everything is there in you, but you have to want it. I want you to go after it with everything in you because with the proper education there is nothing that can ever stop you. My entire life, I have believed that if I work hard enough, no dreams could ever be out of my reach. My grandmother’s incredible story has always taught me that I can overcome any obstacle that may come my way; my father’s speech was an amazing reminder of why I have worked so hard to make my family proud of me. As I approach the start of my senior year, I cannot help but wonder how my future is going to play out. My life has been filled with significant events that have carved me into a diverse young woman. I owe my family for all the lessons and experiences that I have benefited from, and I truly believe any college would be happy to have all the different aspects of culture that I can bring on their campus.

The story of my life is awesome and I love remembering it. I remember when I was a child, I was a “danger magnet”. I was getting in danger easily, but I’ve never been in some big trouble. Except one time when I almost ended in a wheelchair. Later, I grew up and started school where I met some great friends. There was a time when I actually liked going to school. Now, that I’m older I have too many things in my life: family, school, girlfriend, my future and much more. It’s stressing me out a little bit. Most of the time I’m trying to not think about my future but I’m scared that I won’t be able to decide which high school to go in. Soon, the 7th grade will start and all that will separate me from high school is going to be 8th grade. I just

As far as I can remember, I have always been driven by my passion to obtain higher education, in order to learn and explore new and exciting opportunities. My education has allowed me to seek new opportunities, explore different fields of study, and discover my potential. I graduated high school with a 94% average and performed extremely well in my first two years at University of Windsor. However, during the last semester of my third year, I was facing some personal challenges, during the weeks leading up to the finals examination. Additionally, during those weeks, I was extremely sick and was not able attend every class, which significantly effected my ability to study and consequently my grades. I did not perform as well as I would had hoped

I may be a young adolescent but I have experienced so many things in the short seventeen years I have been breathing. I have experienced heartbreak and even physical pain that caused the world to go dark. I have experienced much more than the average teenager. I was dealt a bad hand of cards but somehow I came out on top as a Queen. Throughout my high school years, I have learned to work with people in a way that I never thought possible. I realized in sophomore year that you can’t gain respect until you have respected. I learned to thank teachers for their time that they put into educating me for my future. Time is precious and those that taught us deserve a large amount of respect. I also learned to become organized and to use time wisely.

Life always presents you great opportunities to succeed, but it is you who must decide whether to take them or leave them. This scholarship is a great opportunity for me to continue investing in my own education, since I consider it to be my number one priority, and as I believe that education is the key to impact and motivate others through one’s own testimony, and to also inspire others to pursue their own goals .

My graduate educational experience is going to be a very different experience than my undergraduate experience for several different reasons. A few of the main reasons are that I am far more committed to learning the material, I’m not playing a sport that motivates me to do well in school, and this is more specific degree than my undergraduate degree.

While it is impossible to know for certain the course my life will take in the next ten years, I would like to believe that the path my life will follow will be one full of fulfillment and ample success. I aspire to be someone who is influential both to the people I meet as well as to the community to which I am a part of. I am immensely grateful for the educational opportunities I have received thus far, and I plan to use the knowledge I have acquired to its fullest potential so that I may continue learning and growing to become the person I aspire to be. In the next ten years, I hope to have acquired a job that gives me personal fulfillment in knowing that I am positively affecting and contributing to society. I want to be actively involved

My philosophy of education started when I was young as a result of my experiences in school, and my mom being a teacher. I was not a dedicated, or motivated, student, I wanted to have nothing to do with school, I just went to get school over with and to move on to the next grade. My mom is a special education teacher at an elementary school. To me my mom is my biggest inspiration why I want to be a teacher, her philosophy opened my eyes up to what teachers can do to kids. My mom has all these notes from her past kids that they gave her throughout her years of teaching and I have read some. It's just so inspirational to see the impact she had on their lives. Education is like the ocean, usually calm and filled with plenty of creatures, as schools