Essay about an experience that helped shape my character.

there is nothing impossible

The summer before senior year, my friends started preparing for the SAT, filling out college applications, drafting college essays, and getting summer jobs. The only thing I made time for was to play tennis. My entire schedule was based around tennis - how early I needed to sleep, when my next practice was, how nutritious my diet was, and what my fitness plans looked like. I was confident and had a strong belief in myself and my dreams.

When I lived in India during my elementary school time, I observed that most kids around me lose their chance of creating childhood experiences as soon as they begin school. Parents send their children to school for eight hours, put them through additional tutoring sessions for two to three hours, force them to self-study for three to four hours, and pressure them to do well in school every single day. So, I wondered, "Is this healthy for the children? Is it necessary?"

Well, that's what my cousin told me, and at the time, I believed her. She had no proof, she could not predict my future, yet I didn't question a thing. Why? Simply because she is a year ahead of me in the game of life. I accepted these views and took them to heart. These hardships of school and life were ingrained in my head so well that I started to become reluctant to study, terrified to face new challenges, fearful of new life experiences, and anxious towards the pressures of the coming years. Yet, I still thought: she must be telling the truth, she does have more experience than I do, but it still left me confused.

I knew needed to turn to someone with even more experience. Someone with a different perspective - my father. I asked him for advice and he simply said "Every person has different goals in life. Yours might be different from the others around you. Everyone has different qualities, you have different ones. There is nothing impossible as impossible itself says that 'I'm possible'". I understood. Ever since that day, I have appreciated hard work instead of despising it, I have strived for knowledge instead of letting it demotivate me, and I have valued challenging situations instead of fearing them.

Now, my cousin's belief does not apply to me, but I don't just ignore it, I respect it. Our goals in life may be different, but our drive and passion are the same; They are correct and so am I.

Currently, my decision of choosing Running Start has benefited me in numerous ways. I have more time to focus on my fitness, diet, self-tennis practice, setting personal and life goals for my future, and most importantly, travelling to other countries to gain experience from international tennis tournaments where I get the opportunity to practice with the top two hundred tennis players in the world. These experiences give me a chance to identify some of the gaps I need to overcome. That is what (((name of college))) will help me with; It will provide me with the necessary resources to reach my desire of a professional level, and my business degree will further my success in life after my tennis career.

Quote I live by: "Hard work beats talent when talent does not work hard!" (551 words - needs to be 500)

HI, @aru1403
Let's me try to give you some suggestion, your essay is interesting, especially, sentence format described naturally.
But, I think some paragraph it does not relate to the topic, so, you can read again for revision.
Good Luck!!

Hi aru1403
That essay was very well written! It was engaging and coherent. It amazes me of your comparisons to you and your cousins mindset, that definitely kept me engaged. Perhaps you can try and cut out things that don't really mean much to you. It's just a suggestion. Good work!

Arushi, this is not exactly an experience essay but more of a contemplative essay. So you did not properly represent the prompt requirement. These are a series of questions that you asked yourself and sought responses to from different people. That is not what the essay is asking you to do. Rather, it is asking you discuss a specific event or experience that you went through which helped shape your character. For example, you spent all your time playing tennis and neglected to prepare for your SAT test. So when you took the test, you ended up failing to get a passing score. Your score was not good enough for your first choice university. The lesson learned was, you can't prioritize an extra curricular activity over an academic one because it will limit your ability to attend a good school. From that point on, you began to prioritize academics over extra curricular activities because you want to get a better grade the next time you take the SAT so you can attend your priority school. That is the kind of character shaping experience that you should be presenting. What you wrote definitely does not respond to the prompt so you should not use it with your application.