Undergraduate / 'Now we have more than we ever had in India' - College Admission's Essay [2]

Write an essay in which you tell us about someone who has made an impact on your life and explain how and why this person is important to you.

There is only one person in my life who has always given me support, given me courage, and given me strength; only one person, who has unknowingly given me the knowledge to face life, just by watching her. That person is my mother.

All parents work hard to give their children a better life than they had, better opportunities, and a better environment. My mother worked extremely hard to give me and my brother better lives. When we lived in India, I recall one morning, it was around 3:00am, I woke up to get a glass of water and I saw my mother leaning over a the largest textbook I had ever seen. She was studying for the United States Medical Licensing Examination (USMLE), which is a three part examination that foreign physicians are required to pass in order to practice medicine in the United States.

I, still, have never seen anyone work as hard as she did, I remember her waking up every day at 3:00am and studying, then going to her clinic to be on her feet for nine hours to treat patients. When the USMLE results came out, my mother was in the 95th percentile, which meant that all of her hard work paid off and that we were moving to America. I will never forget the sacrifices my mom made for me, leaving behind everything she had spent her whole life working for, our house, our belongings, her own clinic, also her friends and her entire family.

I still remember that very day when we came to America and we didn't own anything here, and now, we have more than we ever did in India. Anytime I face a challenge, a decision, or a struggle in my life, I know I make the choice for my benefit. But, every decision my mother made was not for her own benefit but for my benefit, every challenge she faced head on was for me, and every struggle she went through was all for me.

My mother had once told me that she never looks at any challenges she faces in a negative way, she doesn't look at them as something that will hold her back, but she looks at them as opportunities; Opportunities that give her the courage and the strength to face life and opportunities that shape her future. I do realize that I will not have my mother by my side all the time to encourage me and motivate me. But I do know that I will always treasure all that my mother gave me, not the materialistic things, but the way she worked herself to death to give me a good life.

Undergraduate / UT Essay; person important to you - My father gave up his dream [3]

Write an essay in which you tell us about someone who has made an impact on your life and explain how and why this person is important to you.

There is only one person in my life that has always given me support, courage, and strength. It was only this person who unknowingly prepared me for life by letting me watch him live his. He is no other person, but my father.

Making decisions are a big part of our life, the decisions that we make everyday shape our future. But what if you had to decide between your family and your life-long dream, my father was faced with this life-changing decision when he was only 17 years old. My father graduated from high school when he was 16 years old and he was immediately accepted into one of India's top engineering colleges. Unfortunately, my grandparents were going through some financial strain and weren't able to pay for my father's college, and in India, there are no such things as scholarships. So, my grandmother's parents were paying for my father's education. But, after his first year in college, he could see that his family needed him to provide for them.

He had two choices, either he could continue with 5 years of engineering college and then start making money or he had received a job opportunity from the Merchant Navy, which is India's commercial shipping industry, it's made up of shipping companies that own and manage many different types and sizes of ships. With the Merchant Navy, he could earn money while he would be training for two years and instantly he would receive a job after his training was complete.

Although he had always wanted to become an engineer, he couldn't turn his back on his family, so he decided to accept the Merchant Navy job offer, even though he knew what the future consequences would be. He knew that Merchant Navy would require him to be out of the country for more than 6 months at a time, he knew that it would take him away from his family a lot, and he knew that he would have to miss many precious moments with his children. But, he was willing to go through all of that for his family. My father gave up his dream, without knowing what the future held for him. I can't possibly imagine having to make that kind of decision at any age, especially at the age of 17.

Through this experience, one of the many things I learnt from my father is the importance of courage and of making decisions not only for your own good, but for the good of other people who care for you and who are important in your life. Courage is willing to accept responsibility and take all the steps that are necessary for the good of others. Courage is not thinking only about yourself but also about people who care for you. Courage is about giving up your own dreams willingly to fulfill someone else's dreams. Courage is about not complaining but about doing the right thing. Courage isn't something that makes you look like a hero, it isn't something that you're just born with, and even if you have courage, it doesn't mean you still aren't afraid in the back of your mind, it only means that you have the strength to pull through.