Essays / 'Team work and basketball' - Common application Short answer essay [NEW]

Hi,
I need some help with a Commonapplication Short answer essay. Thank you for helping me with my first post. I appreciate it.

This is the question. Briefly elaborate on one of your activities(extra - curricular, personal or work experience). Attach your response on a seperate sheet. (150 words or fewer)

A minute more to go. How were we going to make six points in one minute. We perseveered, but that was not enough. The referee blew the whistle; I stood there in disbelief. I could not believe the trophy had just slipped through our hands. I was not devastated , though, because of one lesson basketball has taught me. Basketball has taught me how to lose gracefully.

I began playing basketball at age7, and still spend most of my leisure playing it. I have met the most gregarious and the most choleric people whiles playing basketball. In a game like basketball, one man cannot handle the ball throughout the game. He will definitely get worn out. It takes all the five members of the team to win a game. This ,in other words, is teamwork. Teamwork is one invaluable lesson basketball has taught me,and it works wonders even outside the spheres of basketball.

Undergraduate / 'Nature has great plans for everywone' - MIT admission essay, up to MIT's standard? [NEW]

Hello there. I am writing an essay for my MIT application and decided to post it up for some editing and to see whether it is good. Please tell me, if it is not up to MITs standard.

Tell us about an experience which at the time really felt like the end of the world ... but had it not happened , you would not be who you are today . Describe the process through which you discovered value in the negative.(word limit 500)

I regarded an end of the world as a very unfortunate experience I hope I am on the right track, because I am scared I deviated. Also, my essay has I think between 510 and 516 words . Thus,I would appreciate it if you could remove parts which arent that important so that I can get below the 500 word limit.

I have never posted an essay before and this is my first time. I would like you to look especially at my tenses, punctuation, and vocabulary. If there is any part of my essay that can be put in a better way please dont hesitate to do so. I am not that confident of this essay so if it is not good enough please tell me.

Anxious and fidgety, I rolled on the bed the whole night. After months of rigorous studying, I was finally going to take the SAT.
When I arrived at the center the following morning, the proctors had already started inspecting passports. When it was my turn, I confidently handed the proctor my passport and admission ticket. He asked, "Name?". "Kwame Tawia" I responded."What". "Kwa..ame Ta..wia", I reiterated".I am sorry youngman, you cannot take the test today. You will have to wait till May"."Why'', I asked. The name on your ticket is inconsistent with that on your passport. Apparently, my father had registered me with a name I no longer used. I tried covincing him that I was the same person, but it was to no avail. at this point, all attention was on me. Sullen-faced, I winced at the background stares and hurried my feet out the gate.

Not writing the test that day meant I had to apply for the next academic year. I was going to spend a year out of school. My relatives told me to forget about the whole thing. I was in a quandary whether to go ahead or forget it. Noticing how distraught I was, my mom tried to console me. As we conversed, two statements she made struck a chord in me. The first was a popular saying in my local Ewe dialect which in English reads, "Everything that happens in life is good". I thought it ws very cruel of her to say this at that moment. Instead of her saying something to soothe my sadness, she was rather mocking me. The second was part of a quote by Enrico Fermi,"Whatever Nature has in store unpleasnt as it may be, men must accept it". I recognized it because it was my favourite quote. The latter transformed my anguish into determination. I decided to continue with the process.

After three long months, I took the test. A month later I checked my scores and whoa! I breathed a sigh of relief. My scores were okay; they were good. I thought of the things that had happened in retrospect. Most of my friends who had taken the test three months earlier came out with scores that were abysmal. I could have been in their shoes."Was my experience nature's way of helping me?"I thought. It all made perfect sense now. Laughing really hard, I ran to give my mother the good news. "Mom! Everything that happens in life is good", I yelled.

If there is one thing this experience taught me, then it is that nature has great plans for everyone. However, those who impetuously give up after seeing one signpost of failure miss this opportunity. Some months ago, I would have been very upset if anything unfortunate happened to me. Today, I am not at all perturbed when things seem to go wrong in my life, because I know everything that happens in life is good.