Undergraduate /
"What about spaghetti?" Is this a good start? USC personal statement [7]
Hi! The deadline for my application is this saturday and I just finished my personal statement. I was hoping someone could give me feedback on it.
This is for USC's film production major. I don't have a title yet, so I am open to suggestions :)
----------------------------------------
"What about spaghetti?" "No," I shouted. Descending from a big traditional Italian family, most of my relatives think I am the black sheep because I do not like pasta. Raviolli? Lasagna? Canelloni? My answer is a solid no. Truth is, I cannot control my disdain for pasta and I am proud to be different.
My feud with pasta is not the only thing that makes me an unconventional character to many people. Born in the middle of an aeronautic family, my passion for machines and technology was uncontrollable. At the age of 7, I was competing in national motocross championships and dreaming of being a helicopter pilot, some uncommon activities for a little girl. My mind was fixated on technology and its power. However, as I grew up, school helped me change my way of thinking, and I began to explore many other activities, particularly out of school. Since my school offered few opportunities to participate in extracurricular activities, I tried everything: swimming, drawing classes, basketball, painting classes, horseback riding, and many more. I enjoyed each new activity that I tried, but there was still something missing: passion.
It was a normal holiday for my family: spaghetti on the table, chicken for me, and over twenty family members trying to fit in the couch. It was normal for us to disagree on what to watch on the TV, but that evening was different. As my grandmother walks into the living room, holding a huge box, everyone wonders what she was up to, because she always tries to keep everyone happy. "I found the old family videos!" she shouted with a gigantic smile on her face. Everyone was super excited to retrieve old memories. Weddings, family barbecues, vacations and a lot of funny moments were stored on those VCR tapes. It felt so good to re-visit the past and laugh with my family. We were so happy that we lost track of the time and ended up going to bed at three in the morning. On the following day, I was still enchanted by the magic of what a camera could do and that inspired me to get my own camera.
"Paulo, get down of that tree right now!" my aunt shouted non-stop. It was the following day of my family's reunion and I was still sitting on the couch, watching all of the VCR tapes I could. My cousin Paulo walked into the living room and I had to show him what I have found. There he was, on top of the highest tree in my grandma's property with a bunch of bananas in his hand, pretending he was a monkey. That was one of the funniest memories we had on tape. At that time, my cousin Paulo had watched a documentary about how humans and monkeys descended from a common ancestral, and he strongly believed he was a monkey for seven months. During all of that time he would only eat bananas, leaves and eggs, and he also built a tree house that he could spend time on.
Weeks later, when I returned to school after the holidays, I told my friends about my monkey cousin story. They could not believe that the story was true, but as I assured them it was, they fell into laughter. It felt amazingly great to know that everyone enjoyed and loved my story about my cousin, and that inspired me to tell them all the crazy stories about my family. "But how did he get inside the church?" My friend asked, regarding the story about my uncle's wedding, where a drunken homeless man walked down the isle singing a Beatle's song in the middle of the ceremony. Telling my family's stories became my favorite thing to do, and I loved when my friends gathered around me during lunchtime to pay attention to what I was about to tell.
I finally realized that the passion I was missing in my activities was found in my love for telling stories. Like my disdain for pasta in an Italian family and my cousin craziness, each of my family's members had an unconventional characteristic about them, which made them perfect characters to my stories. Now I know that this is what I want to do for the rest of my life. I want to be able to tell the world how my aunt Raquel thought the automatic door for disabled people was magical, or how my grandmother forgot my uncle on top of a statue in Italy for three hours. I am ready to tell my stories to the world and record, create and freeze memorable moments forever.
----------------------------------------
Thank you so much!
I really appreciate the help. I will revise yours if you need me too :)
Any comments? THANKS A LOT!