Undergraduate / 'my Filipino ethnicity' - Culture and a Central Identity - CommonApp Essay [4]

COMMON APPLICATION ESSAY PROMPT #1

Some students have a background or story that is so central to their identity that they believe their application would be incomplete without it. If this sounds like you, then please share your story.

In the summer of 2014, I had the honor of visiting my extended family in the Philippines. While there, I learned to live without the essential needs that we take for granted, one of these being running hot water. In addition, I experienced something that I normally don't see often back home. This was the importance of family, the preservation of these family values, and how everyone in the family has their identity creating a unified body.

I was born into a bi-racial family. My father was born in the United States and grew up here while my mother was born in the Philippines and grew up there. Even though I am an Italian-Filipino, I always felt that I identified with my Filipino ethnicity more than I did with my Italian ethnicity. As I was growing up as a child, my mother taught me the foundations of growing up using her own experiences growing up along with her Filipino background as a guide. From here, this is where I began to use my Filipino background myself to shape my ideas on family, my personal life, and my social life

Using my Filipino ethnicity as a guide, I found that family is an important part of growing up and there are significant values that should remain preserved in each generation. I discovered that family should be the first priority in everything and highly involved within my life, no matter if it was important life decisions, times that just seemed nothing but a desolate wasteland and needed the support, or even times when I felt extremely overjoyed and wanted to express it with someone or a group of people. In addition, I also discovered that family is the main component in providing support and motivation in anything that I chose to accomplish. Furthermore, while spending time with my mother's family in the Philippines, i found that families should work as a whole and care for each other into old age.

My Filipino ethnicity also had a positive impact within my social life. It demonstrated that friendships and relationships should be placed at second priority. It helped me to choose what people I should talk to, not talk to, and also who should I be befriending. Furthermore, my ethnicity aided in deciding who I was and stayed faithful to that and not who I wanted to be just to fit in. The development of my extrovert personality also was a result of me using my ethnic background as a guide and as an influence.

I strongly feel that ethnic backgrounds are not something that we identify on paper from four options, It is something larger than that. Our ethnic background is a large influence on how we see the world, others, and even ourselves. It is something that we largely take into account for as we develop, mature, and come across new experiences to challenge us and develop.