Theinfluence 4 letters have had on my life.

Hey, I need a lot of help revising my essay. I deeply appreciate your time reviewing my essay. Thank you so much in advance!

CommonApp Prompt: Evaluate a significant experience, achievement, risk you have taken, or ethical dilemma you have faced and its impact on you.

Four Letters Long

Tsui- it's just four letters long, guarantees a wrong pronunciation every time, but I have never tired correcting this TOEFL mistake. Together, the four letters spell "tray"-just like a breakfast tray.

Some 3,113 Americans of the 308,236,491 in the United States of America share the same last name as me. But mine is as close as you will ever get to a silent ray-something I am proud to be born with. The word has always brought instant attention, (recently) a segway into an interesting introduction, meanwhile I am addressed as Christina Tissue, Christina Sushi, or (my delight) Christina Tushy.

For years, I was embarrassed by my last name, especially when it was mistaken for Tushy. I became anxious as the alphabet rolled from A to S and then finally T. It was not as simple to pronounce as my preceding classmates (Smelkinson, Smith, Tagat, Thomason...) and was always followed by a question I could not answer. Where was the 'r'? I couldn't stand this difference. It made me feel foreign and unlike from my classmates.

I first saw a different treatment to a roll call at a preseason track meeting sophomore year. Instead of shrugging off his question, I thought it might be interesting to humor him. "It's a Sesame Street nightmare."

Such a peculiar last name has baffled everyone from my English teachers to telemarketers to my parents. But with it, I made a trademark. I signed artwork of objects duller than bottles, yet colored more vibrantly than Frida. I entered and won speech competitions, leaving behind bits of auditorium as my face dominated a corkboard one week later, and I have developed a sharp sense of hearing while simultaneously finding the third derivative of sin (3x5 +2x)... I made my obscurity into a warrant.

The warrant supports hard, honest work with a creative touch. Behind Tsui are hours spent alongside my mother, reciting half-a-millennium-old idioms and countless theatrical expressions. They are springing ideas urbanized with the audience in mind. They are questions: Why am I drawing this, Is there a better way, How do other people see this, Do I get the message across... All of this is applied to my life: my artwork, my papers, my projects, my clubs, my relationships, and ultimately my college as well.

The success of my last name has been a central head fake [I would like to change this sentence]. I found values which makes me the walking limbs I am and which produce works affecting those around me. In four letters, I corrected a lot more that just my last name.

I really like this!

The beginning was a bit confusing though.

I didn't understand "I have never tired correcting this TOEFL mistake. Together, the four letters spell "tray" -just like a breakfast tray." What is a TOEFL mistake? and how does tray fit into your essay?

Thank you so much for the comment. I'll have to clarify the tray part.

TOEFL is a test that foreigners have to take. It tests for english proficiency--something my parents took. TOEFL is also responsible for giving my parents' their American names...which includes my last name, Tsui (pronounced "tray").

3,113 Americans in the United States share the same last name as me.


I don't get know why it's there...

I agree with partyfann, your intro is really confusing...