I would appreciate any help or advice, thank you!
Prompt: We are interested in learning more about you and the context in which you have grown up, formed your aspirations, and accomplished your academic successes. Please describe the factors and challenges that have most shaped your personal life and aspirations. How have these factors helped you to grow?
My entire life has never proceeded at a steady pace, rather it has been a series of speedups and slowdowns that has always been shifting and adjusting. When the changes first started, they did not affect me. When my family and I moved 1000 miles south to Florida when I was four, my only thought was that I would miss the snow, winter, and maybe the occasional family member. When I was six and the decision was made that my mother and I would move 3000 miles away from my father and brother across the world to a country that I had only ever briefly visited, I could only think about the new adventures that would await us in Sierra Leone. At that age, change was welcome. I could brag about all the places I had been to, experience new things and see new people, something that I yearned and craved for at the time.
However, as I began to mature and the number of life shifts that I was going through ceased to remain steady, it's toll became more weighing. Moving from school to school, whether because of the extensive amount of bullying and traumatic experiences that I was subject to or the complete and utter lack of a sufficient or satisfactory education in the country, it became much harder to cope with the changes that were occurring in my life. Friend groups became harder for me to form and I started to ask myself 'why bother if I'll just leave again in a year or if I'm just going to end up bullied?'. Change had gone from a welcome spice-up in my life to yet another obstacle that seemed to never let up on its assault on my psyche.
By the time Ebola had slithered its way into our lives, I had become so numb to the constant changes that the direct impact of its effect never actually hit me until the day that I had to leave. Only when I was boarding the plane did I realize that I was leaving my country, leaving my friends, family and the only place that I had ever felt at home, to live with family members that I barely knew. I never realized that endless and intimate conversations with my parents would become 30 minute Skype sessions, that hugging my mom before or after she went to work was no longer an option or that my weekly Sunday family beach trips were to be replaced by staying at home doing homework by myself.
As my life has consisted of a never-ending cycle of change and alterations, there has always been one steady constant that has anchored me and assured me that there is still some speck of stability left extant in my life. As I remember all the memories from Sierra Leone, both good and bad, the one thing that has always stood out to me was the struggle that my parents and I went through to both find and provide quality education. Thinking about all the hard work that my mom and dad went through to be able to ensure that everyone that entered the school they were working for was given the proper educational foundation in a country with an education system that has been abandoned and dilapidated, has inspired me to no end. It has reminded me that whatever it is I decide to do when I get older, it is my responsibility to bring it back home and seek out solutions myself to make a difference and be an impetus for change in my country.
QUESTBRIDGE BIOGRAPHICAL ESSAY
Prompt: We are interested in learning more about you and the context in which you have grown up, formed your aspirations, and accomplished your academic successes. Please describe the factors and challenges that have most shaped your personal life and aspirations. How have these factors helped you to grow?
My entire life has never proceeded at a steady pace, rather it has been a series of speedups and slowdowns that has always been shifting and adjusting. When the changes first started, they did not affect me. When my family and I moved 1000 miles south to Florida when I was four, my only thought was that I would miss the snow, winter, and maybe the occasional family member. When I was six and the decision was made that my mother and I would move 3000 miles away from my father and brother across the world to a country that I had only ever briefly visited, I could only think about the new adventures that would await us in Sierra Leone. At that age, change was welcome. I could brag about all the places I had been to, experience new things and see new people, something that I yearned and craved for at the time.
However, as I began to mature and the number of life shifts that I was going through ceased to remain steady, it's toll became more weighing. Moving from school to school, whether because of the extensive amount of bullying and traumatic experiences that I was subject to or the complete and utter lack of a sufficient or satisfactory education in the country, it became much harder to cope with the changes that were occurring in my life. Friend groups became harder for me to form and I started to ask myself 'why bother if I'll just leave again in a year or if I'm just going to end up bullied?'. Change had gone from a welcome spice-up in my life to yet another obstacle that seemed to never let up on its assault on my psyche.
By the time Ebola had slithered its way into our lives, I had become so numb to the constant changes that the direct impact of its effect never actually hit me until the day that I had to leave. Only when I was boarding the plane did I realize that I was leaving my country, leaving my friends, family and the only place that I had ever felt at home, to live with family members that I barely knew. I never realized that endless and intimate conversations with my parents would become 30 minute Skype sessions, that hugging my mom before or after she went to work was no longer an option or that my weekly Sunday family beach trips were to be replaced by staying at home doing homework by myself.
As my life has consisted of a never-ending cycle of change and alterations, there has always been one steady constant that has anchored me and assured me that there is still some speck of stability left extant in my life. As I remember all the memories from Sierra Leone, both good and bad, the one thing that has always stood out to me was the struggle that my parents and I went through to both find and provide quality education. Thinking about all the hard work that my mom and dad went through to be able to ensure that everyone that entered the school they were working for was given the proper educational foundation in a country with an education system that has been abandoned and dilapidated, has inspired me to no end. It has reminded me that whatever it is I decide to do when I get older, it is my responsibility to bring it back home and seek out solutions myself to make a difference and be an impetus for change in my country.
