Undergraduate / What lessons have you learned from it? -- painting [6]

What has this experience taught you or how has it contributed to the person you are today?
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I think about my childhood days, days stuck indoors waiting for the rainy season to end, days spent waiting for the sound of crunching gravel of my parents car arriving in the driveway, days spent waiting, waiting, waiting... While the other children entertained themselves in lands of fantasy, roaming around the house pretending to be gladiators or heroes, I watched on the sides enviously. I wished I could escape into their worlds of make believe, and fight alongside fellow comrades against alien monsters. But I couldn't. To my dismay, I was stuck here firmly anchored to reality, and received little enjoyment from their games. Instead I spent my time drawing, painting, and writing, anything that would distract me from my dimly realized boredom. I learned to juggle, how to flip a coin and always win, how to fold paper airplanes, card tricks, everything. But of all those things, I loved to paint most. Finger painting was the best. It wasn't the feeling of paint on my hands, or even the picture itself. Perhaps it was simply knowing that I was in control of my own picture. I relied on my own hands, quite literally, to paint it. Run your hands too quickly across the paper and you can't control your line, paint it too slow, and the paint trickles down to the bottom, slowly. In art, there is always a delicate balance, that fine line between the good and great. It has taught me the values of stepping back to realize the whole of your canvas. What might appear as a straight line could actually be the dipping curve of a smile when looked upon from a different viewpoint. Painting has taught me the value of patience, perseverance. What can you really see from the artist's first stroke? But combine them together and true beauty emerges. Painting has taught me to see the world through the unadulterated film of individuality and self-reliance; it has taught me to see the beauty in everything.

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Alright I'm really unsure how to end this... suggestions? :]
Also, am I using appropriate diction for a college admission essay? I'm still trying to find a balance between formal and personal but would love to hear your comments! Thanks!