Descriptive Personal Experience Essay

1. List and briefly describe the two most significant distinctions or awards you have earned at university/college/CEGEP, or upper years in high school.

Watching my brothers graduate from college and move to far-off locations, doing interesting, fulfilling work and having exciting lives filled me with envy. On Sundays when they would load up their new cars to drive back to their jobs in neighboring states, I wished I could go along, just to hang out in one of their apartments and see what life was like on my own. Monday arrived too soon, like a rocket powered by the most potential caffeine and urgency imaginable, and I was back to school. I could hardly wait to get through my own classes at the local university and get out on my own, with them. One lived in San Diego and despite the reputation of California of being expensive to live in, he had somehow found an apartment that was less than many in our home city. With the goal of moving to the same apartment building as my brother, I was galvanized on finishing the school year as quickly as I could and moving out to San Diego to spend the summer with him. I envisioned we'd have a great time together.

After that we headed home. And the car ride home was not good I puked on the side of the road because I was hot and when it is hot I puke.

I never guessed a simple trip home would turn into a life or death situation. It neared the end of summer in 2008; my mom, grandma, and I began coming home from our short vacation that we take every summer to Ames, Iowa while my brother and dad go to Alaska. The sun shimmered down on us as we cruised down the various roads to arrive back home.

As I got on the plane I was not able to handle all of my excitement. I would be having a new adventure in Italy. It would take about 12 hours to arrive. During that time I would be sleeping, looking for fun tourist attractions, and sleeping some more. The plane finally landed just a few minutes ago on Central Italy and now I await my taxi. Once the taxi arrived and took me to my hotel I decided to go sightseeing. As I was driving to the Orvieto Cathedral I got lost. Without reception for my phone I decided to ask a woman near by. As I approached her she looked very well built and strong. As I neared her I noticed that she was also holding a child. I then asked,

Nineteen years ago I was born in a little town in southern New Jersey called Manahawkin. It is a tourist town, and even today is genuinely only known for the island that it is attached to, and even saying that it is “known” is a stretch. Typically, tourists do not even know the name of my town while driving through it. When I arrived at college, I had to constantly answer the question of where I am from. Eventually I learned to just fib a little and say that I am from “Long Beach Island” because people can at least recognize that name.

Everyone has been through a personal experience, whether it has changed their lives for better or worse. These experiences can be eclectic events such as going out to explore the world or even devastating events such as tragic accidents. My personal experience occurred a year ago during the summer when I took a trip to visit San Francisco, California with my family. This trip to San Francisco was a thrilling adventure due to the city being very beautiful and breathtaking. During my visit to the city I was able to take part in the beaches, the Golden Gate Bridge, and Six Flags.

I walk towards my mom's white toyota where my mom waits for me. She has a grim expression on her face but at the moment I don't notice it. I collapse into the passenger seat and look behind me to see that my sister wasn't here today. I assume that her friends mom picked her up from school that day as my mom drives out of the school parking lot.

When I was a child, I thought the world of my parents. Up until recently, I still did but, after that, my opinion changed. Allow me to elaborate. Around one month before my birthday my aunt was due to have her first child. The toffee colored walls and dark oak floors of the home werewere like those of the evening hours of a desolate campground. The familiar faces and calligraphy on the walls presented me with a situation in which I felt no discomfort whatsoever. My mind was at peace in that home, regardless of the circumstances. The rough carpet between my toes provided me with a sense of belonging and purpose. The flow of memories overloaded my mind causing the room to spin based off the sheer amount of what had happened here. The intensity and magnitude of these initial moments were similar to when one consumes a spicy pepper or the initial flavor of a Lemonhead candy, painful at the beginning, but oddly pleasing as time goes on.

As the bright, yellow sun glared down on us from the sky, we knew. When the aroma of the salt water and the sand touched our noses, we knew. As we saw flocks of seagulls flying over the horizon, we knew. Corpus Christi, was an unending beauty as far as the eye could see. A sense of extreme excitement and suspense filled my body, as we arrived on the golden shoreline of the beach. I am not usually a huge fan of crowds, but today was different. Though many people were present, it gave me a good opportunity to take everything in for the first time. It was evident, that my brief experience in Corpus Christi was going to be a memorable one.

Markets are prevalent all over the world. They may vary on what they have to offer and how they are set up, but what is similar amongst them is the experience, the sheer amount of diversity, and sense of community that one gets from walking through a market. The experience of a market goes far beyond the food itself. All of your senses are bombarded as you cruise along. The smell, the people, the never-ending discovery of what a place like this has to offer. As Tzipi Livni, one of the most powerful women in Israel once said, "I prefer jeans to a suit, sneakers to high heels, markets to malls”. She explains in few words that simplicity is key in life and markets are no exceptions.

My family and I had planned a trip to Denver, Colorado to visit my brother and his girlfriend. It took months and months to finally have it all planned out, but we finally figured everything out. We left for the cities on a Wednesday night. We stayed in a sketchy hotel in the cities by the airport and flew out of Minneapolis around 5:30 a.m. I was so nervous, as it was my very first plane ride. The plane was quite small. Our plane was delayed due to them having to deice the plane due to all the cold. I suddenly started to feel sick, all my nerves had gotten to me so I reached for the puke bag and puked everywhere! I was so embarrassed, my family and people around me were laughing so hard at me because I had gotten myself so worked up. But once the plane started up I felt much better.

A bright array of lights dotted the dark landscape beneath the plane where I sat It was late, around midnight, and the day had stretched beyond measure beginning with customs in the Atlanta airport. About 1:30 a.m. we landed in the airport at San Jose International Airport. I was exhausted but the beauty of the landscape would be only a shimmer of what was to come.

Becca has dark brown, slightly curling hair that has been slowly growing longer since I have met her. She has thick, black glasses that add to her personality. She is about five and a half feet tall and slightly chubby. She has a sense of style that has a pinch of something nerdy about it whether it being one of her purses that she brings with her or it being her whole outfit such as her “Legend of Zelda: The Windwaker” dress that has multiple stained-glass windows from that game. I met Becca when I was in 10th grade when my neighbor was having a small movie watching party. I really didn’t talk to her there but during the following year, when she was in 9th grade, our friendship started to grow. We were both on the musical crew for video and ended up learning a lot about her personality. She is a fun, generous, hardworking, caring person who will put others in front of herself about 95% of the time.

In the summer after 4th grade, my family decided to go on a vacation to the big apple, New York City. I can still remember packing my luggage full of not only clothes, but also the essential snacks. I filled that suitcase all the way up to the seams with Pepperidge Farm Goldfish, Nabisco Teddy Grahams, and Little Debbie Oatmeal Crème Pies. I packed the food in hope of having good treats for the plane ride, and my father says New York City food is expensive. Little did I know at the time that this vacation would become the story of when I got lost in New York.