H.G. Wells wrote, "History is a race between education and catastrophe." The course of human events is defined by the innovation that propels society into a new era and the tragedy that ensues when our knowledge is exhausted. I don't believe the relationship is so simple. Adversity is defeated by the mere act of trying to succeed in spite of catastrophic circumstances, regardless of whether or not success was met. It is about finding knowledge in suffering. The conflict of my own history, a story that was almost never written, taught me that education arises out of catastrophe. When faced with personal tragedy, I found a way to survive, even thrive.
My mother's womb provided little defense against my father's wrath. When my mother was six months pregnant, my father, in a drunken rage, beat her. My twin brother was killed instantly, and I, at only a pound, first opened my eyes to the world. From the beginning, my picture of the world was stained red. Beating after beating did my mother and I endure at the hand of my father. Then, my mother divorced my father, but my father wasn't done with me. When I was a child, he would stop beating me and force my frail body into his car and careen drunkenly all over the roads of Mississippi. As I grew, the beating only intensified.
My mother tried to spare me the heft of my father's hand, but sorrow lay on the path away from my father as well. Before I was eight, I knew homelessness, hunger, pestilence, and poverty. Even when we found a semblance of stability, I remained sick and money was never really there for medicine. Every other week any strength I had accrued was violently removed.
Right before I entered high school, my mother had two major strokes. It fell to me to care for the woman who had cared for me. Over the course of my secondary school career, Mom had several transient ischemic attacks. These were basically miniature strokes, but my mom insisted on working to support us. Whenever she got sick, I would nurse her back to enough health that she could type, and then she would be off to work again.
No sooner had Mom recovered than my grandfather got sick. An old stubborn Navy Chief, he had neglected his diabetes and went into both kidney and heart failure. He lay dead on the table for over 5 minutes and was in a coma for two weeks. Everyday, I sat by his bed and talked to him about how he had to wake up to see me graduate from college. That has always been his fondest wish, since no one in our family has ever even attended college. Then one day, he woke up. The doctor's were stunned. But he wasn't better. His health mandated strict care, and so, for a year, I traveled an hour a day to administer his medications, check his blood sugar, cook, and perhaps most important of all, talk to him.
The background of my life's artwork is filled with deepest black and bloodiest red, but, to me, it is a masterpiece because among the swirls of sin and sorrow are points of brightest light, glittering against the canvas like stars in the night sky. Those lights are the opportunities my existence has offered- infinite, unfathomable, and beautiful. Amongst such adversity present in my life, where could education emerge? The answer is just that: amongst such adversity. My education resides in the ruins of the catastrophe around me; my lessons are scrawled in the ashes of my innocence. I do not regret the life I have lived because I have learned from the life I have lived.
Wow; you've been through a lot (sorry for the understatement, but that's all I can say.)
I was stunned more by what you've been through than by the actual essay, however. I think that you need to reveal more about yourself, and not your past; I know that you do talk about how you're a stronger person, but this essay concentrates so much on the events, and not the aftermath. I read your Yale supplemental essay as well, and I think that these two go hand-in-hand, but can't exist by themselves. You could combine them into one common app essay and then write a different yale essay...see, you need to explain the results of your overcoming adversity all in one place.
Also: i liked the art metaphor, but are you an artist? because if you are, then I say magnify that, really explode the metaphor and incorporate it throughout. but if you aren't, I say find a different way to portray your life.
You have an incredible history behind you; you just need to really let that out on paper. Remember, it's about who you are now. How have you changed, or how have you refused to let your circumstances define you? Good luck.
