College Admissions Essay: The Boy Who Changed My Life

Growing up in Detroit Michigan I learned early in life that it is important to strive to do your best. As a child I wondered how life would be once I grew up. Moreover, I dreamed about the destinations that I wanted to travel to, the career that I want to pursue after graduating from college. I knew that the life that my parents lived was not for me.

My life and journey towards Cornell has been one characterized by struggle. Throughout my childhood, I was raised in two families which highly valued critical thinking and education. As such, I was always expected to ask “Why?” “Why?” was the question that could bring me an education. “Why?” could help me learn more about my surroundings and how I could improve them. I also asked that question when my mother and birth father divorced. I questioned why my father left and why my mom and I moved. What I realize now is that, without my parents divorcing, I could not have received the opportunities afforded to me.

A change within my life that helped me grow was getting a job. My first job, was as at Little Caesars as a shaker-boarder. My motivation was to help pay my family’s bills. I had to perform tricks, dance, and wave a sign on the corner of Holgate and Division. Eventually motivated I moved up the ranks from shaker-boarder, dish washer, to preparing dough, all during my last term of high school. However, my parents worried that I may dismiss my education for money. After discussing the matter though, it was agreed I would keep my job to pay for college.

Knowing how to sing is a blessing that may come naturally to some people, but to others it requires practice and effort to learn how to properly develop this gift. Having seen many live performances and having a dad who could sing was an inspiration for me to develop such a talent. Music has always been my passion, and I knew that singing would give me another exciting opportunity to enjoy the feeling performance creates. I did not have a natural voice from a young age so learning to sing was challenging and pushed me beyond my orchestral limits--emotionally and physically--but with the strong desire I had and the toil I was willing to endure when learning this art, I persevered to becoming a singer.

I never even got to say goodbye. When my dad left it was the hardest it's ever been for my family and I, and we were never quite the same. After a while I began to fill into my father's shoes. “Aaron, one day you’re going to have to raise a family of your own. You’re a man, you’re going to have to be the provider for the family.” These words spoken by my mother have run deep through my soul and has shaped me to the very being I am today. I have three sisters, a mother, and a niece. Being the only boy in a family full of women is tough; it seems like the transition from being a boy to a man swiftly creeps upon you, and you suddenly inherit a large sense of responsibility within the household.

Have you ever thought to yourself that Middle School would be the most boring and drudging experience of your life because your teachers barely ever give you any freedom, I mean think about it, Middle School is exactly like jail, but in jail, you get a phone call. Throughout this book you will see how Rafael Khatchadorian breaks almost every single rule and goes on perilous adventures with his best friend Leo. As you read this book you will be put into Rafael 's prodigious imagination, and experience what it 's like to have slight problems with the authority, and unfortunately, these things collide big time when he enters into middle school where students have to pay attention to the rules and never get caught doing substandard things. With help from his best friend/brother Leo, the mischievous kid concocts schemes to drive his tyrannical principle absolutely insane, while also using his glamour and charm to impress the love of his life, Jeanne and fight back the bullies. Therefore stating that this book shows that life is filled with all kinds of choices.

Many people are influenced into finding their own identity. Our values, morals, and beliefs are followed by the life choices we make in becoming who we are. For example, Marther Luther King, a civil right activists, who made a huge impact in today’s society by making the world more equal and giving a voice for the minorities. He had been influenced by Mahatma Gandhi, who wrote about civil disobedience and peaceful demonstration. As of today, culture has changed over the years because of them, however not the world where race was still a problem. In the stories, “Arm Wrestling With My Father”, by Brad Manning and “Looking For Work” by Gary Soto share relationships where they are unable to find themselves. In the story “Arm Wrestling With My

On a day like this I think to myself what does life have in store for me? Here I’m going to write about what I hope as I begin taking Social Work courses. I hope to pass all of my courses and graduate one day with my bachelor’s degree from Heritage University. I also hope that after graduating Heritage, I find a job so I can save up money and attend a master’s program because college is not cheap. I want to attend Walla Walla University and graduate from there as well, with a Master’s in Social Work. All of this will be accomplished by first passing all my courses here at heritage and one think will lead to the next as if we were to play follow the leader.

I am first generation college student. I started Florida Gulf Coast University four years after I migrated from Jamaica along with my Dad, in pursuits of “an opportunity”- something that is very scarce outside of the continental United States. Before coming to FGCU, I went to Miramar High School; I graduated with honors and promised my Dad that within four years I would bring home my bachelors degree in Finance.

One of the stories that I feel hit me different than the others is Chelsea’s story. She the popular rich girl in Port Clinton, her parent would do everything for her and even bought them their good grades. Chelsea’s parents paid for her education, her mother said “if my kids are going to be successful, I don’t think they should have to pay other people who are sitting around doing nothing for their success” (5). In a way this could be a good thing but also a bad thing. Chelsea’s parents didn’t teacher her and her brother responsibility and they reflected on how their parents bought them their good grades.

In the short story, “It’s that it hurts” by Tomas Rivera, a boy moved to a school. On his first day he gets embarrassed on many different levels. Not only that, he gets into a fight and ends up getting sent home. The “it” that hurts is his future. To begin with, he does not come from a wealthy family and wants to be a telephone operator like his dad. In the story the boy asks himself, “What hurt me the most is that now I won’t be able to be a telephone operator like my dad wants me to be. You need to finish school for that.” The future is hurting him the most and what will happen if he actually got expelled from school and does not finish. Another example of why the future is what the “it” that hurts is because

A day I will never forget was the day that I graduated high school. All the emotions were overwhelming and hard to handle sometimes. It was hard to accept that one of the biggest chapters in my life was about to be over and I was about to start an even bigger one. Just the thought of not knowing what I was supposed to do with the rest of my life made the last little bit of my senior year, very stressful. I then found out that not knowing and being undecided was perfectly okay and I was ready to begin my freshman year at Saint Petersburg College.

Sometimes characters in stories and real- life people learn the same lessons. In both The Outsiders wrote by S.E. Hinton and the short story “ The Boys Who Fought Hitler “ composed by Scholastic Scope, a similar theme is shared. Both the reader and the characters learn a lesson: to pave your own path and be yourself.

The nonfiction novel, Freedom Writers Diary by Erin Gruwell is a fascinating journey of students in an urban city. When she, the new teacher enters a high school with underprivileged students and unsuccessful teachers, everyone underestimates her ability to stick to the job. However, they are all dumbfounded as they watch and experience the journey Ms. Gruwell takes her students on. First, in the beginning of the novel, Gruwell explains to readers how she began as a student teacher, (a very naive one) and had a rude awakening when she realized how much one’s culture and area can impact their lives. From there, the story keeps coming back to that one point. For example, a flashback reveals that Gruwell was shocked at the amount of information teenagers lacked in a rural area. A racist drawing had been passed

My educational journey has been an experience I will remember. I have attended school in three different countries, Antigua, St. Thomas, and New York. A diverse educational experience has allowed me to interact with many different cultures and confront many of the different topics we discussed in class. At that time however, I was not fully aware of the implications of certain situation but after many readings I can now fully understand many of the experiences I encountered in my journey. All the information I have learned in this class however will bring all my experience together where I can make much more sense of it than I could when I was younger.