I wrote this for the second prompt on the UC Application
Prompt: Tell us about a personal quality, talent, accomplishment, contribution or experience that is important to you. What about this quality or accomplishment makes you proud and how does it relate to the person you are?
I realize that I don't have some of the best qualities in life. I have friends who are smarter, funnier, and even kinder than me. I know of people my age who study harder in school and work harder in sports than I do. However, I chose not to dwell on what I am not. This world takes all kinds and I am proud to say I am open to all of them. I'm here to profess that openness is undoubtedly my strongest personal quality.
Openness is so important to me that I look for it in friends, colleges, and job opportunities. Luckily, I found it at my job last summer where I was a youth program coordinator at a local elementary summer program. Working with kids ages five through eleven I learned a lot. Foremost, I learned how open the child's mind is. It hasn't yet been exposed to the elements of hate and discrimination. I also learned how to make friends with kids half my age. I continue working with the same kids, this time voluntarily, through a tutoring program.
It brings me great pride to be open to people from all walks of life. My father is a special education teacher. He showed me, at a young age, that special needs children are cool and deserve equal treatment. I've gone to deaf, autistic, and severely retarded children's birthday parties and I've invited them to my own. I view them as unique human beings, no different than you or me. Over the years, I've learned that kids with disabilities bring just as much to the friendship table as anyone else.
The founder of the non-profit organization I work and volunteer for, is like me in that he doesn't have a conventional outlook on life. He once told me "your mind is like a parachute, it works best when it's open." This quote with multiple indefinite origins has inspired me throughout my adolescence. Before high school I was very narrow-minded. I wanted to get in and out of high school as fast as possible and the only extracurricular I planned on taking part in was basketball. As my high school career reaches its twilight I am finally able see how my openness transformed me into the person I am now. I am proud to be able to look back and say that I participated not only in basketball, but in cross country, academic Olympics, baseball, student government, and student council. Had I not opened my mind to these new opportunities as they came into my life I would have missed out on some memorable moments and crucial life experiences.
Even though I might not be the smartest person in my class or the fastest runner on my cross country team I am not disappointed. I've come to take people for who they are and welcome them into my life. Sometimes these people are half my age. Sometimes they are mentally handicapped and face different challenges than I do. Being willing to try new things has greatly influenced who I have become. I plan on constantly exploring new activities as I progress my life into college and beyond. I take pride in my openness because I believe it will be the key to my success in the future.
I really dislike the word "Openness"- maybe you can substitute it for better words like "Liberal," or even "Flexible."
I also see couple grammatical errors, and I feel like maybe your openness is perhaps only good for your future towards working with the challenged,
not as a personal quality to succeed in overall. Remember, LESS TELL more show :) Hope this helped !
