College Admissions Essay: My Path To Success

Of the more than twenty million Americans who are running today, most who start do so for the wrong reasons, with the wrong attitude, and tend to lose interest after a few weeks or months. Many quit. This is usually because they become concerned with superficial goals such as time and distance and never discover the more profound mental benefits that running offers. (Lilliefors 15)

“In running, it doesn’t matter whether you come in first, in the middle or last. You can say, ‘ I finished’ There is a lot of satisfaction in that” - Fred Lebow. I began cross country in eighth grade shortly after my brother joined the year before. He enjoyed it a lot, so I thought it would be fun. I’ve been on the team for two years. I would like to run for the rest of my life. Cross country changed my life positively forever. It taught me to push myself past what I thought was my limit. It revealed to me a great community of people and it taught me to leave my comfort zone.

"We all have dreams. In order to make dreams come into reality, it takes an awful lot of determination, dedication, self-discipline and effort." Running has been a part of my life for four years now and in my short involvement in the sport, it has completely changed the kind of person I am, and the kind of person I want to be. Throughout the past few years, people always ask me "why do you run? What motivates you? And to be honest, I have a variety of reasons for why I am 100% committed and dedicated to being a runner.

I wasn’t always a runner. Some kids are born into the running cult, but not me. We have a treadmill in our basement that my parents occasionally use when they got on a health kick, but neither of them pushed me to be a runner. During the summer of sixth grade, my mother was talking to our neighbor in our driveway. While they were standing on the blistering pavement, the subject of Cross Country came up. My neighbor’s son was on the high school team and it was doing a

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.

I’ve always had a desire for running and when I heard Richland Center High had a Cross Country team, I knew I wanted to be on it! When I did start, it was tough. There were times my sanity would ask, “ WHAT IN THE WORLD ARE YOU

I made the decision I wanted to change. I wanted the freedom to enjoy life without the constant self loathing. I scorned running. I abhorred running. That will never change, but I did. I committed to a new lifestyle. I signed up for my first race, the Marine Corps Historic Half Marathon in late fall of 2015. I registered so I could not quit again, making inexcusable excuses.

For 2 years I was a member of the Central Toronto Athletic Club. CTAC is a competitive middle distance running club that trains its athletes to compete in track and field and cross country events. It is a year round athletic club that is a platform for talented people of almost all ages to train and to focus on their self-progress as an athlete. At CTAC I was encouraged to push myself to test the limits of my speed, endurance and strength and to discover what my body is truly capable of. Running was a very satisfying sport because my achievements were directly proportional to the amount of work that I put in. At CTAC, I learned discipline, dedication and perseverance. I had to balance my schoolwork with daily practices or workouts, I ran six

I ran my first race when I was 12 years old. It was a 5K in Fargo, North Dakota, that I completed with my father. I competed in cross country and track for six years. I was the varsity cross country captain from 10th to 12th grade and I look back on those years fondly. During my senior year of track in high school, I fractured my fibula during a 4 by 800 meter relay race and as a result decided not to pursue competing at the collegiate level. Despite the absence of competition, I still run as a hobby as much as I can. It is a big part of my life and provides me with opportunities for meditating and developing self-discipline.

When I was searching for a better education, instead I was astound by the dorms, dining, clubs, and so much more that college offers. It is impossible to think about education, when all they present to you is the facilities and the accommodation you will get if you enroll to that college. One thing I did not count on was money, without it, you can’t even dream about a college like that one, just if you get a loan, but I was not going to get a loan just to be in a fancy facility. I continue looking and I lost track of what I was looking for and I choose the one near my house. After years of losing my time, now I’m gaining the knowledge I ever wanted.

I have been running for a long time, I love the sport, and the feeling of everything

To bottle the essence in this premier moment- the liquid of success and pride, the raw emotion in that moment that has propelled my character to it's actualized state of being- would have been a fantasy amongst reality. I open my tear dotted eyes as my ears resonate the echoes of confetti cannons and cheers from the arena. My muscles ache with joy, and my mind is chasing the realization that is at hand. I have just won a midwestern color guard championship. The golden haze of chaos that ensues is one that has forever imprinted on my mind, a haze that lingers in my peripheral vision, in constant search of a worthy emotion to compare to. The prime success in this moment alone- has been the sole fuel in the flame of my determination and strive for achieved ambitions.

After having attended Illinois State University previously, I know that I want to return to finish my career there because it is what I have always wanted. Illinois State University inspires me to keep on fighting for what I want and need through the challenges that I have faced while being there, freshman part of sophomore year. After facing the challenges and having to attend another school, I learned the hard way what it really means to fight for what you really want. As I attended Heartland Community College after Illinois State University, I knew that that’s not what I wanted for myself and that I wanted to return to Illinois State University. Illinois State University is the perfect school for me because I know that the professors truly

When I initially joined Cross Country, which was in my sophomore year, I felt excited to do something different. However, when the time came to do the road run, I felt surprised because of how challenging it actually was. I knew the runners ran several miles, but I had not know nor gave consideration to just how it would feel to run that much. Because I had not felt prepared and able, I felt like quitting. Fortunately,

It was a struggle at first. My family was in such better shape compared to me and they wanted to do family workouts together, so every time I ran with them, I felt super bad about myself. Even my 38 year old mom could run a mile faster than me, I was so embarrassed. It was hard to stay motivated when the people who were