Undergraduate / "I must stand up for myself and have morals" UCF (environment and qualities) [2]

Hello everybody, the numbers are to identify which topics out of a list I am choosing. Please help me with this essay as UCF is the last chance I have of getting accepted into a real University as opposed to community college.

The topics were:
2. How has your family history, culture or environment influenced who you are?
4. What qualities or unique characteristics do you possess that would allow you to contribute to the UCF community?

2. Like most kids, I was raised in a house with my parents and sibling. We had a few dogs and cats, and both of my parents work. Unlike most kids though, I was raised in a rural neighborhood surrounded by evils such as the Ku Klux Klan. Being from such an intolerable neighborhood, I have developed a clear sense of acceptance and tolerability. I don't think anything else could have given me a clearer picture of what is right and what is wrong. I remember one day when I was in middle school, a group of local kids was picking on some African American kid, and when I stepped in to intervene, I got beat up. The next day, when I got home, there was a burning cross in my yard because I had helped "one of them." My mother called the police to report the incident, but all they told her was, "Ma'am, that's just the way things are around here." Needless to say, I no longer spent my time with the neighborhood kids anymore, and when I couldn't avoid it, I decided not to do anything that would make me look seem out of place with a bunch of rednecks and hicks. I no longer voiced my opinions for equality, and kept my mouth shut just to protect myself and my family, and rage grew within me all the while. Ever since then, I have always fought, literally and figuratively, against injustices and things I believe are wrong. So, to sum it all up, my environment has taught me that I must stand up for myself, and that I should fight prejudice, so that others don't have to go through what I have gone through.

4. My previous anecdote has shown that I have gone through some adversity as an adolescent. Throughout all of that, one thing that I kept intact was my code of ethics. I am a firm believer that the only thing that separates humans and animals is our morals and ethics. A chimpanzee will eat its own young if it goes hungry; a human mother will do anything, even give her own life, to ensure that her baby lives, and has the best life that it can. I'm not saying that everybody has crystal-clear morals, because, clearly, there are some sick puppies out there. What I am saying, however, is that without distinct morals and ethics, we are no better than the cannibal monkey previously mentioned. Everybody that I have known has told me that they are amazed by how I always stick to my guns. There have been times in my life when I have had to stop friends from shoplifting, fighting, and even smoking drugs. At the end of the day, a man without morals is a man without life.

Undergraduate / "Paintball and Life Changing Experience" UF application essay [3]

I just finished with the first draft of my UF application essay. The prompt is: describe a meaningful event, experience or accomplishment in your life and how it will affect your college experience or your contribution to the UF campus community. You may want to reflect on your ideas about student responsibility, academic integrity, campus citizenship or a call to service.

Are there any errors in this? Is there any way that I could make this better? Thank you.

Bullets whiz past your head, allies scream out tactics, and all while you're sitting behind a piece of plywood. Standing up gets you killed, but staying put gets your friends killed. This is paintball. A game that teaches you to be brave and tough; it teaches you mortality. When every second could be your last, hesitation is deadly. Quick thinking and improvisation skills save your life. No other games can teach you these things the way paintball can. Only paintball lets you harness your fears, and turn them into strength. The day that I started playing paintball was the beginning of the rest of my life.

Perhaps the best thing about paintball is how its necessary skills translate into life skills. The courage needed to charge an enemy fortification is the same as the courage needed to ask for a promotion. The toughness that is earned by being lit up by professionals allows you to take whatever life throws at you. Mortality is the biggest lesson to be taken from paintball. Obviously you don't die when you get shot by a paintball; however you are dead in terms of that round. Knowing that you must do what is necessary to survive that round is a lesson learned in life as well as paintball. If you play conservatively, you will die without accomplishing anything. If you charge without planning or any thinking, you will surely die a fool's death. If you have a plan, however, you can accomplish great things and not die a useless death. If there is a better metaphor for life than paintball, I would love to hear it.

Life, as in paintball, requires a tactical strategy for success. This leads me to the University of Florida. I believe that UF is perfect for me because, not only is the university home to a top 20 national paintball team, but because of a world renown teaching staff, and a top tier business school. Since paintball is an expensive sport, I began loaning my friends money, and always made sure they had enough money left over to play paintball, so business is a career interest of mine. I am an ideal fit for UF because I have all of the skills mentioned before, and I always work my hardest to be something that my family and friends can be proud of. I may or may not be one of the elite students at the University of Florida, but I will do anything and everything possible to become one. You will not make a mistake by accepting me, guaranteed.