ale1426
Sep 5, 2009
Undergraduate / "my mother rubbing her eyes in exhaustion" - UCF personal statement [5]
Prompt: How has your family history, culture or environment influenced who you are?
The sight of my mother rubbing her eyes in exhaustion will forever stay with me, and as I worked on my crushed architectural model I couldn't help but to recall this image. The day before, someone had carelessly crushed my model 24 hours before judging for the state competition begun. Unfortunately, some of my team members threw in the towel at that moment since 24 hours could not compensate for 6 months of tedious work. To me there was no choice it had to get completed and we had to obtain first place. The easy thing would have been to give up and use the excuse that it couldn't be done but resignation, I was taught, is not in my vocabulary. My whole family's history as survivors and achievers influenced my personality by providing me with the confidence and drive to succeed in any environment I encounter. As immigrants from Peru with no previous English background my mom had to work three jobs to support myself, my sister, and aunt; as well as my elderly grandma. Some of the first images I remember in this country aren't of Disney World or traveling to the sandy white beaches of Florida, but of sitting in my 4th grade class lost because I couldn't keep up with the spelling of my strange second language. My mom would sit in our living room/kitchen/dining room all night studying English trying to pick up words and then would get up work her three jobs and do it all over again the next day. All throughout I never heard anyone complain; there were no "I can't do it" or "This is just too hard" in my household. Everything I am, my determination, passion, and persistence, I owe to my family and the values they placed in me.
Prompt: How has your family history, culture or environment influenced who you are?
The sight of my mother rubbing her eyes in exhaustion will forever stay with me, and as I worked on my crushed architectural model I couldn't help but to recall this image. The day before, someone had carelessly crushed my model 24 hours before judging for the state competition begun. Unfortunately, some of my team members threw in the towel at that moment since 24 hours could not compensate for 6 months of tedious work. To me there was no choice it had to get completed and we had to obtain first place. The easy thing would have been to give up and use the excuse that it couldn't be done but resignation, I was taught, is not in my vocabulary. My whole family's history as survivors and achievers influenced my personality by providing me with the confidence and drive to succeed in any environment I encounter. As immigrants from Peru with no previous English background my mom had to work three jobs to support myself, my sister, and aunt; as well as my elderly grandma. Some of the first images I remember in this country aren't of Disney World or traveling to the sandy white beaches of Florida, but of sitting in my 4th grade class lost because I couldn't keep up with the spelling of my strange second language. My mom would sit in our living room/kitchen/dining room all night studying English trying to pick up words and then would get up work her three jobs and do it all over again the next day. All throughout I never heard anyone complain; there were no "I can't do it" or "This is just too hard" in my household. Everything I am, my determination, passion, and persistence, I owe to my family and the values they placed in me.
