Breg123
Dec 31, 2016
Undergraduate / The car I was in flipped three times and hit a tree - common app essay prompt # 5 [3]
I would very much would appreciate any suggestions on my common app essay. To be honest I'm not exactly sure I did a good job answering the question? Also not sure if my paragraphs transition well? Any feedback would be great thanks :)
5. Discuss an accomplishment or event, formal or informal, that marked your transition from childhood to adulthood within your culture, community, or family.
When you flirt with death, life tends to quickly get put into perspective. Contrary to popular belief, my life didn't flash before my eyes. That's right, I didn't even get a glimpse of my greatest hits. There was no bright light or someone yelling, "Stay away from the light!" Although hindsight that's probably because I didn't actually die. Technicalities are something else. Regardless, my experience caused a loss of naivety, and gave me a lasting glance into the veil of uncertainty that will forever stay with me.
I was drowsy, we had been on the road for about seven hours when my eyes started to droop and close. I was sprawled in the backseat of my dad's dark green trail blazer, my head nestled against a pillow. Abruptly, I felt the car lurch left then suddenly veer right. I bolted upright in time to see a car heading straight for us. In that moment we transcended time, everything sped up and slowed down all at once. The car I was in flipped three times and hit a tree, all the while my seatbelt was off. I couldn't see anything while the car flipped, didn't feel pain, I could only hear the sounds of metal crunching.
In the aftermath, I realized I had experienced a fragility to life that had me musing over how I constantly worried about the mundane, and the unknown. Prior to that day, I had run into an old classmate and while catching up I remembered being so embarrassed about the clear differences between us. He boasted about how he was interning at his dream job in a state several heartbeats away, all the while managing to afford things that I have only dreamt about. All I could do was smile and nod. I didn't have any updates I could express, and that was disheartening. As I stood along the highway waiting for an ambulance, I watched in awe at our overturned car and a sense of enlightenment consumed me. My aspirations and fears normally offbeat, convulsed together maniacally in my mind until I could hear the familiar sounds of a siren. I felt like a completely different person-vulnerable but braver than I had ever felt in my life.
Miraculously nothing was broken, I only suffered a few scrapes and bruises. The first thing I did after limping out of the hospital was walk to the local McDonalds. To hell with my diet. I sat in that McDonalds until my clothes reeked of grease and oil.
My life choices has been plagued with endless doubts. I've had so many ideas and plans that I passed on because I wasn't brave enough to utilize these ideas by studying something that was the very opposite of my strengths. This ideology to only pursue your natural talents satisfied my inner critic for a long time, however my car accident changed everything. I realized, if you only do things your successful in, how do you grow? How do you create dreams that are bigger than yourself if you're only staying within your self made limits? Within preconceived notions of what you should and can accomplish? I discerned my desire to study computer science and to be exposed to other brilliant minds in an effort to learn. Mathematics has always been a challenge and fear that has really held me back from doing the things I've always wanted. Which is to study that of which I always struggled to understand.
Tomorrow is not promised; That phrase barely phased me. Now its drenched through me, soaked down into my bones. Tomorrow is not promised. So you should spend your days not revering in your failures, but preparing for your potentials. My car accident made me question my role in life and in turn I answered. Without it I would have never had the guts to challenge myself in the strongest ways possible.
I would very much would appreciate any suggestions on my common app essay. To be honest I'm not exactly sure I did a good job answering the question? Also not sure if my paragraphs transition well? Any feedback would be great thanks :)
5. Discuss an accomplishment or event, formal or informal, that marked your transition from childhood to adulthood within your culture, community, or family.
"Tomorrow is not promised"
When you flirt with death, life tends to quickly get put into perspective. Contrary to popular belief, my life didn't flash before my eyes. That's right, I didn't even get a glimpse of my greatest hits. There was no bright light or someone yelling, "Stay away from the light!" Although hindsight that's probably because I didn't actually die. Technicalities are something else. Regardless, my experience caused a loss of naivety, and gave me a lasting glance into the veil of uncertainty that will forever stay with me.
I was drowsy, we had been on the road for about seven hours when my eyes started to droop and close. I was sprawled in the backseat of my dad's dark green trail blazer, my head nestled against a pillow. Abruptly, I felt the car lurch left then suddenly veer right. I bolted upright in time to see a car heading straight for us. In that moment we transcended time, everything sped up and slowed down all at once. The car I was in flipped three times and hit a tree, all the while my seatbelt was off. I couldn't see anything while the car flipped, didn't feel pain, I could only hear the sounds of metal crunching.
In the aftermath, I realized I had experienced a fragility to life that had me musing over how I constantly worried about the mundane, and the unknown. Prior to that day, I had run into an old classmate and while catching up I remembered being so embarrassed about the clear differences between us. He boasted about how he was interning at his dream job in a state several heartbeats away, all the while managing to afford things that I have only dreamt about. All I could do was smile and nod. I didn't have any updates I could express, and that was disheartening. As I stood along the highway waiting for an ambulance, I watched in awe at our overturned car and a sense of enlightenment consumed me. My aspirations and fears normally offbeat, convulsed together maniacally in my mind until I could hear the familiar sounds of a siren. I felt like a completely different person-vulnerable but braver than I had ever felt in my life.
Miraculously nothing was broken, I only suffered a few scrapes and bruises. The first thing I did after limping out of the hospital was walk to the local McDonalds. To hell with my diet. I sat in that McDonalds until my clothes reeked of grease and oil.
My life choices has been plagued with endless doubts. I've had so many ideas and plans that I passed on because I wasn't brave enough to utilize these ideas by studying something that was the very opposite of my strengths. This ideology to only pursue your natural talents satisfied my inner critic for a long time, however my car accident changed everything. I realized, if you only do things your successful in, how do you grow? How do you create dreams that are bigger than yourself if you're only staying within your self made limits? Within preconceived notions of what you should and can accomplish? I discerned my desire to study computer science and to be exposed to other brilliant minds in an effort to learn. Mathematics has always been a challenge and fear that has really held me back from doing the things I've always wanted. Which is to study that of which I always struggled to understand.
Tomorrow is not promised; That phrase barely phased me. Now its drenched through me, soaked down into my bones. Tomorrow is not promised. So you should spend your days not revering in your failures, but preparing for your potentials. My car accident made me question my role in life and in turn I answered. Without it I would have never had the guts to challenge myself in the strongest ways possible.