Undergraduate /
my arrival in California - MIT the most significant challenge and activities [2]
We know you lead a busy life, full of activities, many of which are required of you. Tell us something you do for the pleasure of it. ( 100 words of fewer)Giving presentations to our youth and seniors is a great way to utilize my spare time. This habit has enabled me to practice my public speaking skills in English and demonstrate expertise with true passion on topics that I truly embrace such as renewable energy and global warming. Once I address my public, I completely lose myself in the moment. As a result, I lose track of time as I focus on what is in my heart and spread the message of environmental conservation, so as to galvanize my fellow citizens into action and create a more eco-friendly planet.
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)A few days after my arrival in California, my family decided to invest one third of our capital in a clothing store in Los Angeles. While my mother and I would work there seven days a week, my father and brother would work at my uncle's construction company and at a supermarket, just to make ends meet.
After a few months my mother learned how challenging it was to do business in a country where she had poor command of the English language and the market was extremely competitive. I soon realized that I would have to forgo the simple life of an adolescent and assume responsibility for the family business, so that I could relieve my mother from the hard time she was having in managing the store. Suddenly, many problems arouse. My brother was laid off due to a cut in worker-staff and our investment in the clothing store was lost as I could no longer handle traveling an hour from school to work.
In order to make up for some of the money that was lost as well as my mother's source of income, I committed myself to resolving the predicament we found ourselves in. As a result, I began to carry a plastic bag in my backpack at all times, and I would collect cans and plastic bottles to recycle in exchange for money. I also sought my mother a job all over town. In the end, I was able to find my mother two jobs and make up some of the money that was lost.