Undergraduate /
'to study law while hanging upside down' - Stanford's Roommate essay [14]
I like this essay but it needs to be shortened a bit it is over the character limit any critiques are appreciated but the font is plain and so is the punctuation so any ideas on making it stand out?
While I was gardening last summer I took notice of a lone cosmo growing on the edge of my lawn. The pitiful thing was shriveled and was not planted firmly enough to withstand the gust of a passing wind. I looked to my father who was plucking weeds on the adjacent end of the garden. He frowned after giving the vegetation a passing glance and told me to "get rid of it, it does not fit in." As I pondered his frank response, I glanced at the proud delphium we had lining the doorway to our abode. Why is it that this cosmo may not flourish like the delphium? After all they both started as seeds so all this cosmo really needed was a little sun and care.
My father did no really understand why I was so persistent on trying to save the flower but nonetheless he was ambivalent and gave me a hearty o.k.. He did not see its potential as I did. I, like the flower, have been cast off by society. A week earlier I overheard a conversation between my father and his boss. Dad tried to convince his boss that I was a bright student who was performing well in every subject thrown at me but he failed. This haughty man said, "Your son is nothing special, anyone could succeed at the school he goes to."
This man who had the pretentious idea that public school was no good; this man who believed the poor should stay poor; this man who goes against the very ideals the American dream is based on is our superior? Like the roaming cosmo, why can't I wonder the lawn we call the world to find my place to thrive? My roots took hold in a hopeless place desperately grasping for solid land. It's not my fault that I grew up in ghetto town or that my parents can't afford to pay the bills so why shouldn't I get the chance to succeed?
A month after my dad was fired from his job and my family's condition began to worsen. I myself began to lose weight rapidly so I rationed any food that came my way. Despite it all, my hope and the cosmo grew. The cosmo I had taken on had grown to immense proportions reaching over six feet, surpassed the proud delphium. I hope that one day I to be given the chance to grow.