Undergraduate / My Best Worst Experience - Summer Camp Abroad (alone) at the age of 8. -- Common App Personal Essay [6]

Question: Some students have a background or story that is so central to their identity that they believe their application would be incomplete without it. If this sounds like you, then please share your story.

- Helloo! So this experience really shaped who I am today. I talked about multiple incidents in camp so its not one story but the entire experience. -- I am not done yet so any feedback or suggestion would be great! :D

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At the age of 8 I traveled alone to attend a 2-week summer camp in Switzerland, which is 1,848 miles from home, for the very first time.

Maggots! For the first week of camp I cried every day to my mother on the phone and refused to unpack, believing that a plane was on its way to take me home. After I accepted the fact that I was "stuck-here" for another week, whether I liked it or not, I decided to unpack my bag and to my surprise I found a rotten banana and maggots everywhere! My friends and councilors both refused to help me and told me that I must clean the bag/room myself. In my time of need I found no one. Ultimately, I managed to get rid of the maggots with the help of my roommate(although there was still some living in my socks, which I shockingly discovered later).However, through this experience I learned to depend on "me" and that in rough times, only the people who really care will stay and help. This shaped the way I chose my friends. When I went back home I distinguished between the ones who would be there for me and the ones who were only there for the fun times.

Additionally, traveling abroad for the very first time, I was very ignorant of the cultures and religions that existed outside my country. In the first day of camp I was roomed with a girl who was from a country that was not on good terms with mine. Our countries actually considered themselves "enemies" and I was brought up to believe that all citizens of this country are my enemies. However when I interacted with this girl I realized that this was not the case. When I shared my piece of KitKat with her we instantly became friends and were able to break these relation barriers created by our countries. This girl also had completely different religious views than I did. Coming from a very conservative and religious country, I was shocked to see someone believing in something different than what I believed. Being friends with someone who came from a different culture with different beliefs allowed me to be tolerant, knowledgeable and aware.

At camp, I also experienced bullying for the first time, which shaped who I am today. In school I was crowned "princess of the grade" by my friends and was treated almost like royalty to the point where they would carry me in on their shoulders from the playground to the classroom so I can make an "entrance". However at camp, I surprisingly wasn't a princess and the campers certainly did not treat me like one. They made fun of me and talked behind my back. I felt terrible; as it was the first time I was put in such a situation. This was my first worst experience but without it would have probably become an arrogant little princess.

I also entered my very first talent show at camp, which sparked my interest in music. Although I did a rendition of the theme song from the move Fat Albert and probably looked like a fool, the audience really liked it and that positive reaction was what encouraged me to start singing/performing. Because of that experience music became a central part of my identity and, I now perform live in in music shows and have my very own successful singing channel.

All in all, with its ups and downs, attending summer camp in Switzerland at the age of 8 was truly a wonderful experience. I got home sick a lot but when it was finally time to leave, I wanted to stay. Looking back at this experience, it truly made me who I am today and everything I experienced there surely became part of my identity.

Undergraduate / HORROR MOVIES! - UChicago Q#2 Interests: books/movies/artitsts [3]

Would you please tell us about a few of your favorite books, poems, authors, films, plays, pieces of music, musicians, performers, paintings, artists, magazines, or newspapers? Feel free to touch on one, some, or all of the categories listed, or add a category of your own.

-Hey guys! can you tell me what you think of this? Thank you! :D

HORROR MOVIES! Since I was a little girl I have always been fascinated by horror movies as they gave me a certain kind of thrill, which I loved. My favorite horror movies is Chucky because whenever I watch it, I always remember my first time watching it with my brother and cousins.

In the summer of 2005, my family and I drove out to our family beach house In Agamy, Alexandria to spend the summer, as we usually did each year. One night, my parents, aunts and uncles, went out to dinner and left my brother, cousins and I at the house with my grandmother (we are a big family).

After my grandmother fell asleep, around 7, we decided to open the TV only to realize that Chucky the doll was on. We all acted tough and brave and decided to watch the movie. Of course we were horrified and left the TV opened outside and ran to my grandmother's room.

From how scared we were, we couldn't close our eyes for a second, fearing that our toy dolls would wake up in the middle of the night and kill us! We also heard scary chuckling and screaming noises outside and thought that Chucky was trying to break in, of course we didn't consider that the noise was coming from the TV we forgot to close.

My 10 year old, older brother, wise as he was, decided that we should take all the dolls in the house and throw them outside the window to ensure safety. Later that night, of course still awake, our parents came in very angrily and grounded us all after seeing our toys on the streets. We explained why we did it and they calmed us down, assuring us that no doll would come and kill us.

After making it alive through the night, we realized that our dolls were in fact harmless. The next morning we opened the TV with our parents and found Chucky again but this time we watched it all and sitting in the comfort of our parents' arms we felt really safe and ended up loving the movie. We bought the movie on videotape and made it a tradition to watch it each year in summer together. Although we sold our beach house, whenever we get together, my brother, cousins and I always watch Chucky and remember the time we threw our dolls out the window.

Additionally,
My favorite singer is Whitney Houston. She was the one that inspired me to start singing. In fact, the first time I performed at the school talent show, I sang, "I will always love you".

My favorite authors are: Paulo Coelho, Naguib Mahfouz and John Krakauer.

Some of my favorite books include: Veronika Decides To Die, Midaq Alley, Into The Wild, and Junie B.Jones (my favorite childhood book)