College Admissions Essay: Moving Away From Home

Often people will say that you are a product of your environment, that you are at the whim of “where you come from.” However, I think life is much more adaptable and that you can be an outsider even in your native soil. The life from which I came is not one that I ever wish to return to and I seek to only learn from it; I recognize my roots, but I like to imagine that I’ve been brought to a better climate in a more loving soil. I like to imagine myself like a plant that’s been torn apart but has grown around the scars. Before I was twelve, I lived with my mom and my four brothers and sisters. At one point, we lived in an apartment that soon became termite-ridden and we became homeless for awhile, landing upon a ‘home’ on a boulevard in Martinez, California. For years, I was in and out of school due to my mother’s whims and uncleanliness I couldn’t prevent. I was trapped in a daze; my mother would disappear and I kept

I’ve been inspired to look for new paths and understand I’m not just another face at a desk; I can do so much more with the knowledge I was gaining. El Dorado has a loving atmosphere and I became comfortable to strive to be the best at whatever I could do. Recently, after all the hard work of many years and 10 AP classes and the general ups and downs of high school, I have been named Valedictorian for the Class of 2018!
I joined the Natural Resources program in 9th grade and I took AP Environmental Science in 11th grade. AP Environmental Science was never only textbook-learning; Mr. Gautschi brought up things that directly related to us. He helped us realize that the environment around us is more complex than a combination of abiotic and biotic factors; there is a cascade effect for every action we do and if we were to aim our actions for the better, the goodness would spread