Undergraduate / American culture; Describe a setting in which you have collaborated/interacted with people [5]

I'm writing this for college admission
Topic B : Describe a setting in which you have collaborated or interacted with people whose experiences and/or beliefs differ from yours. Address your initial feelings, and how those feelings were or were not changed by this experience.

All right! I will be honest to write an essay about my experience. Since I was little, there was always a fear within me trying to keep myself from going against my constant truth. Especially whenever someone decides to talk about religion. It's the topic that I wished to skirt altogether.

I was ten years old by the time when my uncle decides to take me to a Christianity church every single week. Despite I am a Buddhist worshiper, he insists on forcing me to go as if he tried to convert my religion and assimilate myself into the new cultures. Our family just came to the United States and without prior experience in this country, we end up depend on my uncle as a guideline and a helper whenever needed. This gave me a sense of detachment from similar cultures which I can not find.

Every Sunday, we drove to church. It was just me and my uncle in the car. Without any interesting topics to talk about, we always end up talking about religion and its significance. Evidently, he would described the principles in the Bible to me with a style of pausing and, eye contact and with a tone of voice never boring but drawing you with a wanting more draw along with hand gestures to claim his points. However, his persuasion approach can not distracts my thoughts from preventing to convert into a new religion. As we arrived at the church, the front building was absolutely beautiful and marvelous for such a sacred place and yet I entered the building with an anxiety in an environment full of religious people with whom I do not share their belief. During the service, everybody sat quietly listen to the Bible. While I am astonished on the meaning of the Bible. Their principles have appeal to me in a way that I think it is pertain to live life meaningful, how it perceived people to live happily with simple words.

As I grow up, my thoughts become more mature to understand about the American cultures. I turned my fears into a valuable lesson which it taught me to respect and appreciate other's backgrounds despite our cultural and religious differences. Religion taught people how to live with morals base on their principles. From this standpoint, my experience becomes more profound and gave me a chance to understand better about others and perhaps the most important factor in personal development to acquired the knowledge to how accept culture and traditions of foreign societies.

Undergraduate / Eric Thomas. Circumstance, obstacle or conflict in your life, skills and resources. [3]

Prompt : Describe a circumstance, obstacle or conflict in your life, and the skills and resources you used to resolve it. Did it change you? If so, how?

I spent most of my life wondering how to live a purpose-driven life in abundance. Evidently, in my high school years, I did not gained respect from others simply because I was not smart enough. During those times, I felt desperate to find a way out of this meaningless life. It was inevitable. I was alone by myself with the imprudent thoughts about where my life would proceed as I continue to grow up with no sense of purpose for entity. It left me pondering from day-to-day how to pursue a brighter future.

The feeling of disappointment and upset cannot describe how frustrated I was after seeing all my core-classes grades plummeted during the first semester of my junior year because my parents proposed and wanted to divorce. My rank dropped out of top ten percent. I was scared to think how life would be as I continued to lose focus in school. However, my thoughts were changed after I listened to Eric Thomas since the day I walked into AVID class to watch a video about motivation. Eric Thomas was an African American who looked fifty and who stood firmly ready to make his speech. He had a prideful tone that was a mark with some life changing words as he began to enunciate, "When you want to succeed as bad as you want to breathe, then you will be successful." His energy and passion channeled my mind to think positively and to revitalize a new life. I was serious! At that moment, I felt that there was still potential in myself and wasted away by not working hard to overcome hardships not only in school but also in daily life. His speech helps me grow internally and definitely a key to my success. it was a pleasure to hear his wisdom and somehow his words struck my mind succinctly. It gives me some hope and for that reason, I was able to stand up with dignity and advance forward for a better life.

For the rest of my junior year, I strived to work diligently without any excuses and by the end of the year my grades were improved by several points with some A's and fewer B's. I was also passing AP Physics and Chemistry exams. Moreover, every time I felt depressed and sorrowful, I would just listen to his speech to give me the courage to keep going. It was then that I knew why hard work is good for the soul and that every step is worth the end result.

I attribute for my success to his words and how his positive impact on my life as well as on others. He has made me keep pushing forward during tough times even when my mind would tell me to surrender. I gained more courage to face struggles. For the most part, Eric Thomas taught me to appreciate how life can be challenging at times, how life can knock you down, but also to remember that failure is the mother of success to keep me encouraged and to strengthen my will to be able to face difficulties.

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