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'Meeting my new teachers' - Common App Topic of choice


HC2013 3 / 15 2  
Oct 30, 2012   #1
On the first day of school, walking into meet my new teachers, I am sure of only one thing: I'm going to have to face the dreaded "personal information sheet." I look around my class to see everyone confidently breezing through their handout seeming so sure of their responses. I complete the first portion with ease, filling out my extra curricular activities and grades in prerequisite courses, and stop only as I reach my least favorite request, "In one word, define yourself." I have been answering this question since kindergarten and it only seems to become more brain wracking with each passing year. Before middle school I had always been so sure of myself. Sure of who I was, and whom I wanted to be. I gave a whole new meaning to the phrase 13 going on 30. I had decided I was becoming a pediatrician before I could spell it, and had every aspect of my future planned out while other kids were still banking on becoming a movie star or the president. I didn't doubt these plans for a second until quite recently actually, in eighth grade, when everything seemed to change.

Significant moments in our life define us, and strung together they constitute our character. It only takes a split second for your world to be completely flipped upside down, and when this happens it tells us a lot about ourselves. However, to add to my confusion, these moments have seemed to do just the opposite for me. With each new realization about myself I seem to be drifting farther from the person I had always planned on being.

I think the most life changing experiences include death, having your heart broken, and receiving a second chance. I can pinpoint one of all three moments that have impacted me in the past four years, beginning with the suicide of my childhood friend Brandon. Although I hadn't grown up with the most ideal childhood, I had always been able to smile through hard times. This changed with Brandon's passing. It brought to surface all the weaknesses I had been subconsciously hiding for way too long. Brandon made me realize that I wasn't as invincible as I had always believed, and this began the dissipation of my character as I knew it. The second moment that impacted me that year was the first time my heart was broken. Freshman year my father was sentenced to eight years in prison for a crime that he still insists he didn't commit. I had always been a very independent person, but my dad was the one person I felt confident enough to go to when I just couldn't handle them myself. I was angry with him for leaving me, and disappointed with myself for the way I handled it. For the second time my feelings were completely contradicting everything I had ever believed in. The last and maybe most significant moment to influence my character was the moment my mother opened her eyes out of her coma. After a summer filled with discouraging news from her doctors, my mother chances weren't looking good. I spent most of my summer believing it was going to be my last with my mother, and her recovery was nothing short of a miracle. The second chance my mother received that day showed me the incredible worth of a moment. It made me realize that things can change in a matter of seconds, and there is no way to plan for such circumstances.

These moments may have made me realize that I wasn't the invincible, independent, organized, fazed by nothing girl I always thought; however, they also made me realize that I am something much more valuable. I'm indefinable. I can't be described in one word, or even this entire paper. In fact, the best things in life are the hardest to define. Words like love and happiness have definitions, but they are nothing compared to the feeling of experiencing them. I like to think of myself in a similar way. I could use a million adjectives to describe myself and they still wouldn't give you a clue of who I am or how I feel, and that is fine because I'm not a definition. I'm not my GPA or my act score, but I'm a student with an unusual past and an extraordinary future.
dealaus 5 / 21 1  
Oct 30, 2012   #2
Before middle school I had always been so sure of myself. Sure of who I was, and whom I wanted to be.

so sure of myself, sure of who I was

Good topic! I always thought the choice topic always degraded people's applications, but I think this one is very strong. You tell a story, an extremely powerful one, and also get something out of it at the end. Very nice job, I say you submit it.

I also hate the "define yourself" question.
dpatel95 1 / 1  
Oct 30, 2012   #3
Great Topic! I like your wording throughout the essay. Something you could do to make it better is eliminate the contractions. "hadn't" should be had not.


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