College Admissions Essay: Where Do I See Myself?

When I think about the next five years of my life, I like to think that I will be getting on my feet and succeeding in life. It has taken me a while to figure out what I want to do with my life and what I would like to do for my career. Over the next five years, I am going to have to do a lot in school and outside of school to prepare for my future career .

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.

Growing up I have always been a single child. I was born in North Carolina and when I was three we were kicked out of the house and moved to Florida. We lived from house to house every year because we couldn’t pay rent. When my mother’s back began to bother her the doctors said she had MS. Soon after that my parents were divorced. I have always looked back and said to myself that I will not live like my parents I want to go to college and love my husband. I don’t want to struggle. Since the divorce I have developed characteristics that will make me successful.

The pursuit of attending college has been a personal desire and goal for as long as I can remember. While maintaining a rigorous academic course load, I also had a passion for excelling in my music endeavors. My superior GPA and yearly testing scores broadened my career choices but made it difficult to discern whether I wanted to pursue something in the field of medicine, education, or music. The academics, experiences, and activities that I have been involved with throughout my life, definitely have shaped and encouraged me to think deeper about what it is that I would truly love to excel in on the college level and pursue as a life-long career.

Growing up with my single mother, you tend to witness more things. Because of my mother’s financial situation, if she was offered employment in another place, I went with her. As a result, my mother and I have moved about 5 or 7 times. Each new place was frightening and challenging. Out of all the place, only three have had an impact on me mentally and emotionally.

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

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.

Who I am as a person has a lot to do with my family values. Finding out my top five strengths through StrengthFinder was an eye opener. I’ve never taken a test like that before and it pinpointed my strengths that I do every single day. For me Self-discipline is the good foundation of my success that I have. I will be talking about how discipline helped me out in my academics, how it helped me in my career and how it shaped me as a person.

I wake up for yet another day of unpredictable events, I never know exactly what is going to happen during the day; the only thing I know for sure is I have no home to go to. I have nowhere to go and nowhere to be, I am 18 years old and I already consider myself a failure. I like to think that it is not all my fault, I consider myself a very smart guy, and I had excellent marks before I dropped out of school. It was when I was kicked out of my mother’s house when I was forced to drop out and try and support myself. That is enough background about me, long story short, I am no longer a student, and I have no job and no place to call my home. I step outside and immediately see my breath as I exhale, great it’s going to be another cold day in paradise.

Am I ready for high school? What changes am I going to make to be successful? Do I have my short and long term goals planned out? Many questions that I was asked right before my first year of high school are ones that I didn't take literal notice of. It wasn't that those questions weren't important and wouldn't have been beneficial. It was mainly being that walking into high school for the first time I didn’t know where to go, who to talk to, and most importantly what were my goals after graduating. At the time my mind was set on childish attributes such as what girls would be there, was I well groomed, or how many of my friends did I have in my class . While growing up I never had anyone explain to me the significance of a GPA . I didn't

Home is a place where everyone should feel a sense of belonging. No matter where people go in life, they can continually go back home. I once thought that home is where I live. Physically, I live in a house in Smith County with my family. I am blessed to have a roof over my head with many things, but I do not feel like I belong where I am from. I come from a good family, but I detested what I used to call home because of the constant turmoil and uncertainty. I blamed myself for the conflicts that would arise, so I disliked myself. For over thirteen years, I called home a place I resented many times, but thankfully, I found my perfect home, which is more superior than a house. The home I am referring to is Jesus Christ.

As a fourteen year old, I wake up from a normal night’s sleep. I do not expect my faith to be challenged and redefined. I expect to wake up, eat breakfast, attend school, go to basketball practice, and enjoy the day. Instead, Today I face the harsh reality of hurt, pain, and confusion.

When I first started looking at colleges I had no idea where I wanted to go. I had no clue how far I wanted to travel, no knowledge about any schools, and was still stuck in the realm of high school. I suppose that’s a lot of high school students, but unlike some students who had researched colleges their junior year, I hadn’t thought about where I wanted to attend. I started with the basics. What did I want to study? I looked into some schools for marine biology and looked to Florida in hopes of finding a school for marine biology as well. As I went further into the process I realized that I didn’t want to be too far from home, and I wanted to perhaps focus more on biology and environmental science. The first schools that I was interested in were Connecticut College, Skidmore College, and The University of New Hampshire.

Rank, GPA, grades, these numbers and percentages define who I am as a student and what opportunities I will be presented with in the future. There are two 97s, two 98s, seventeen 99s, and thirty-three 100s on my high school transcript; I have dedicated a significant portion of my life to make sure those grades are perfect, lamented the small failures and lionized the success’. Due to a rigorous study and work ethic, I am prepared for each test I take in school moreover, I have learned to adopt this principle in life as well. I earned each and every one of the grades on my transcript by learning to manage my time wisely, never procrastinating, and giving each class, no matter its weight or subject, my undivided attention. Whenever I had free time, in between classes, at lunch, on the car ride home from school, or even at a tennis tournament, I was studying. I never allowed myself to slack off, and as a result my grades were set apart from everyone else's. Finding a balance between working hard and playing hard has always been a battle in discipline among my id, ego, and superego. A lesson that has led to some small and some

Why me? As I grew up I continued to ask myself why? Throughout my life I didn't understand why I was hit with so many hardships. I never got an answer... so I went on to believe my struggles were only preparing me for my future. My perseverance kept me going and still is because I still face difficulties. I believe I formed myself into a leader, despite the challenges I find a way to achieve.