College Admissions Essay: The Perfect Path

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 am a southern bred leader, pursuer, and helper whos mission is to spread peace, love, unity, and respect among many to create a world of cheerfulness and brotherhood. I am Austin William Carricoand this is my story. All my life I have lived in the small town of Crestview and grew up among the wilderness along with its inhabitants. As the town grew exponentially into a vast city, my heart, my mind, and my soul grew with it, learning the ways to help others and slowly turning from a boy to the young man I am today. I now attend Collegiate High School continuing my journey at the ripe age of fifteen, still promoting peace as a mission for others even when I left my former school, Niceville High.

Trying to decide what to do for the rest of my life is a hassle. I have to consider what I do well, what I enjoy, and how much income I would like to make. No one wants to wake up every morning hating their lives because they have to work long hours doing something they do not enjoy just to earn an income. The more a person loves their job, the better they will be at it and the more they will be willing to go to work. After spending many years being indecisive about my future, I have finally committed to pursue a career in speech pathology at Nicholls State University.

Four years ago, as a freshman in highschool, attending a liberal arts school was not important to me or my aspirations. I just knew I wanted to go to a “good” college. I did not learn what liberal arts really was until I was a senior in high school, and even then, it did not play as much of role in my college decision process as it should have. To me, it just meant do I want to learn about more subjects, or just my area of study. I had this form or thinking just one year ago, but now, as a member of a liberal arts institution, I am finding a new appreciation for the importance of a liberal arts education in my life because of the society that we live in today.

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

Born in a country where education is poor, life is hard, and opportunities are very rare, I was fortunate to come with my family to the U.S in search for a better future. I was only eight years of age when my family had to go through much hardship in order to bring my brother and I to this country. My good fortune was accompanied by many challenges such as learning English, getting to know a wide variety of diverse people and adapting to my new environment. It was a hard beginning for me, making it difficult to find the road I was looking for. The people that really support me in every struggle I have experienced ever since I was born are my parents who were and continue to be my biggest influence. I am blessed to have such a supportive and

If someone asked me where I am going to be in ten years, this would be my answer. I will have a great, high-paying job, and beautiful wife and family, and a nice sports car parked in front of my lovely house. When I look into the future, I see myself being successful and happy. Even though I always pictured myself this way, I never worried too much about how I would get there. I feel the Suffolk University can lay the groundwork for making these dreams into reality.

This forced me analyze my life thus far, to recognize my fears and what I hold dear. It’s only been sixteen (one month till seventeen) years in this carcass, but I already feel like an entire life has flown by. It was like a prerequisite of actually watching my life flash before my eyes. This project was nice to sit back and look at what a social mess I am (one of my most favorite pastimes). But also, only being sixteen, I don’t hold what many would believe to be true values, dreams, fears, and identity. Nevertheless, this is what I have so far.

Being a Filipino, I grew up in a culture where education is of utmost important. When I entered high school in the Philippines, I was surprisingly surrounded by deep-pocketed students with remarkable talents and intelligence. Not like everybody else, I came from a middle-class broken family but that did not stop me from going to school. Later on, I became friends with some of the popular students in our school, and suddenly, made me part of the top of the food chain. I, then realized, am as good as them, but not better. Thus, I genuinely promised myself that I will do better in college.

“Volunteers are the only human beings on the face of the earth who reflect this nation's compassion, unselfish caring, patience, and just plain loving one another.”

I thought was fully prepared for college when I walked across the stage on June 1st, 2015, but I was completely wrong. College is a whole new lifestyle that you eventually learn to adapt to everyday. The advice you hear from parents everyday is something you take with you as you navigate throughout campus. Some of the previous advice my mother gave to me is the advice I should of listened to. Now that I am older and on my own, it’s up to me to figure out how everything works.

What you see is not always what it is. We learn to perceive what we're looking at, and we get used to how things are supposed to be. I was always fascinated by the illusion pictures that at first glance is strikingly simple to guess what it is, if you give more attention to detail you see another picture in it. What inspired me the most and made me a curious person was how missing one detail can change the whole outlook of the picture – just as missing one aspect from patient’s evaluation can lead to a wrong diagnosis. This taught me the importance of thoroughness in doing anything in my life. My meticulous nature has been an incredible driving force behind who I am

The pure pleasure that comes from frivolously smashing small pots with a wooden spoon was every child’s dream. But for me I wondered, How does the sound work? When I was young, the garage door seemed like magic and I was always wondering; How does that work? That question filled me with curiosity, and to this day I want to know how everything works. I remember my dad giving me the book: The Way Things work And I was astounded because it was full of colorful, fun illustrations that explained everything from simple machines to aeronautical masterpieces. I spent hours upon hours (a long time for a kid) just looking upon the pages filled with mechanical drawings amazed like I had found Da Vinci's notebook. But even today many, many years later with most of

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.

Striving for excellence motivates you; striving for perfection is demoralizing. This is the law I live by in life, however I didn't always. Actually I didn’t live by this law at all until recently, and I wish I’d found it sooner.