College Admissions Essay: Once We Got To Indiana

Rural, northern Alabama is a beautiful place. It is a fantastic area to grow up and it is filled with people who would not hesitate to pull over on Highway 72 to jump start your car. Living here has developed me into the man I am today, instilling characteristics into me that I will forever hold dear and appreciate. My home town has given me all it has to offer, and I will forever be proud to have been raised here. Though I love where I have been raised, it holds restrictions that inhibit my abilities from cultivating to the extent I desire. In honest words, where I reside is not a great place for intelligence to thrive. I attend a public school in a small community of about a thousand people or less where ninety percent of graduating classes tend to stay

It all began on November 3, 2015 during my first middle school basketball tournament. The grey brick walls of the gymnasium looking more like a prison than a school. The school’s “Lincoln Park Elementary School” sign had graffiti and missed a couple letters from the name. The court was terribly small, but we began by playing the superb team of Jam on It. We were blown out and I headed back up to my mom and dad in the parent filled stands. The game wasn’t even fun to play and we looked like third graders playing them. I looked up to my parents as sad as could be.

Rewind fifteen years back, is when I blessed my parents with myself. To be more exact it was the sixteenth of September, also known as the Independence day of Mexico. I remember very keenly that my dad would always be so proud of that, he would even purposefully say my birthday is the Independence day of Mexico, instead of my actual birthdate. I guess considering he is an indigenous Mexican, it’s pretty normal for him to be proud of his ethnic background. I was born into an already large family; I had my mother who is Colombian and dad who is Mexican, my two older sisters, and my one older brother, and my younger sister that came two years subsequently to me. As a young kid the personality traits I acquired were that I was always very shy; I was an introvert all around, as well as a perfectionist (not anymore obviously), I liked making new friends, I liked being helpful , I liked being organized, and strongly believed that every good deed would be rewarded in the future.

The day was October 8th, 2014. I hardly played. One school day, my 5th teacher, Ms. Smit said, “flyers for the basketball team on the table” ordinarily I took one. Kids from 4th, 5th, and 6th grade came to try out for the team. After tryouts, a paper next to the nurse's office was hung up. The paper sheet named those who had made the team. Surprisingly, I made the team, most likely from my height. I felt like I shouldn’t have made the team. At the time, I barely started to play basketball. I went to the practices at school and tried to make myself a little bit better, since a tournament was about to begin in a few weeks.

Basketball was my favorite sport growing up. I’ve played since I was little and I still play the game today. I played basketball at my elementary school, St. Cecilia, from Kindergarten till 8th Grade and also played AAU basketball for about 2 years before entering High School. Going into my freshmen year of High School, the first sport I played was basketball. Tryouts began in about the start of November and ended about 2 weeks after. I had made the Freshmen A team. I was excited and as the season progressed, we didn’t win many games but I still had fun playing. Nearing the end of the season, golf was another sport coming up that I also wanted to try and play. I say “try and play” because at the time, I was also going to play AAU basketball. I had set in my mind that I was going to play basketball for all of my four years of high school, but my parents pushed me to tryout for golf. When the basketball season ended, golf tryouts started. Tryouts lasted for about 2 weeks, and I made the JV team. When I found out I made the team, I was very surprised. I hadn’t put in the hard work as others before tryouts came around, but the coach saw potential in me and that I can become a great player. The coach saw so much potential in me, that every week, I kept progressing in skill and fine tuning my mechanics. Halfway through the season, about 4 or 5 weeks after I made the team, my coach gave me the chance to play with the Varsity Golf team for a couple days. I was excited and eager to

I have been participating in AAU basketball since I was in eighth grade. I was repeatedly recognized for my talent and my team was always extremely successful. This past AAU season, however, was a completely different story. We were not winning any games and college coaches customarily attend winning games. I understood that the most I could do was provide my best effort, but due to the fact that we were losing, it was challenging for any of us to look exceptional. As the AAU season came to a close I was nervous. There was a quiet period in July, in which college coaches could not communicate with us players. I had been talking to a few before that time period commenced, but I was

I was confident. I was a better basketball player and everyone knew it. Each day after tryouts I told my dad "I've got it this time." Needless to say, once again my name wasn't on the list. I was so dejected that I couldn't even look my dad in the eye when he picked me up. That night, I went straight to bed and skipped dinner. I later found out both my mom and dad silently cried because they knew how hurt I was. My friends kept telling me I should have made the team, but that didn't change the fact that they were playing and I just had to sit in the stands and watch night after night. I went to every single game that season, and supported my friends; all the while feeling empty because I couldn't be out there with

My family was born to play basketball, both of my brothers had the size and athleticism to play professionally, and my dad towered over others standing at 6’6”. At a young age I was expected to follow in their footsteps. However, I did not have the size that the rest of my family did, and struggled to compete due to my small stature. In the seventh grade I tried out for my middle school basketball team and was promptly told I wasn’t good enough to play. I came home crying feeling that I disappointed my family. The next year, during the eighth grade try-outs, the coach said the same thing and broke my heart for the second year in a row. Dissatisfied with these results, I promised that I would make a change before entering high school.

As I started my senior year of highschool, I was approached by my head basketball coach. He approached me to tell me that he wanted me to help coach middle school basketball. At first I was a little skeptical because I already was incredibly busy. Because I did not want to disappoint my coach, I decided that I was going to go ahead and do it. I missed the first four days of practice because I had cross country practice after school. On a Friday, I was able to go to a practice. We went over our plays and scrimmaged each other. I was a little flustered because I had no idea the name of most of the kids. Practice ended and the head coach told me that I was coaching the B team on my own the next day. I was surprised to hear him say that. I couldn’t believe that I was going to be coaching a whole team on my

Back in elementary school, I generally had a great distaste for everything science; I preferred math. Science seemed too simple and I disapproved of the slow-moving pace. One day a year the school hosted Science Matters Day, my favorite people, Scientists, were invited to visit; they brought all kinds of fun activities. One of my favorite memories of all has to be the day they made a hard-boiled egg sink into a bottle. The experiment was still simple, but it was different from anything we had ever done before. This experiment included the use of a flame to produce heat and create pressure. I thought it was interesting, and I was hooked.

America’s gift to our generation is the hope for a better future is because we have the power to change our fate, change their life and turn their turn it around.

It was my first day of Grade 10, I didn’t want to go through being that new kid and having the thought of life being so complicated again but this time I had a reminder that if I went through it 6 years ago and turned out fine, I can do it again. It was very difficult at first because I had to spend lunch time alone and no one to talk to in class. I’m a very outgoing person and make friends easily or so I’ve been told, so after two weeks, I have made new friends. Two of the people I had made friends with Helen and Mika, were on the basketball team and I had told them I’ve always wanted to join basketball. They were begging me to join the team. The first day of tryout I didn’t want to go, I've never joined a sport before so I had this sick feeling that I wouldn’t make the cut, surprisingly I did. I was in grade 10 so I was in the junior team but we would always practice with the seniors because my coach wanted us to do really good for that season. On my first ever game, I went on the court with a lot of confidence and didn’t feel anxious at all. I shot two points at my first game and that made me feel so good about myself. I grew really close with my team and bonded really well with them. At the end of the season, we won all of our league games and the championship

I had gone for tryouts but I didn’t make the team because of my effort. In my 10th grade Year I was still a little bit lazy but I went out for spring football and got in shape and even pushed myself to not be lazy. After my 10th grade year I went for summer tryouts and practice for 11th grade year. I had made the team but I want as good as the others. I was mainly in shape but just a tad strong. I had never got in a game of my 11th grade year except for one but that was just for two plays. I made a bow that I would focus and work the hardest in my 12th grade year. When my 12th grade year arrived I worked hard and have gotten stronger and my opportunity came when one of my teammates had gotten injured, so they put me in and I demolished the offense I had gotten two sacks and 3 tackles it’s not much but it was enough to prove that I was working hard. Everybody was surprised at my performance and was amazed. After that Game I started my next five games. After those games I began to see myself decline because I had girl troubles, I was messed up in the head so bad I couldn’t even perform

Although I was put on the “freshman team” again, I had my mind set on showing the coach that I should not be on this team. My mentality going into the pre-season was to put all my heart and soul into all the practices and the pre-season games. I sat down with my coach and talked to him about how in my opinion, I was not meant to be playing for the Jv2. My coach told me “if you can show me that you are willing to work to get

When I was younger, I've always been interested in sports whether it was football, baseball and of course basketball. I played them all, because I couldn't decide which one I loved more. That all changed one day when I was at practice for basketball. As we're practicing, I won't lie. I was acting like there was no one else on my team. I kept ball hogging but even though I was making every one of my shots, coach called an immediate timeout. He made every other player sit down except me after he went over the play for when we got back in the game. I hadnt notice i was the only one heading back to the court until I turned around an seen the glares of my teammates. I was confused and said "Why are you guys sitting? Timeout's over, its time to