College Admissions Essay: My Pursuit Of Perfection

I am the oldest of three siblings, the oldest of my cousins from my maternal side, and the first from both maternal and paternal side to receive an education outside the country Nigeria, better yet the United States. It is a privilege that a few attain and for many Nigerians a dream come true. As grateful as I am, there are a lot of expectations accompanied. Although, doing what is best for me is the common mindset in today’s society, I cannot help but consider such mentality, the waste of an opportunity.

Even though I did try a little harder, my test scores barely improved. So when I finished the second trimester with a D in the class, I was completely devastated. Only then did I realize that there’s no going back and that my time was running out. I was thrown into a pit of despair, probably due to the unconscious stress that’s been building up. But it was then when I finally came to realization of the problem: me. It wasn’t the hard class or the teacher or my studying style, but it was my mentality that was holding me back. I thought that what I had was confidence, when it was really just arrogance. That arrogance blinded me from the fact that AP calculus BC isn’t a typical high school course, it’s an actual college level course. It dawned to me that

My hands became clammy and my heart started racing. I did not want to believe the words coming out of my mother’s lips, “His kidney failed three weeks after the operation, he is dead”. I was just 5 years old and I felt like there was no purpose to live. My father was everything to me. I already missed his genuine kindness, the way his smile formed whenever he talked to me about life, and the times where we had father-son time at the airport, watching airplanes fly. Standing there looking into my mother’s eyes filled with intent and worries, I was speechless. At this instant, I was able to budge a smile and move myself, despite being frozen from the news, to embrace my now widowed mother. Despite this tragic event, my dad had a dream, a vision that his two sons would achieve the American Dream filled with infinite opportunities that can be obtained with a higher education. To this day, I continually strive to live up to the American Dream my dad envisioned for me.

The freedom to walk, the ability to run, the excitement to jump. All of these tasks are ones that come easily to many people, but come as a great challenge to me. I was born in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo with a condition called Amniotic Band Syndrome, which means that I was born without a leg.

“Are you a perfectionist?” when I asked this question most of my classmates say “No”. I used to agree with them because “A good man is hard to find” and “A perfect person is impossible”. You always think Perfectionism can’t exist, nobody has enough ability to touch it that why pencil have eraser. However “Is it true?” Do you believe that perfectionism is real and many people conquer it? Let‘s find the answer in my representation.

In Heather Lende’s book, Find the Good, she writes in a way that makes the story seem uniquely personal. She doesn’t shy away from talking about her true feelings in her own experiences, even when they aren’t a feeling that she particularly agrees with at the time that she wrote the book, like her feelings when her adopted daughter, Stoli, was unmarried and pregnant at the age of twenty one. Even though they were a happy couple at the time and seemed completely prepared to have their first child, Heather was very worried about it and even thought to herself that “I must have done a bad job” (Lende 33). However, Heather learns from reacting this way and strives to be the best mother that she can be after this.

I want to serve as a Peace Corps volunteer because I feel deeply in debt to all the people I have done volunteer work for. These people have made me stronger, have given me greater understanding of the world around me, have taught me things that I will never find in a book or when sitting in class. Yet I have only been able to give back hours at a time. Due to this, I feel like I have had my time to flourish and grow, and now is my opportunity to really help others do the same. The Peace Corps is my best option to do so because it will allow me to integrate myself fully into volunteer work for a significant time period, it will allow me to work within a potentially novel community to do volunteer work that most benefits them, and will give me the ability to connect directly with those in the community.

A moment in my life that has shaped or formed who I am has got to be be involved and/or discovery of sports. They really have made me who I am and it’s such a great thing that I can do these activities. There are many moments that I can remember that got me started with sports.

“Good afternoon class! Please clear off your desk and get out a pen or pencil.” It was only after I had run across the building that I heard this phrase, feared by so many. It is this phrase that is so often used to doom students to weekends filled with nothing but chores, misery and the inevitable grounding. After my teacher spoke, I got the feeling that a family of frogs had just taken up residence in my throat and stomach. I knew what she was about to make us do and I also knew that it meant one more failed attempt to succeed at something that was unattainable—a perfect score on the AP Literature multiple choice practice test.

All individuals are not born perfect. Every individual has their flaws that has a positive or negative impact to those around them and the society. All individuals have flaws that can or cannot hide from the rest of the world. Scholars of psychology argue that obsessions cause individuals to achieve perfection and can have a positive or negative aspect to an individuals’ life. Perfection is the conditions, state, or quality of being free as possible from all flaws or defects. These scholars’ arguments contribute to the story, “The Birth-Mark”, Nathanial Hawthorne expresses the common personal issue that individuals possess. The Birth-Mark was about a man named Aylmer and his obsession of science and the birth mark on his wife’s face. The birth

All I got was a B in math. It was too late to beg for mercy, so I thought of the options I could do to prevent this situation from getting any worse.

When I was 17 years old I decided to get sworn into the U.S. Army. It wasn’t easy at all getting in. All the stacks of paperwork to fill out made my brain go into overload. I had to take so many tests, go through exhausting examinations, and go on so many trips back and forth to M.E.P.S with my talkative recruiter. I almost gave up on it and said I didn’t want to do it again because I was starting to get discouraged. Crying every night and getting angry made me get even more discouraged. But, I never gave up because I knew that my parents and grandparents were counting on me and they were so proud of me. All they did was smile and tell me I’m going to be a great in life; that made me feel so much joy in my heart. Finally, I got to the end of all the exams and the last station you go through was with an old man alone in a room. He looked through all my paperwork and said “everything looks good young lady, and you are going Army, congratulations!” I was so excited I didn’t know what to do. I went home and told my mom it was official. She shed tears of joy. All my mom wanted me to do was be great and do great things. She

As a child, I was extremely meek and reserved. In addition to that, I was what people call a "doormat"; if my friend asked that I do something for him or her, I would perform the task diligently. Maybe my constant overcompliance was due to my benevolence and lack of self-confidence or the fact that I was the youngest in my grade, but I felt the need to please my peers by doing whatever work they bestowed upon me. In hindsight, I acted more like a loyal servant than a friend. One moment from my second grade year that has stayed with me after many years was when I was outside at recess with one of my friends who had decided to bring her books and binders out with her. After five minutes, she grew tired and no longer wanted to carry her books,

Success (the opposite of failure) is the status of having achieved. Success is the consequence of having earned a series of accomplishments.Being successful means the achievement of desired visions and planned goals. Life is nothing without success. Life have no taste if there ain't success. We can only achieve success if we fail one or two times. And this is true that failure can eventually lead to success, because we actually learn from our mistakes. In the history of the world, there are many many failure who had lead to success in a way, that we can’t belive. A scientist einstein is a big example for us to learn how failure achieve to success. Looking at our daily, we daily fail in our achievement test, but usually a times come when we spark a success. And I had many experiences in my life like that. I am also getting know through my daily life experience also how failure can eventually lead to success.

In the shorter term (3 years), I want to graduate from HELP University’s Degree of Psychology in first-class honours. I understand claims stating such academic achievement is merely a graduation certificate, without guarantee of work opportunities. However, my aim is not motivated towards work opportunities or anything materialistic; I just want to appreciate and value every learning opportunity. Besides viewing this process as a foundation for future knowledge and abilities, I have been anticipating this stage of gaining deeper and professional knowledge in psychology for a long time. To summarize, this goal is elicited from my passion and enthusiasm for psychology, to remain focused throughout these three years, instead of gaining fame or impress others.