My College Admissions Essay: My Journey To Cornell

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 few years after my mom got divorced, she remarried and I gained a man who I now call my dad. These two people always wanted

In my junior year, I began spending more intimate time with my biological father’s family. During this time, I grew close to my grandfather. Right as our relationship was blossoming, he succumbed to leukemia and died eleven days before my birthday. This event challenged who I thought I was and questioned what was important to me. I struggled to recovery from his death but decided I would get an education in his honor. Life curveballed this desire when I moved to Maine. My family bought a farm which needed significant repair work. The repairs took almost four months to complete which delayed my schooling. My mother also had a stroke which left me with my duties on the farm and my responsibility to help her recover. Once my mom recovered enough that I could continue my schooling, I managed to enter my senior year of high school. This lead into the final stage of my journey to Cornell. During the fall of my senior year of high school, I sent out an application to Bates College for their undergraduate program in Biochemistry. For reasons unknown to me, they denied my application. I instead began my college career at Central Maine Community College. This lead to my eventual application as a transfer student to Cornell University. Events like these in my life helped shape my life. I am who I am because of the different events that connected the people around me. Who am I? I am