<p>Hi everyone I'm a high school senior who doing the #1 prompt on the Common App. So I am writing a "what I overcame" essay. Don't worry, this wasn't a small thing like an athletic game this was a serious familial event that occurred in my life that pretty much effect my high school years (my luck). This event (I'm not comfortable sharing specifically) effected my academic and social life. A bit of a background I am not originally from the US. I came to the US when I was 8 from a country called Bangladesh. I used to go to the number one private school in Bangladesh (which was actually American-run) and was an excellent 4.0 GPA student. After this event that occurred in the summer of 2011 my life pretty much fell apart. As I said this effected my academics. My GPA right now is a 3.2 which is not a representative of who I am. Now, my initial grades (9th and 10th filled with b's and c's) weren't good at all my grades started to get better and my first semester 12th grades were in fact all A's (not to get too cocky lol). I basically had no motivation those first years. But then an event changed my outlook on life. What happened was that I was able to win an internship at the Yunus Centre (which is a centre made by Nobel Peace Prize Winner Dr.Muhammad Yunus to combat poverty in Bangladesh). I was excited to feel useful in a long time as I traveled back to Bangladesh in the summer after 10th grade. I met a lot of people and made friends that really changed my perspective on how I viewed my life. These people were living in abject poverty but still had a positive outlook on life, and this in turn game me the motivation I needed to return to my old self again. I am having a hard time how I could structure all of this into a nice essay. Any help or tips is appreciated.Thanks</p>