College Admissions Essay: My Voice

Let’s say someone found a magical golden lamp and was granted one wish by a blue genie with the voice of Robin Williams. Most would instantly wish for either fame, fortune, or power. What I would wish for is the ability to give whoever a voice, whenever. What having a voice mean to me is whatever I say carries some weight or influence to the audience I am reaching out to. A voice can also lead to fame, fortune, and power if used correctly.

I couldn't move as I was petrified by fear; stage fright was my Medusa. Fear was a loyal companion one Saturday morning at the Methodist church where a speech competition was being held. Several competitors had gone before me and now my turn had come to deliver what felt like my last words on this earth. If only my legs had gotten the memo.

I grew up in a house located in a city named Hallandale, a not so quite poverty-stricken African-American dominated neighborhood of South Florida. Everyday news reports of someone either dying, getting shot, or arrested from the neighborhood appeared on my front screen. I lived in a one story house with only three bedrooms and ten of my family members. I always considered my home as the most beautiful house on the block — a heavenly oasis in a cesspool of dilapidation. You knew my house because my grandmother had a lion on the outside of it that stood through every storm Florida threw its way. To me that lion represented the courage and strength of people in my neighborhood held despite the hard ships surrounding it. Every Sunday my grandma cooked for those in need.

Every time I close my eyes and take a deep breath, I can hear the repetitious honking of the taxi drivers, fed up with the incessant New York traffic. I can feel the soft wind blowing through the tallest trees in Central Park, lightly blowing my hair in every direction. I can smell the grease from innumerable hotdog carts, strolling their way up and down 85th Street, desperate for business. I can see the blinking traffic lights, and the countless men, women and children, all looking like they belong in New York. I wanted to be like them. I can remember everything, from the stickers on the crosswalk signs, to the name of the cluttered antique shop. I see all of these things as if they were scenes from my favorite movie. The vacation I took to New York City, the summer before I started high school, has changed my life forever.

I love almost anything that has milk in it. Cream cheese, iced coffee, milkshakes, and cheese . But unfortunately the universe is against me and has decided to make milk irritate my asthma. So whenever I eat something with a reasonable amount of milk product in it, one of two things occurs. Situation one- I am completely fine and can go about my day knowing I have won this round against a weird cow byproduct. Situation two- The strange cow liquid/solid choses to take control of my throat and lungs, causing me unable to breathe normally for a while, and usually ruining a small part of my day. In fact before writing this, I ate a rather small amount of chocolate ice cream that decided to give me a cough and a itchy throat as revenge. Regardless, I have survived to tell the tale and because of my choice, a small part of my life has been improved.

Some might call it “nosey” or “annoying”, but I've always favored the term “curious”. From a young age, my thirst for knowledge has been unquencable and well-known to those around me. My parents, teachers, and any other adults within an earshot were plagued by my constant questions. By the age of six, I had become obsessed with finances. I felt like I needed to know every last detail of people's fiscal affairs. Unfortunately, my six-year-old self was too young to realize that this was considered distasteful. Often at night, while my dad sat at the dining room table to pay his bills and balance his checkbook, I would accompany him. My interrogation into his finances was unrelenting, and most of the time he would comply. Whether he wanted me

I’m a sixteen year old female who has been raised my whole life around the fact that my mind must be perfect. If I wasn’t meeting up to the standards of my parents, then I needed to change everything about myself to meet them. My anxiety eats at me everyday. It feels like I have a colossal boulder sitting on my chest a lot of the time. The other times, I lose all of my care for anything in that moment. One day, I attempted to explain the situation to my mother and asked her to take me to a doctor. I had been waiting until my parents could afford health insurance for me to go, but all she heard was that there was something was not up to her standards inside of my head, like I was defective. After the odd conditions of my childhood, I didn’t know how to think for myself. I didn’t know how to make rational decisions for myself. I’m still excessively lost. I look all over the place for help. I searched for that help so much anywhere that I could think of. I looked at school,

One decision can have the power to completely change your life forever. In the sixth grade, I almost never started my music career because I was too afraid of not fitting in. But this decision would have left me as a different person than I am today; a person that I wouldn’t want to be. Since that time, I have continued playing music for seven years now. With the help of my high school music teachers and my family, I have been able to continue on my musical journey. Music is now the biggest part of my life, which is why I’d like to

Health, deaths, and lack of confidence. These are obstacles that I have faced in various life events. There are two options on how one can overcome these obstacles: one could try to ignore the pain while the second is to look in the direction of God. Those who choose to go down the path of pain have not experienced that way of God or may not have taken a chance to see what he can do for them. People, like me, who choose to look towards God puts their trust in God and know that he has a plan for them. When family members were dying, a health issue rose and I was lacking confidence, I looked towards verses in the bible that would help me look for the positive outcomes than the negative thoughts. I then noticed God was going to show how he speaks

We have the freedom to do what we want, be right or wrong. I believe in doing the right thing. It gives a certain feeling of achievement, to have the courage to stand up against all evil and defeat it. This is why we have our heroes.

As much as I want to give up and lose hope. There’s always a turnaround. There were a lot of opportunities for me to improve and make my community better! It all started when I joined “Asian American Club” on my junior year. The admin told us that they were participating on a community service on saturday, I wanted to join in and hope that this service can help me improve myself and the community. I thought it would be a waste of my time, but it wasn’t a waste at all,I heard helping the community was very good for me at my state of grades, and helped the community a much better place!

She is the answer to my earnest prayers for a wife filled with the qualities I prayed for and one day I hope to marry her in the future. She was really there for me in my hard times.

Autumn of 1985, the year my mother came to America in order to escape poverty. At only sixteen years old she left everything behind in Guatemala to make a better life for herself. She spent over a decade as an illegal alien, cleaning houses just to get by. Because of her residency status she never had the opportunity to go school and get a higher education. When I was born she made sure I would have the opportunities she did not. Her story inspired me to do well in school and work hard so I could become successful. Similarly to her, I want to make a better life for myself; I do not want a mediocre job that barely pays my bills. I am so hungry for success but I know in order to be successful I need to go to school and get a higher education. In order to do this however, a lot of money is required. Money neither my parents nor I have. That is why this program is so important to me. It covers most, if not all, expenses and takes personal interests in every one of their students. Bridges helps give students the

When I was 21, my son was born and I left college; as a result, I spent the next nine years working in dead-end jobs and making excuses as to why I could not return to school. I spent the next seven years earning three English degrees. Along the way, I had many excellent professors who reignited my love of learning and my desire to teach. I secured a job teaching English at a vocational school, and discovered that there was nothing better than seeing the spark in students’ eyes when they learned a concept or skill that had never before made sense. Unfortunately, the school closed less than a year after I was hired. With such little experience, I was unable to find a full-time position at the college level. However, the dean of the Liberal Arts

Many things have happened in my life, and plenty have been successful moments. The successful moment I had was being a freshman and making it on the list to do a dance solo. This moment was very important and made me feel victorious.