Undergraduate / Growing up without a father; Applying EA to MIT: SIGNIFICANT CHALLENGE [5]

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)

When I was young I had a severe case of eczema, a skin condition that caused me enough pain to keep me from walking at times. My mom had heard that saltwater helped to relieve eczema so she, my half-sister, and I packed and moved to Florida when I was three. Here my mom raised both me and my sister on her own.

Growing up without knowing my dad was tough; I managed by staying very close with my mother's extended family. I would spend all of my summer and Christmas breaks visiting them back in Tennessee. I had an older friend there also, who was somewhat of a mentor to me. His name is Doug and he took the role in my life as a father figure. Doug took me camping, fishing, and hiking - all of the things my mom couldn't do on her own. He taught me fun things, like how to clean fish and drive a boat. He also taught me how to chop firewood and use the lawnmower. Now that I think about it, I was a prime source of free labor for him; but I didn't mind the work. He had taught me to earn my keep. If I wanted to eat steak over the campfire, the firewood had better have been stacked high, and the grass cut neat.