College Admissions Essay: What Makes Me Who I Am Today

Throughout our lives, we make choices and decisions that change our lives and others in positive and/or negative ways. It is these decisions that determine how we will be remembered, our legacy. When I graduate high school, I want to be remembered by the qualities that define me as a person and the good I’ve done for others. Throughout the years, I’ve been often been described by my family and friends as bold, confident, outgoing, and hardworking. Not only are these characteristics important to me, but they are important to my family, as they want to leave a legacy in the name of our family. The qualities I have exhibited are the same qualities past family members have shown and are remembered for. Through always putting out my best effort when it comes to work and school, I have shown my dedication and discipline. Through doing what I can to help others, I have displayed my commitment to world peace, the betterment of the world as a whole, and the yearning to make a difference in someone’s life other than my

I’m awesome. It’s true. Everyone who meets me will agree, and by the end of this essay, you will too. I am from the small town of Mexico, Missouri where I haved lived my whole life. I was born on January 4, 2000. I am the millennium baby because I was the first baby born in 2000 in the the town of Mexico and I got to ride home in a limo. I went to elementary school at Hawthorne and then to the Middle School and now I am a Junior at The Mexico High School. I play basketball, football, and baseball. This summer I worked at the City Pool as a lifeguard. Last summer I worked at Pearl Motor Company for my dad. That job was definitely a lot harder than being a lifeguard, but I enjoyed both jobs. One of my favorite hobbies is hunting. I love to Turkey hunt and also deer hunt. I’ve killed three turkeys and one deer. One of my other hobbies is snow skiing. I usually get to go to Colorado every year with my church and I've been three times with my family. This is just a little bit of who I am.

This is the question that every college wants to know. But with the endless amount of applicants, distancing yourself from the crowd seems like an almost impossible feat. Throughout my years of school, academics have always been what set me apart, but at a college like Harvard, stellar grades and extracurriculars are expected. On paper, it might be difficult to distinguish me from the other 40,000 applicants. Just based on probability, there is bound to be another Japanese boy with divorced parents who lives in California. It’s easy to blend into the crowd if I described myself with these types of generalized titles and traits.

“We know what we are, but not what we may be” (William Shakespeare). Life is full of unexpected surprises you never know what life will bring or take away from you, so cherish every moment you have. You got to have limits, goals and aspirations to go somewhere in life. There will be obstacles and struggles that you will have to go through but those moments are what make you who you are. In my life I’ve learned, heard and seen several things that have made me who I am today. For those reasons I have set myself limits, goals and aspirations that I wish to accomplish throughout my life. In one word, I would describe myself to be ambitious! I always set some kind of goals towards myself.

One success that makes me who I am is learning to sing. I love music, and I especially love to sing. The feeling I get when I sing is unlike any other. I feel more connected to the world. Sometimes I feel as though I’ve always been able to sing. This, however, is not the case. My mom is really into singing, she likes to make up songs as she goes about what she’s doing. When I was little, I loved to hear her sing, and would request certain songs. Mom tried to teach me how to sing myself, but I just couldn’t seem to get it. One day, as we were walking in a Walmart parking lot, Mom sang the scales from The Sound of Music, and I managed to sing it too. I was off pitch, but after that, Mom was able to teach me how to sing. Learning how to sing was a really big success for me. Being in chorus and singing are integral parts of who I am today, and through singing I’ve learned important lessons, such as following directions, when to open my mouth (and when to keep it shut), and most importantly, how to empathize

My personal growth is a significant aspect of who I am, moreover, this continues to be a trait I strive to develop. To understand how far I’ve come as a person, you need to see where I came from and what motivated me to change.

Achieve, believe and succeed. These three verbs have summed up to who I am today, where I want to go, and who I will be tomorrow. Still to this day, my life has been categorized as the "all around." Instead of people asking me "what do you do?", they ask me, "what can't you do?" I believe in the fact that we are given a purpose in life, it's up to you to figure it out. That is exactly what I am determined and strong-willing going to do. I want the best for and in my life, the only way that is possible, is to earn it. I first earned part of my future by being accepted to an Early College High School, which is a school to where I earn my high school degree and my associate's degree. Out of the thousands that applied, I was chosen to be in their

When it comes to my deepest thoughts, I always worry if I can either do it or if I’m even good enough. I have always struggled in school and had those teachers that told me that I couldn’t do it or I was succeed, but that just made me push harder and that is what motivates me. Along with that I had have students brought me down and that is what ticked me off, I had either people who thought they knew me or people who didn't even know me say horrible things.

I like to think of myself as an incredibly unique individual, and you can ask anyone that knows me personally and they would agree. I’m intelligent, have an interesting cultural background, have an awesome personality, and am a good people person. These are the traits that describe me and in order to fully understand who I am as a person, it is necessary to know them. First, there is my intellect.

When I was 10years old , the only dream I had, was of becoming a fashion designer.I had everything planned , starting from my daily schedule to the structure of my house , even so that I had decided which of my family members would be allowed to stay with me when I moved to Paris ! As I grew older, I was more and more intrigued by everything and everyone around me. In a nutshell ,

Somethings that makes me smile, gets me excited, and makes me want to “do” something is when I am able to participate in something that is fun and exciting to me. Also when I am able to have a good hands on experience and learn something new makes me smile and want to learn more. Being able to let loose and explore new things makes me want to do more than what I would normally do. Another thing that makes me want to do something is when I have an inspiration to work from. It isn’t hard to get me to smile or to get excited because I like to be active and participate in things that I am comfortable with. I love working in groups with other students to get things done. I feel like it is easier to manage everything and get things done faster. I am very handy when it comes to group projects because I think outside of the box when it comes to complicated situations.

My college application would be incomplete without me explaining how I got to where I am today. See there for awhile there was a pretty good chance I wasn’t going to graduate. I have a brain condition called Chiari Malformation, which means that I was born with my brain to low in my head and while I was growing it was slowly squeezing my brain. This caused me to have debilitating migraines that made me lose all control of my body. I couldn’t talk, couldn’t move, every muscle in my body tensed up as tight as they can be, and there was nothing I could do to communicate what was going on with me. For awhile doctors had no idea why it was happening just that we had to get it under control soon because the pain was so bad I would almost have a stroke. I still remember how scared I was every time because I never knew if this would be the end for me.

Who am I? Am I a shy wallflower or am I a loud boisterous character? Possibly even both? I’ll tell you who I am by using my words. As you read this essay, you'll begin to scratch the surface of my past. The past that has helped mold me into the person that I have become today, and the past that will continue to change me tomorrow.

Understanding who I am and why I am here is a really hard concept for some. Not only is it hard to express through words, but it may be hard for some to hear. Not everybody is proud of the person they have become or want to recognize who they are. But I feel as if it is really important thing to put into perspective to self evaluate yourself and to make sure you are what you want to be. I have never really thought of who I am until today, but my goal is to try to make myself understand it as much as possible through five categories. I hope years later I can understand my way of doing life today and continue loving myself through times of despair and hardships.

I think of myself as being better. Sometimes, I even think I’m the best. But my wide set of skills and my large ego has a story behind it.