Undergraduate / "My parents are pastors" - UC Prompt #1 - My World [18]

Please don't feel bad about criticizing it... I will be very thankful if you actually criticized alot.
Feel free to throw your criticism at my essay because I know I am not that good. ^_^
So please help out in my essay~ I will listen to every suggestions~ ^_^
Thanks in advance for all the help~!

Prompt#1
Describe the world you come from - for example, your family, community or school - and tell us how your world has shaped your dreams and aspirations.

My short life thus far has been a perfect depiction of the common saying "a person's environment shapes who he is". I can confidently say that my familial and social background has molded me to be the caring and friendly person that I am today. Not only has it shaped my personality, but it has led me to dream to be a leader that will use the love of Jesus that I have experienced to travel around the world to help people in need of a helping hand or a friend that will listen and trust them.

I am from a Korean family of six and have an older brother and two younger sisters. The fact that I have multiple siblings has helped me to be more cooperative with others and helped me to learn the importance and strength of a group. I did not get to do whatever I wanted to do, instead my parents always taught me to try to go along with my brother and sisters. I thought it was really mean, but now that I am older I can see that they only did it for my own welfare. I was being taught by my parents to try to work with people around me without argument and to try to help them in as many ways that I can. I still recall that when having something to eat I would always have to share it with my brother and sisters even though I did not want to share with them. Another vivid memory that I have is that whenever we would gather to eat there was a simple rule, never start eating if one of our family members was not present.

My parents were missionaries, but now they are pastors at Full Gospel Los Angeles Church. Because of their job I had the chance of traveling to different countries and thus learn four unique languages. And with them being missionaries it was easy to go on a mission trip. Shocked I was when I went to North East of Brazil on a mission trip. The small village was surrounded with trash and children were suffering because of the disease and lack of food. Regardless of the trash, the children were amazed and content to see a Korean talk in Portuguese. Troubled by this reality, I decided to not let anyone else suffer like they are and be there for those that need a friend or a hand to stand up again.

From birth, I was taught to live a Christian life and taught about Jesus' love. Their religious influence has always played an important role in my life. I was told to always help others just as Jesus helped our family and me. A donation was given with pleasure but money lacked when needed to buy clothes. I would not get why they cared so much about helping and treating others so well. But now I am thankful that they taught me to be more caring and helpful to others because I can go out and help people with a little more ease than my peers. I enjoy seeing people smiles of thankfulness after I lend a helping hand. This Christian background has taught me to always treat others as I would like them to treat me.

My background has played a vital role in shaping and helping me to realize my ultimate dream, which is to travel around the world and help people that are in need with the love of Jesus. I still want to travel and learn more about new cultures, languages, different people, and different personalities. I believe that the lessons that I have learned from my surroundings and my parents has given me a boost to realize this dream because I have gained the ability to cooperate with others and work within a group. More importantly, the religion that I follow has taught me about Jesus and his love and has blessed me with a passion to share it with the people that are in need.

Prompt#2 My Strenght

"You talk more than teachers do!" the teacher would tell me. Since elementary I had been an active speaker in class and in a relationship. As I grew I started learning four new languages, Spanish, Korean, English, and Portuguese. And with that I knew that I had a great talent in languages and therefore in speaking and listening to others.

These four languages have helped me throughout my whole life in ways that were obvious and also in ways that I did not even dream about. Spanish was my choice for foreign language class. I took the Spanish 1-2 class, but in my mind I thought that it was too elementary for me because of my background with the language. Burdened with frustration I decided to ask the counselor to raise me to a higher class. My counselor, Mrs. Makijan told me to talk to the Spanish teacher Ms. Villagomez to take a test. I took the test and fortunately did well and went straight to Spanish 5-6. Through elementary Spanish, I learned an important lesson that I cannot coast through my academic career. If I want to grow as a scholar and as a person, I must continue to push and challenge myself. While Spanish 1-2 may have been a trivial bump in my high school journey, it actually was a catalyst in how I view school and general academia today.

Speaking multiple languages has granted me the opportunity to meet and speak with different people that my peers have a difficult time approaching due to language barriers. A perfect example is my involvement with my church's street mission's work. What started with me speaking with a few people in Spanish in the middle of Skid Row in Los Angeles, California turned into me translating Korean sermons into Spanish. I did not expect it but it was yet another door that was opened due to my knowledge of multiple languages.

I am very thankful that I had the opportunity to learn multiple languages which is helpful because I want to travel around the world and to do that I would need to know multiple languages to communicate. Prepared to achieve my dream, I am always encouraging myself that if I challenge and push myself I can achieve my dreams.