Undergraduate / Briefly describe a non-academic pursuit that best illustrates who you are, and why it is important [6]

USC students are known to be involved. Briefly describe a non-academic pursuit (such as service to community or family, a club or sport, or work, etc.,) that best illustrates who you are, and why it is important to you. (250 word limit)

#23 Make a difference to someone's life.

It's the 23rd item on my bucket list.
Fourteen year old Sushant has big dreams, he wants to grow up to be a football player and part time business tycoon. I know this because I've been teaching him English for the past few months.

It seems like a fairly simple thing to do except he's dyslexic and English isn't his first language. When we first met he told me he liked to read and wanted to learn everything from history and geography to the English language. So I made him a promise; I promised him I'd teach him to read and write, I promised to introduce him to a whole new world of fantasy and fiction, one that made me believe my dreams could come true, one that would do the same for him.

Over the past few months I've pulled him out from under a table, listened to him talk about his dreams, raced him all over the world by running our fingers over a map and evidently I've been teaching him English.

This so-called "non-academic pursuit" of mine is somewhat like my pursuit of happiness. I look forward to the few hours a week I get to spend with him because they give me hope. They remind me of pure innocence and genuineness in a pitiless and pretentious world.

I was determined to make a difference to his life but what I didn't anticipate is the difference he would make to mine.