Hello all!! I'm applying for the 2011-2011 university intake and was wondering whether talking about a previous university rejection is too heavy/risky for a common app essay. The point of my essay with not revolve around self pity but rather how I've taken that experience and grown emotionally. Feedback will be very much helpful.
As a child, I was always warned against swallowing watermelon seeds. In my childhood naivety, I would intentionally swallow the seeds with dreams of having a great big watermelon growing in the depths of my belly. Now, all grown up, in moments like these, laying on a large straw mat strewn across the frontage garden chomping away at cold watermelon slices, I can't help but chuckle. Not at the impossibility of the dream but rather the innocent enormity of it. Over the years, I have scaled my dreams to fit within the realms of reality and with that have come some tough life lessons. The beginning of 2011 was especially difficult; personally and academically. Late into my mock exams, I received news of an unsuccessful application to a university I had set my eye and heart on. The news left me tremendously upset. All my dreams hopes and aspirations shattered in that one instant. I had failed; I was not good enough. How was I to pick up the pieces of dreams that I had worked so hard throughout high school to reach? Where would I begin? A liquid glaze coating my eyes ruptured and let hot tears stream down my cheeks.
A stroke of luck came a few weeks later- although I did not see it then- when I stumbled across a babies' orphanage in my neighborhood. I've always had a fondness for children; perhaps it's the effect of having three younger sisters. Naturally, I felt drawn to pay a visit and to my pleasant surprise, I was welcomed by three beaming and wide eyed toddlers. In due course, what was initially a one-time visit grew into a couple of hours after school which in turn morphed into entire Saturday afternoons. Before I knew it, I was spending whole days at the orphanage during my school holidays. Up until this very day, I can't explain what it is that kept me going back. Maybe it was having bits and pieces of mashed potatoes and peas catapulted at my face and the toothless grin received thereafter. Or possibly the bob of their charmingly chubby cheeks as we played catch in the lawn but then again it could be the relentless persistence as they tried to dress themselves, the result; clothes inside out and shoes wrong way round. Yet they tried again. Through my little ones, as I like to call them, I've slowly rebuilt the dreams I thought I'd lost; dreams of going to college, taking my current interests to a level beyond high school, exploring newer interests with courage and optimism and just taking that journey of self-discovery .
Six months later, I have not only developed a profound appreciation of the positive things in my life but also the little blessings that I have had all along; both my parents, a loving family, a warm bed, three square meals, hot showers and just life in general. With a renewed outlook on life, I decided to take a gap year to commit and focus my efforts on a passion of mine; community service. This time in my home land, Uganda. My greatest hope as of now is to impart all that I have learnt throughout my school years in Kenya to those who need it the most and for that I have applied for an assistant teaching post at a rural primary school. If there's one thing I have learnt this year, it is the importance of dreaming and taking committed steps in achieving that dream despite seemingly difficult challenges.
I acknowledge that 2011 has not been my best year but through the tears, I have discovered an inner strength that I never knew existed. This is an attitude I hope to take with me, not only to college but also beyond college in each and every aspect of my life.
As a child, I was always warned against swallowing watermelon seeds. In my childhood naivety, I would intentionally swallow the seeds with dreams of having a great big watermelon growing in the depths of my belly. Now, all grown up, in moments like these, laying on a large straw mat strewn across the frontage garden chomping away at cold watermelon slices, I can't help but chuckle. Not at the impossibility of the dream but rather the innocent enormity of it. Over the years, I have scaled my dreams to fit within the realms of reality and with that have come some tough life lessons. The beginning of 2011 was especially difficult; personally and academically. Late into my mock exams, I received news of an unsuccessful application to a university I had set my eye and heart on. The news left me tremendously upset. All my dreams hopes and aspirations shattered in that one instant. I had failed; I was not good enough. How was I to pick up the pieces of dreams that I had worked so hard throughout high school to reach? Where would I begin? A liquid glaze coating my eyes ruptured and let hot tears stream down my cheeks.
A stroke of luck came a few weeks later- although I did not see it then- when I stumbled across a babies' orphanage in my neighborhood. I've always had a fondness for children; perhaps it's the effect of having three younger sisters. Naturally, I felt drawn to pay a visit and to my pleasant surprise, I was welcomed by three beaming and wide eyed toddlers. In due course, what was initially a one-time visit grew into a couple of hours after school which in turn morphed into entire Saturday afternoons. Before I knew it, I was spending whole days at the orphanage during my school holidays. Up until this very day, I can't explain what it is that kept me going back. Maybe it was having bits and pieces of mashed potatoes and peas catapulted at my face and the toothless grin received thereafter. Or possibly the bob of their charmingly chubby cheeks as we played catch in the lawn but then again it could be the relentless persistence as they tried to dress themselves, the result; clothes inside out and shoes wrong way round. Yet they tried again. Through my little ones, as I like to call them, I've slowly rebuilt the dreams I thought I'd lost; dreams of going to college, taking my current interests to a level beyond high school, exploring newer interests with courage and optimism and just taking that journey of self-discovery .
Six months later, I have not only developed a profound appreciation of the positive things in my life but also the little blessings that I have had all along; both my parents, a loving family, a warm bed, three square meals, hot showers and just life in general. With a renewed outlook on life, I decided to take a gap year to commit and focus my efforts on a passion of mine; community service. This time in my home land, Uganda. My greatest hope as of now is to impart all that I have learnt throughout my school years in Kenya to those who need it the most and for that I have applied for an assistant teaching post at a rural primary school. If there's one thing I have learnt this year, it is the importance of dreaming and taking committed steps in achieving that dream despite seemingly difficult challenges.
I acknowledge that 2011 has not been my best year but through the tears, I have discovered an inner strength that I never knew existed. This is an attitude I hope to take with me, not only to college but also beyond college in each and every aspect of my life.
