College Admissions Essay: Who Am I?

I’m awesome. It’s true. Everyone who meets me will agree, and by the end of this essay, you will too. I am from the small town of Mexico, Missouri where I haved lived my whole life. I was born on January 4, 2000. I am the millennium baby because I was the first baby born in 2000 in the the town of Mexico and I got to ride home in a limo. I went to elementary school at Hawthorne and then to the Middle School and now I am a Junior at The Mexico High School. I play basketball, football, and baseball. This summer I worked at the City Pool as a lifeguard. Last summer I worked at Pearl Motor Company for my dad. That job was definitely a lot harder than being a lifeguard, but I enjoyed both jobs. One of my favorite hobbies is hunting. I love to Turkey hunt and also deer hunt. I’ve killed three turkeys and one deer. One of my other hobbies is snow skiing. I usually get to go to Colorado every year with my church and I've been three times with my family. This is just a little bit of who I am.

There have been labels placed upon me throughout my life. Some have stayed with me while others have dropped off. Without these labels ruling how people see me I feel like I would be more free to do things than I am now.

Ever since I was little I have aspired to be something great in life, a chef, a pro. soccer player, and an artist. I still hold on to those dreams in hopes they will come true. All of these dreams shape who I am today. I play soccer for “Charlotte Soccer Academy” and previously for the “Waddell Soccer Team”. Both have kept me being a team player and a stronger leader. I go to visual arts camp over the summer and try to use creativity at any moment possible. I love making cupcakes and baking which also allow me to be creative. I have finally realized that all of these dreams originated from my family. I pursued soccer, like my parents did throughout their lives. I continue drawing, like my mother and father did until it became their life and jobs. I am still love making cakes and cupcakes every weekend, just like how i've seen my grandmother make them. Life has a very strange and mind-boggling way of turning out. I know that sounds cheesy, but it is really true.

Someone that I am is a kind,caring,and loving person who loves to help others. I have not yet attempted to make a positive change in the world but I do have a couple of ideas that i think will work and are very positive towards the world. I was always curious since I was a little girl what the entire world was like and how others were not in the best situations. Now that I am older I do realize that the world world is very harsh and it’s not always going to be the best place to be at certain times, I realized that when put myself in a bad position with not so good people. I’ve always told myself when I was younger that, they deserve that type of punishment when I would see people on the streets. Now I see that it always is not there fault they obviously up somewhere in life and mistakes always happen. One way I would like to help those people on the streets is build about the size of a large dog house and so they could call it home until they get back on there feet.

What makes me unique? This is a question that many people may ask themselves over the years. Upon pondering upon it, I realized that a lot of us our the same, especially in a school setting. We wake up, eat breakfast, go to all of our classes and go home. Even extra curricular have an abundant amount of people attending. So what makes us unique? Looking around and thinking about students, nothing obvious stands out. So I started looking at commonalities. Most people love gossip, so rumors are always a hot topic in a highschool. Upon thinking about rumors, it really shows how much people are judged by these stigmas made by other people. What makes me different from other people is my ability to never believe rumors.

A great man once said, “In order to succeed, we must first believe we can”, this great man is Gandhi. I’m not sure how many times I’ve heard I can’t finish school, I can’t go after my dream, I can’t be who I believe I need to be because people like me don’t succeed. Maybe you personally believe that, maybe someone close to you has said that to you, or maybe it’s just the statistics in the environment you’re in. No one but you knows your situation, but it’s also your choice how you want to change that. Want some examples on who prospered? How about Liz Murray, Oprah Winfrey, and Marshall Mathers III? These three people grew up in situations where they should’ve thought, “maybe I won’t be getting out of here, and maybe I can’t go to college, or become famous.” I will be talking about these three people and how they achieved their goal. How they overcame the odds that were thrown at them, and show you that you too can succeed.

Achieve, believe and succeed. These three verbs have summed up to who I am today, where I want to go, and who I will be tomorrow. Still to this day, my life has been categorized as the "all around." Instead of people asking me "what do you do?", they ask me, "what can't you do?" I believe in the fact that we are given a purpose in life, it's up to you to figure it out. That is exactly what I am determined and strong-willing going to do. I want the best for and in my life, the only way that is possible, is to earn it. I first earned part of my future by being accepted to an Early College High School, which is a school to where I earn my high school degree and my associate's degree. Out of the thousands that applied, I was chosen to be in their

What makes me unique is my diverse background, attention to detail, and enthusiasm to learn. My mother and father had me when they were sixteen years old. Both parents ended up dropping out of high school, and my father was a well-known gang member from Norwalk, California. My grandparents decided to raise me, so I would have a decent childhood. I grew up in the City of Pomona, California. While growing up, I was exposed to various artistic expressions, different music genres, and various cultures. After high school, I ended up enlisting in the United States Marine Corps. I served on active duty for seven years and four months and received an Honorable Discharge. While on active duty, I traveled to exotic countries such as Okinawa, Mainland Japan, South Korea, Australia, Kuwait, and Iraq. After my military service, I traveled to the Philippines. I can honestly say that I enjoy experiencing, and learning, from different cultures. This experience has allowed me to better understand and engage various people within my community, my work, and at school. Another characteristic that makes me unique is my attention to detail.

What makes you so different? A question I got frequently asked throughout all my development stages of life, by my peers, teachers and outsiders. I believe that all humans are born equal, although it’s our experiences that mold us to the great individuals we are. As for me, I grew up in todays 2nd most dangerous neighborhood of Camden New Jersey, where young men like myself born equal, are not given the resources for successful futures from our environment. Fortunately I’ve been blessed to understand that the world is a lot bigger than the 8 blocks of my so-called hood. The mystery of the unknown world was always on my mind. In Camden there is an invisible box around the county that creates a perception of the real world with no way out. Inside this box lie lost hope, misguided values, and violence.

Despite a person’s transcript, GPA, class rank, or SAT/ACT scores, there’s always a true individual underneath. This person could be a genius with no ambition or a not extremely-smart individual who works diligently every day so he/she can become something they desire. Students are told to keep the numbers on their transcript extremely high to make colleges believe they can fit in or so that they won’t become overwhelmed with the work presented in college. The numbers don’t define who a person really is or how much potential they truly have. Furthermore, there’s only one question that the college admission essay wants the answer to…”Who are you?”, and the admissions office wants to read a story that has only come from “you”. Well, this is me, and this is the story that defines me.

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.

While visiting southern France and taking in the incredible beauty of the countryside, I struggled to understand how people there live as compared to how people from a city such as Dallas live. These thoughts led me to believe that the whole world was more than just a bustling city with high expectations and pressure. Whizzing past the vineyards and pastures allowed me for once, to just breathe and smile. While cycling through this stunning countryside, I was able to witness the treasures of nature and the French meadows, things that I would never have been able to imagine seeing in my hometown.

Who am I? In some words i’m just one person in the whole world. But to others i’m a friend, sister, aunt, granddaughter, niece, etc. But to me i am a difference. A difference in this world. A difference in this country. A difference in my city. A difference in my community! A want to be different. Nobody wants to be plain and simple. I want to be my own person. I want to be myself. I don’t want people to tell me what to be. When i grow older i will be a change. I will make a change in this world.

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.

I came into this world on an overcast afternoon in a small town community. After I was born, my family immediately began watching the San Antonio Spurs game that had just started. I guess you could say I have been a fan since day one. Anyways, growing up I had it very good. I am the oldest of three children, so being the first-born definitely has its pros. However, being the oldest has its cons too. Of course, my parents tried everything they could to make my life better. From playing pieces of Mozart in an attempt to increase my IQ to implementing basic chores to create responsibility, they certainly tried their best. Something that has significantly meant something to me is this line in a poem by Marianne Williamson: “Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure…” It was a monologue I performed from the movie Coach Carter and ever since then it was significant to me. I think of that and realize that I should not be scared of what I can accomplish. I do not need to live my life worrying about what could happen if I