This is what I did for the Common App. I was thinking of using it for a college app question "Describe a person who has had a significant influence on your life. How has that influence helped to prepare you for your college experience at Florida Southern?". I'll edit this and take out any unnecessary things. What you think?
"I am a young, female mogul before I am an artist. As a business woman there isn't a single day where I don't use my education or acquire new knowledge to ensure my success. Regardless of where you are today, with education you can take yourself where you want to be." - Nicki Minaj
There is someone in everyone's life that influences him or her tremendously. This person could be a friend, family member, a musician, an actor; anyone. For me it is Onika Tanya Maraj,
known as Nicki Minaj. Nicki is such an inspiration to stay true to yourself and be to be different, no matter how people perceive you or what they say. At the same time, she preaches to work hard, to never be lazy, to never complain about hard work because it always pays off and always puts an emphasis on how important it is to stay in school.
Nicki has been on a very long and difficult journey. Despite growing up in a troubled home, with her drug addict father and struggling mother looking after both her and her little
brother, Nicki went on to graduate from LaGuardia High School in Manhattan where she studied singing and acting. She overcame the many obstacles and came out on top in the male dominated music industry. I was reading one of her many magazine articles (July 2010 issue of the XXL magazine) and she gave a brief overview of her life up to that point. I was surprised to learn that as a teenager she struggled with her self-confidence. However coming into the music business, Nicki changed herself and over the years she realized that "the goal is not to want their acceptance and the goal is to just do you". She is a strong, confident woman and a leader in her business. She does not see herself as being anybody but herself; Nicki is a woman that could never be defined. Nicki once said, "Use your smile to change the world, don't let the world change your smile." I interpreted this as, stay true to yourself and never let anyone tell you who you are or aren't and you can make a difference.
Nicki taught me how to accept me for me and to careless of what people thought or said about me. She inspires me to not only stay in school to get an education, but to work hard towards what I want. In the words of Nicki, "Barbz stay in school, don't you ever be lazy, don't you ever complain about hard work, work hard, it pays off!"
Several people will argue that there is nothing appealing about her, but to me, she represents individuality and originality. Yes she has been influenced by many female artists who
came before her but essentially, Nicki bought her own unique style and personality to her music. In my opinion, there are plenty admirable things about her, for example, she worked hard from such a young age to get where she is now, proving just how hard working and ambitious she is. She is a very wise and intelligent woman. She's a very versatile artist who knows how to make music for more than one genre. Her music speaks to me; I can always find a Nicki Minaj song to comply with how I feel at certain moments. There is no denying that she is talented and is very good at what she does.
At the same time, she preachesencourages to work hard, to never be lazy, to never complain about hard work because it always pays off and always puts an emphasis on how important it is to stay in school.
I prefer "encourage" to "preach" :)
Very impressive beginning :)... I like the way you have introduced her.
the essay was unique and different but you should try to talk more about yourself
Yep... Rose is right. You need to talk about her, but the emphasis should be more on how she inspired you. For example, take this line;
. Nicki once said, "Use your smile to change the world, don't let the world change your smile."
You can use it to tell them when this quote affected one of your decisions or how it helped you to recover from a trauma.... Have yourself in the middle and talk about her through your experiences.
You display excellent writing skills and I'm sure you can improve this to a great essay :)
Good Luck!
