I'm not so sure about this essay. Would love some feedback
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?
A twelve hour plane ride awaited me as I crawled through the busy airport. "Here we go again" I muttered to myself, too silent for the ears of my family to catch. We were moving again, but oddly enough a surge of happiness and excitement motivated me to pay attention to the chaotic mayhem of my situation. Another social clean slate had been offered to me by fate, and I took it gladly this time. The previous year had been difficult, tearing much of my imagined world to pieces. Coming to grips with the fact that countless hours of my life had been wasted doing nothing useful sent me into a spiraling depression. It was the first year of my life that I truly knew that success required much more time and commitment than was previously thought. Homework could no longer be a tenth priority, or even a third priority. Still, when thoughts drifted to Saudi Arabia the only word that appeared was hot. It would take only a few weeks for Saudi Arabia to reveal that it had much more to offer.
Like it was predicted, a thermometer greeted me and my fellow travelers with a notification that we were stepping into a desert with one hundred and twenty degrees of heat melting anything besides the few plants and animals that managed to survive there. With little to no ways of making friends and meeting people, most of the next month would be held in a bitter suspense with few people to put me at ease except an equally nervous family and the great writings of Kurt Vonnegut. The initial culture shock blew my mind; I had never seen a country so devoted to their religion and so slow to give freedom. In Saudi Arabia, women can't drive, slavery was ended fifty years ago, and they even have a king that has total power with exception to the Quran and Islamic traditions. Frustration gripped me from the knowledge that I would have to broaden my views in order to see past many American stereotypes that can be cast on countries in the Middle East. With part of me fully aware that I had little right to be upset, a determination to understand other cultures slowly grew on me as a fantastic and honorable idea.
The morning before the first day of school brought on a terrible nausea. Pushing through the discomfort, I rushed out the door as the bus came by my house. The reasoning part of my brain had either stopped working or been completely overrun by my emotions. "What can I expect from an international school? What will the people be like?" For one of the first times in my life, I had no answers to any of my questions.
To my surprise, the student body continues to welcome me despite the vast differences in ethnicity and culture. They are genuinely interested in each other as human beings and it is easy for me to do the same. Many of these students from varying backgrounds have become very close friends and act as examples of all the positive aspects of diversity that I had never experienced before. Pushing me past my comfort zone every day, living in Saudi Arabia has helped me gain understanding and respect for different lifestyles. A desire has been placed deep within me to expand my relationships and welcome experiences that are unpredictable and new.
