Tell us about the most significant challenge you've faced or something important that didn't go according to plan. How did you manage the situation?(*) (200-250 words)
When I was five, I used the dollar I earned from washing dishes to buy a whole garbage bag full of legos at a garage sale. For the next five years, those legos were the only significant recreational items to me. I could build and rebuild, design and redesign; my creativity was unbounded, and I let my imagination run free. I had the mentality of an architect even before I knew what it was.
When my family's financial means improved, my mother showered me with toys she thought would foster my mind into embracing her dream profession for me. Every birthday was a new toy stethoscope; every Christmas a doctor doll. She had her mind set on sending me to medical school, and nothing was going to get in her way.
For years, I tried to show my parents that I wanted to be an artist, a designer, an architect, but I never received any support. They blew it off every time, saying art was a hobby, not a profession, and that one day I'll realize the faultiness in my silly aspirations.
Yet, that day never came.
The most significant challenge I've faced is one that I've been contending with all my life: the struggle between pleasing my parents and following my own aspirations. By junior year, I decisively choose the latter, but the war was not easily fought. An amateur high school designer verses two PhD level polymer chemists make for a lopsided battle, but I stuck by my guts. My innate talents, my interests and my passion all align with the field of design. For now, my parents have accepted my choice, but my goal is to make them truly proud of me as an architect.
(word count is 288, so I need to cut at least 38...)
When I was five, I used the dollar I earned from washing dishes to buy a whole garbage bag full of legos at a garage sale. For the next five years, those legos were the only significant recreational items to me. I could build and rebuild, design and redesign; my creativity was unbounded, and I let my imagination run free. I had the mentality of an architect even before I knew what it was.
When my family's financial means improved, my mother showered me with toys she thought would foster my mind into embracing her dream profession for me. Every birthday was a new toy stethoscope; every Christmas a doctor doll. She had her mind set on sending me to medical school, and nothing was going to get in her way.
For years, I tried to show my parents that I wanted to be an artist, a designer, an architect, but I never received any support. They blew it off every time, saying art was a hobby, not a profession, and that one day I'll realize the faultiness in my silly aspirations.
Yet, that day never came.
The most significant challenge I've faced is one that I've been contending with all my life: the struggle between pleasing my parents and following my own aspirations. By junior year, I decisively choose the latter, but the war was not easily fought. An amateur high school designer verses two PhD level polymer chemists make for a lopsided battle, but I stuck by my guts. My innate talents, my interests and my passion all align with the field of design. For now, my parents have accepted my choice, but my goal is to make them truly proud of me as an architect.
(word count is 288, so I need to cut at least 38...)