College Admissions Essay: What Life Has Taught Me

Throughout our lives, we make choices and decisions that change our lives and others in positive and/or negative ways. It is these decisions that determine how we will be remembered, our legacy. When I graduate high school, I want to be remembered by the qualities that define me as a person and the good I’ve done for others. Throughout the years, I’ve been often been described by my family and friends as bold, confident, outgoing, and hardworking. Not only are these characteristics important to me, but they are important to my family, as they want to leave a legacy in the name of our family. The qualities I have exhibited are the same qualities past family members have shown and are remembered for. Through always putting out my best effort when it comes to work and school, I have shown my dedication and discipline. Through doing what I can to help others, I have displayed my commitment to world peace, the betterment of the world as a whole, and the yearning to make a difference in someone’s life other than my

My father always said, "learn to walk before you jump" and for years that's what I've tried to do. But what's the point if all you keep doing is tripping along on the road of your future. All I've ever known is hard work and plenty of failures. However, without failure, there wouldn't be a success. Even in grade school, I knew I couldn't make it. Yet, somehow by some miracle, I'm still kicking it to make it through.

In the novel life lessons:two experts on death and dying teach us the mysteries of life and living. The novel talks about many lessons such as

When life gives you the opportunity to be successful, you take it. So, out of every let down or every time you ever ask yourself, “was it worth it?”…, you say “definitely”, persevere, and continue seeking greatness. When I got that opportunity, I hit the ground running. I was hungry to become successful, hungry to graduate from college, hungry to even hear my dad say, “I’m proud of you”. Maybe I could have taken a different route but hey, growing up in a small town like Mullins SC with a high unemployment rate, don’t get you too far. I couldn’t find myself falling into that statistic. Working temp jobs, wondering how I would pay for college…, it was rough, definitely some humble beginnings. This by no means is a message for sympathy.

Throughout my life I have battled against mayor struggles. Struggles which to some may seem like it was nothing and to others it may look like it`s a horrible situation. My entire childhood I lived in my home country of Puerto Rico, and honestly had never thought about the outside world. As time passed, the more crime progressed to levels that could never be seen in America. Crime had become unbearable and unescapable, so much that stepping on someone’s shoe on accident would lead to that person shooting you or threatening to do so. I as a child could see what was happening, and I could see how my countries problems had affected me greatly. Shootings right behind my house almost every day, 9-year-old`s bringing guns and pocket knives to school, people breaking in to my school to kill students selling drugs. The biggest problem that affected me was that my father, being a kind-hearted man, risked his life to save two students who were

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.

Imagine me -- a hotshot 14 year old, destined for the Ivy leagues, captain of the JV wrestling squad (weighing in at an impressive 5'3", 115 pounds), and an overall smart alec strolling into high school as if it owed me something. Failure was not a part of my claimed impressive and nothing could stop me from being top of my class (spoiler if you haven't looked at the rest of my application: I'm not).

“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.”

Martin Luther King once said “If you can't fly then run, if you can't run then walk, if you can't walk then crawl, whatever you do, never stop moving”. When I first read this quote I wasn't able to comprehend it's meaning, after all I was in the third grade. One thing was clear, my admiration for his courage and tenacity to stand tall in the face of fear. That admiration transcended into my own life when I faced the departure of my father, the reality of the poverty my family lived in and my dark history with concussions.

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.

When I ponder the first 17 years of my life, I realize that I have taken my life for granted. I’ve never actually thought about how soon my life could end, not seeing my loved ones ever again, and never being able to enjoy life’s glorious moments. Having a miraculous, close encounter with death has changed how I view life. I pay attention to the details of my life more, and the small things in life don’t seem to aggravate me as much as they did in the past.

I grew up in a house with a nurse and a police officer. A home that encouraged my personal growth and achievement. I have watched my parents work tirelessly to give me and my three sisters the life we had growing up. I need this scholarship money to prove that their sacrifices paid off.

In fall of 2017, I will be attending college. I’m not quite sure where precisely, but when I do arrive on campus, I will not be alone. I will carry the weight of my mother’s ambitions with me.

Education has never been a priority in my family. Throughout my childhood I watched my two sisters take on the challenge of getting to college. The oldest, scrambling to pick up the pieces of our disabled father after the divorce, spent so much time at home that school had to be moved to the back-burner. Even when UCSD gave her the opportunity to recover that forgotten pot on the stove, her responsibilities at home forced her to leave it where it was. My other sister, fearful of the back-burner and diminishing into the mom role, spent the next four years juggling homework, varsity softball practice, and duties at home. I swore that she had managed to make college a priority, to move it off the back-burner. However, when application season

All through life, we experience various occasions when decision-making become necessary. A number of them present themselves in difficult forms and at crucial points. Most of the verdict we take will eventually figure and describe our track of lives. These are what we refer to as lessons of life. Choices never present themselves in an easy way. In some instance we are always forced to pay a price to achieve something. This implies that we are trading for an outcome we are seeking.