Undergraduate / "Living in America converted me into new person" - essay for common app :) [20]

TOPIC: Evaluate a significant experience, achievement, risk you have taken, or ethical dilemma you have faced and its impact on you.
For ivies... It doesn't stand out, what should I add/revise? (also, grammatical revision would be great too :D)
Thanks! :)

I had had no interest in English whatsoever. It was something foreign and peripheral to me. Then I encountered these twenty-two words-"Mr. and Mrs. Dursley, of number four, Private Drive, were proud to say that they were perfectly normal, thank you very much." I immediately realized that my perfectly normal life was about to change. English had me hooked. As I was reading Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, I wanted to learn more about this exotic language and its different culture. My passion didn't stall. Before I knew it, I was already in the Seattle Tacoma Airport, where my host family greeted me.

However, my anticipation and passion were overwhelmed by great cultural shock; the language barrier exacerbated the situation. Compared to my family that I was used to living with, my host family was on the opposite side of the spectrum. They valued independence-I was expected to cook, clean, and provide my own transportation.

Substantial amount of difficulties accosted me. First of all, counting aside the fact that they were vegetarians, I simply did not know how to cook. My attempts to cook something edible had always ended up with instant noodles. Consequently, I developed an eating disorder. However, I comforted myself, as the school was about to start.

The school was nothing like my expectancy. It was comprised of not just Americans but more diverse people. This sight was unfamiliar to me as I grew up in the ethnically and linguistically homogeneous Korea. Although all the students were nice, I was afraid of them because I didn't know how to say anything back. In classes, I couldn't understand what teachers were saying and often didn't do homework because I didn't know we even had homework. In an attempt to overcome the language barrier by making some friends, I decided to join school tennis team. Fortunately, it became a place of relief because when I was hitting the ball, I was able to forget difficulties in language.

Tennis team practices were leisure time yet they became trouble themselves. Under the scorching sun, I had to walk back home, which took so much time that I was forced to give up joining any other after school activities to catch up on schoolwork. Moreover, after enervating practices and walking, I couldn't even take a shower because I was allowed to do so only once a day in the morning. Watching the sky grow dark, I, weary and sweaty, wondered if I made the right decision.

It only became harder and harder for me to bear. In the mornings, I was scolded for taking shower for more than 5 minutes. In school, I had nobody to talk to because of my lack of English. When I got back home, fatigued from the practices, I was scolded again for cooking too much food and not cleaning them. They came as a huge shock to me because when I lived in Korea, I was never expected to do any housework nor have any troubles in communicating. Also, no matter how many strenuous problems I faced, I had a place called home, where my parents awaited me with a beaming smile to comfort me and be on my side. But in Seattle, all I felt in returning home was its hollowness. There was no warmth; its coldness was enough to make me shiver. It never struck me so hard that I was alone. Over half a million people live in Seattle and its surroundings, but those nights I felt like the only person alive. However, I didn't surrender myself to the hardships. It was time for me to grow up. I mustered all my strengths to keep up my smile and remain optimistic because after all, it was the path I chose to take. I studied English day and night to quickly catch up in school and make friends. Together with tennis, my friends became my support and relief.

Living in America converted me into new person. Unlike my shy and feeble self from 4 years ago, I became independent, responsible, and strong both physically and mentally. Loneliness, cooking, and transportation now became nothing but trivial matters that I could easily brush off with a smile. Watching the sky grow bright, I knew that I made the right decision. There is still so much yet to be discovered in this fabulous language and surely will get tougher in college; however, I am no longer afraid of anything that could be awaiting me because this valuable experience told me that a single smile and determination are all I need to overcome them.