need all the help/advice you can give :) thanks!
Evaluate a significant experience, achievement, risk you have taken, or ethical dilemma you have faced and its impact on you.
When I was seven years old my family (mother, brother, and I) immigrated to the United States from Taipei, Taiwan with barely any knowledge of the English language, no family or friends living in the country. This move was a defining and difficult moment of my life because I was given a choice: leave all that I had ever known and follow my family to the United States or stay in Taiwan with my grandparents. After many discussion with my mother, I decided to step outside of my comfort zone and take the risk of immigrating to a country that I had only ever seen on television.
Clutching just two small suitcases full of essentials and items I deemed important, such as my favorite pillowcase, I began my odyssey to the West. En route to the airport, my heart seemed to beat louder than the rumbling engine of the taxi; a cacophonous symphony in my chest. All the way to the airport, I wondered if I had forgotten anything I could not live without; this was meant to be a one-way trip, we would not be returning.
As I boarded the plane, exchanging the scorching Chinese summer for a dark, cool, and claustrophobic interior, I took one last glimpse of the city I knew and loved, endeavoring to etch the sparkling metropolis in the annals of my mind.(do you get what i am trying to say here?) Soon the plane was airborne and I was watching my childhood memories pass in a flash out of a dirty portside window.
During the longest flight of my life (not needed?), my family and I prepared ourselves for what lies ahead (or lay ahead or laid ahead). As we settled in, my brother and I chose our American names from popular television shows; I became "Jerry" from Tom and Jerry, while my brother (formerly Po-Chen) decided upon "Kevin" from the movie Home Alone. Bearing our new identities like diaphanous masks, we arrived in the United States twenty hours later.
As we landed on a snowy, frigid Chicago runway, the full reality of my situation hit me like a two pound chunk of hail. I was finally in America; the culture I left was as different from the weather was that day. However, in the coming months I would not only survive in this foreign society; I would prosper.
Immigrating to the United States played a monumental role in the person I am today by immersing me in an extremely diverse culture, forcing me to adapt as well as grow as a person. Despite the harrowing task of beginning an entirely new life in an unfamiliar local, I quickly mastered the language, adopted the foreign culture as my own, and made a smooth transition into American society. The internal motivation and drive that helped me expeditiously adjust to a foreign country at such a young age continues to propel me to excel in every facet (is this used correctly?) of my life, and will ensure that I exceed in my collegiate studies.
Evaluate a significant experience, achievement, risk you have taken, or ethical dilemma you have faced and its impact on you.
When I was seven years old my family (mother, brother, and I) immigrated to the United States from Taipei, Taiwan with barely any knowledge of the English language, no family or friends living in the country. This move was a defining and difficult moment of my life because I was given a choice: leave all that I had ever known and follow my family to the United States or stay in Taiwan with my grandparents. After many discussion with my mother, I decided to step outside of my comfort zone and take the risk of immigrating to a country that I had only ever seen on television.
Clutching just two small suitcases full of essentials and items I deemed important, such as my favorite pillowcase, I began my odyssey to the West. En route to the airport, my heart seemed to beat louder than the rumbling engine of the taxi; a cacophonous symphony in my chest. All the way to the airport, I wondered if I had forgotten anything I could not live without; this was meant to be a one-way trip, we would not be returning.
As I boarded the plane, exchanging the scorching Chinese summer for a dark, cool, and claustrophobic interior, I took one last glimpse of the city I knew and loved, endeavoring to etch the sparkling metropolis in the annals of my mind.(do you get what i am trying to say here?) Soon the plane was airborne and I was watching my childhood memories pass in a flash out of a dirty portside window.
During the longest flight of my life (not needed?), my family and I prepared ourselves for what lies ahead (or lay ahead or laid ahead). As we settled in, my brother and I chose our American names from popular television shows; I became "Jerry" from Tom and Jerry, while my brother (formerly Po-Chen) decided upon "Kevin" from the movie Home Alone. Bearing our new identities like diaphanous masks, we arrived in the United States twenty hours later.
As we landed on a snowy, frigid Chicago runway, the full reality of my situation hit me like a two pound chunk of hail. I was finally in America; the culture I left was as different from the weather was that day. However, in the coming months I would not only survive in this foreign society; I would prosper.
Immigrating to the United States played a monumental role in the person I am today by immersing me in an extremely diverse culture, forcing me to adapt as well as grow as a person. Despite the harrowing task of beginning an entirely new life in an unfamiliar local, I quickly mastered the language, adopted the foreign culture as my own, and made a smooth transition into American society. The internal motivation and drive that helped me expeditiously adjust to a foreign country at such a young age continues to propel me to excel in every facet (is this used correctly?) of my life, and will ensure that I exceed in my collegiate studies.