College Admissions Essay: The Game Of Life

When I was young, I used to spend my day pondering over the purpose of existence. My family wasn’t rich, conflicts happened every time between adults. There were no allowances for me and the most I would get after receiving a perfect score was a “Good job”. Watching my friends going out for dinner with their parents or showing off new toys wasn’t a very pleasing experience. To my perception, the point of life for grownups was to struggle for money, which, well, makes the family happier. However, after a simple chess game in a nursing home with an old man named Kramer, I discovered something that had greatly affected me.

A person’s reputation is the beliefs and opinions that are generally held about them by other people. Abraham Lincoln stated “Character is like a tree and reputation like a shadow. The shadow is what we think of it; the tree is the real thing.” This quote shows that the reputation of a person is only a small part of a person. What really matters in a person is their character. Someone can have a bad reputation and still have great character. If someone can get past what others think about them then a good reputation is not overly important.

“Just one more game”. These words have been used by children all across the world countless times. Growing adolescents find ways to pass the time by playing games with their friends without even realizing a crucial life skill they are obtaining in the process; competition. Coping with defeat in a match or game that you have given your entire heart and soul to can be very hard to overcome, but everyone does. It just takes practice. Along with coping with defeat, there are endless lessons to be learned in a simple game of backyard baseball.

As a journalist, I have learned to ask a lot of questions, and lately I have been noticing I have been asking one question more frequently than others; “why not?” When I began to tell people that I wanted to be my own boss and someday have my own publication, continue to make music and also open up my own store, I got a lot of strange looks. I was told that I needed to get a practical job instead of running the risk of being ‘a starving artist’. After receiving this response routinely, I began to wonder what was really so bad about that. I began to realize that while yes, things might become a struggle, rent might become unbearable and I might not be able to afford luxuries, I would be more than happy to wake up every morning and know that

I was born on September the 7th of 1994 in the San Francisco Bay area, not very far from Silicon Valley. The year I was born President Bill Clinton signed the North American Free Trade agreement with Mexico and Canada which helped to stimulate economic growth about twenty years ago. Living in California made my Dad the open-minded liberal that he is today, and because of his love for discussing politics I was raised listening to him have friendly debates with my very republican grandpa over every economic issue from climate change to healthcare. For about a year and a half after I was born my parents, older brother Daniel, golden retriever sandy, and I all lived in a classic colonial style home just south of Santa Clara Valley. My father was the breadwinner in our family working as an engineer for Portola Packaging. A job he was offered not long after graduation from a small private engineering school in upstate New York called Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. My mother also worked full time but as a loan underwriter. After being offered a great relocation package by Portola to the east coast my parents quickly decided to pack up our house and move to Pittsburg Pennsylvania. In addition to being closer to our extended families they also believed that raising a family in Pennsylvania was far

My past, present, and future. This is the journey of my life. Where I’ve been, where I’m at, and where I’m going. My journey began on July 28, 2000, at St. Margret’s South Hospital in Dyer, Indiana. Lance Collins who is a paramedic, and Christine Collins who is a registered nurse, became the proud parents of the 6lb. 9oz. 21 inch long baby boy, who they named Liam Hunter Collins. On November 30, 2002, I became a big brother when my sister Taylor Collins was born. I have been a lifelong resident of Northwest Indiana and I’ve had some pretty amazing adventures and accomplishments so far. I became a proud pet owner when my bichon frise Max, came to live with us on April 5th, 2006. On June 30, 2006 my dad took me to my very first Taekwondo lesson. I quickly fell in love with martial arts, I worked really hard, dedicated myself, and I received the rank of 1st degree black belt when I was only eight years old. I have been playing

Over the course of a person’s life, there are events that play a vital role in shaping his or her characteristic. These events could be momentarily, or take many years to happen; regardless, it is what we gain from those moments that are important. All my life, I’ve learned how to be optimistic and adaptive to everything that I will encounter.

I believe in searching for new perspectives. Time is incessant, and each day provides the opportunity for a fresh experience. I fear an unstoppable routine, knowing the world could offer me more than what is in my vicinity. With a constant restraint for viewing only what is in my reach, it is impossible to become the person I am destined to be.

“You never realize how good you have it until what you have is gone.” That is the lesson I learned the hard way. Sports have taught me more than I could have ever imagined; however my mind flashes back to one moment quite often. I cringe thinking of the experience and weep at the thought of it happening to my teammates. Experiences contribute to our growth mentally, spiritually, and physically, and I associate a large portion of my growth as an individual and a basketball player to a knee injury I suffered my freshman year of high school.

"I have always Imagined Life as a useless bag of possibilities; no matter which one I chose I already knew who I was and who I was going to be. Out of all those paths and choices I could always see greatness. Even if it meant the spotlight will not shine on me.

The life course theory is a theory of “life progression” through time of birth to death. The life course epidemiology is considered to be the study of long-term biological, behavioral, and psychological developments that brings the link between adult and the potential of disease risk as a result of physical or social exposures proceeding from conception, during childhood, adolescence, early adulthood or through generations (Nickitas, Middaugh, & Aries, 2010). Essentialy, the theory stipulates that biological and social components interact with each other to produce health conditions during an individual’s lifetime (Nickitas, Middaugh & Aries, 2010).

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!

It`s strange the way we look back on the past. How we consider the advice we would tell our younger selves, `you`ll be okay,` or `he does not define you.` The idea most prominent in my mind was put forward by my father, `Life is all about taking chances.` The words seemed to ricochet off of me, as if his mouth was a gun and I was wearing a bullet proof vest.

The opinions that people hold on an individual's actions, behavior or simply their personality has a great impact on that particular person. There are instances where one can underestimate or even overestimate how other people think of them. I have been in a situation where I totally overestimated how much other people were thinking about me. This occurred during the first few days that I had joined college. I usually made sure that I was early for class and would sit at the front of the class. I would always answer all the questions that were asked even if I was not sure of the answer. I used to do all this so that I could attract attention and hence be noticed by the rest of the class.

The life given by god has a very special meaning a value in which people sometimes forget to thank or either regret. Many students/adults believe that they are going to be popular if they have money and a good job buy forget that people are influenced by those who have learned something. Also a lot fail to remember, to earn value you must earn it.In today’s economy the government creates a value on the person by looking at the position they are held for. If you look at it from the society’s point of view they believe people should be given value according to what they do and what position they are. From an individual's perspective they judge themselves on what they accomplish and achieve.The value of the individual would