College Admissions Essay: You Get What You Give

One of my first memories as a child was my mom reading to me. There was a tornado warning, so we all rushed to the basement and crammed ourselves into the back bedroom. To calm my hysteria from wailing sirens and howling winds, my mom pulled Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone off the shelf and began to read. The storm faded away and I was absorbed in a magical universe. Over the next year, she read the whole series to me, and ever since then, the power of words and the English language fascinated me.

Ever since 8th grade, I have worked hard a lot more when I play volleyball. Right when the varsity coaches asked me to join their practice, I knew that I had to work hard and that it will pay off. Now, at every practice, I would play my heart out even if I was playing with a fractured finger or a rolled ankle.

I started working for Dollywood Splash Country my sophomore year of high school as a lifeguard. It requires many early mornings, long days, late nights and constant focus out in the hot summer weather. Even though this isn’t always the most glamorous job I have taken pride in working hard and being ready to serve in whatever capacity I can to help out other employees and managerial staff. I arrive early and will work late if needed, because I really enjoy working hard and the satisfaction I receive. No matter how I’m feeling that day I come into work every day and fully dedicate myself to the job trying to feel like I did everything I could to improve the workplace when I leave that day.

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

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).

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

A wise man once said, “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.” The fight of life’s success isn’t effortless, but I’ll never quit, nor will I be defeated. There aren’t any limits to the greatness of success, neither are there any limits to how unwavering I am, pushing myself to excel, allowing me to become a better

Ever since I have lived, I have always wanted to have the knowledge of truth in my life. A wish unimaginable has been cast upon me for a desire to know the aspects of good and evil through actions and ideas especially theological ideas. Me reading through the night about God gives me a sense of hope and a grin upon my face - especially reminiscing the past events in my life. Walking throughout the day and sleeping through the night, I usually contemplate about these matters. Going to bed every night seems normal because I have adapted to ignoring some of the beauty in Montana, but when I look at the sky, I see that something has orchestrated the heavens and the earth. The starry night, so powerful and yet peaceful, twinkling in my retina of my eye. The snow-capped mountains out of my window being observed out of my bedroom window. The mountainous terrain orchestrates the powerful magnificence of the One who created it.

The way I imagine it, no matter what age or stage you’re at in life, looking toward your future is a daunting task; which is how I currently feel. Sitting in the bedroom of my parent’s house, thinking about the future that lies ahead of me, I’m simply taken back. The days of the calendar come and go, a semester of school ends while another begins; life transpires before you like a Broadway play. But sometimes we have the opportunity to step back, and take a look at our own life and where we stand within it. This moment came to me recently while sitting in class, my professor, speaking of our future, told us to “wrap your soul around it.”

I grew up in a house located in a city named Hallandale, a not so quite poverty-stricken African-American dominated neighborhood of South Florida. Everyday news reports of someone either dying, getting shot, or arrested from the neighborhood appeared on my front screen. I lived in a one story house with only three bedrooms and ten of my family members. I always considered my home as the most beautiful house on the block — a heavenly oasis in a cesspool of dilapidation. You knew my house because my grandmother had a lion on the outside of it that stood through every storm Florida threw its way. To me that lion represented the courage and strength of people in my neighborhood held despite the hard ships surrounding it. Every Sunday my grandma cooked for those in need.

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.

I love almost anything that has milk in it. Cream cheese, iced coffee, milkshakes, and cheese . But unfortunately the universe is against me and has decided to make milk irritate my asthma. So whenever I eat something with a reasonable amount of milk product in it, one of two things occurs. Situation one- I am completely fine and can go about my day knowing I have won this round against a weird cow byproduct. Situation two- The strange cow liquid/solid choses to take control of my throat and lungs, causing me unable to breathe normally for a while, and usually ruining a small part of my day. In fact before writing this, I ate a rather small amount of chocolate ice cream that decided to give me a cough and a itchy throat as revenge. Regardless, I have survived to tell the tale and because of my choice, a small part of my life has been improved.