MGW
Oct 22, 2013
Undergraduate / Growing up without a father; Applying EA to MIT: SIGNIFICANT CHALLENGE [5]
Tell us about the most significant challenge you've faced or something important that didn't go according to plan. How did you manage the situation?(*) (200-250 words)
When I was young I had a severe case of eczema, a skin condition that caused me enough pain to keep me from walking at times. My mom had heard that saltwater helped to relieve eczema so she, my half-sister, and I packed and moved to Florida when I was three. Here my mom raised both me and my sister on her own.
Growing up without knowing my dad was tough; I managed by staying very close with my mother's extended family. I would spend all of my summer and Christmas breaks visiting them back in Tennessee. I had an older friend there also, who was somewhat of a mentor to me. His name is Doug and he took the role in my life as a father figure. Doug took me camping, fishing, and hiking - all of the things my mom couldn't do on her own. He taught me fun things, like how to clean fish and drive a boat. He also taught me how to chop firewood and use the lawnmower. Now that I think about it, I was a prime source of free labor for him; but I didn't mind the work. He had taught me to earn my keep. If I wanted to eat steak over the campfire, the firewood had better have been stacked high, and the grass cut neat.
Tell us about the most significant challenge you've faced or something important that didn't go according to plan. How did you manage the situation?(*) (200-250 words)
When I was young I had a severe case of eczema, a skin condition that caused me enough pain to keep me from walking at times. My mom had heard that saltwater helped to relieve eczema so she, my half-sister, and I packed and moved to Florida when I was three. Here my mom raised both me and my sister on her own.
Growing up without knowing my dad was tough; I managed by staying very close with my mother's extended family. I would spend all of my summer and Christmas breaks visiting them back in Tennessee. I had an older friend there also, who was somewhat of a mentor to me. His name is Doug and he took the role in my life as a father figure. Doug took me camping, fishing, and hiking - all of the things my mom couldn't do on her own. He taught me fun things, like how to clean fish and drive a boat. He also taught me how to chop firewood and use the lawnmower. Now that I think about it, I was a prime source of free labor for him; but I didn't mind the work. He had taught me to earn my keep. If I wanted to eat steak over the campfire, the firewood had better have been stacked high, and the grass cut neat.