<p>Please edit/give me advice on my essay prompts, PLEASE</p>
<p>A. Personal Statement (required)
The Personal Statement is our best means of getting to know you and your best means of creating a context for your academic performance. When you write your personal statement, tell us about those aspects of your life that are not apparent from your academic record:
a character-defining moment
the cultural awareness you've developed
a challenge faced
a personal hardship or barrier overcome
Directions
Choose either Topic 1 or 2. (Please do not exceed 650 words)</p>
<ol>
<li> Discuss how your family's experience or cultural history enriched you or presented you with opportunities or challenges in pursuing your educational goals.</li>
</ol>
<ul>
<li>OR -</li>
<li> Tell us a story from your life, describing an experience that either demonstrates your character or helped to shape it.</li>
</ul>
<p>I look at any given challenge as an opportunity and motivation to shape myself. Some barriers were thrown to me without consent, like having to watch my little brother every day after school. However, other hardships, I brought on myself.
I got pregnant in the spring time of 2012. It was a careless act that altered my life and also my education forever. I reconsidered because of the subtle but emotional bond my daughter and I had when her watery movements made me realize that it wasnt just a spec in my stomach, it was a person. I knew that having a baby was going to make everything harder, but I also knew that hard did not mean impossible. I underestimated how demanding it is to take care of a child and to be a parent. There are many books on taking care of children from burping to potty training tips but there are no books, or no right or wrong answer, on how to raise your child. Being a care giver is one thing, but being a parent is another. Anyone can feed a baby but not many can raise a health, well-adjusted one. Every day I struggle to balance my school work and raising my daughter. I want to be the best parent I can be but at the same time, I want to be an outstanding student and overall person.
This is when I realized that if I want my daughter to be outstanding, humble, caring, smart, astonishing, and everything else I want to raise her to be, than I have to be it myself. All along, I thought that there was a certain way to raise children, but really it is just being the person you want them to be. I strive to be a positive role model that my daughter can look to as she becomes her own person. I want to be a leader for her and anyone else I cross paths with. I still find it challenging, taking care of her as well as doing the list of things I have to do on a daily basis but this is a barrier and hardship I am overcoming; one day at a time because my work is never done with being a mom and bettering myself. I believe that the University of Washington will give me the opportunity to challenge myself even more. I have never thought about my character so much before but now I am in a competition with myself every day, to be a better person than I was yesterday.</p>
<p>B. Short Response (required)
Directions
Choose one of the following two topics and write a short essay. (Please do not exceed 500 words)
1. The University of Washington seeks to create a community of students richly diverse in cultural backgrounds, experiences, and viewpoints. How would you contribute to this community?
2. Describe an experience of cultural difference, positive or negative, you have had or observed. What did you learn from it?</p>
<p>Growing up, Ive moved around quite a bit. Ive gone to a number of different school districts and have also lived in numerous neighborhoods, even a few states. If you asked me ten years ago how I felt about it, I would have said I hated it. I hated having to keep making new friends and adjusting to different communities. Though I still think moving around wasnt the best experience; I realized that I definitely gained something out of it. I was lucky enough to grow up with an array of people who had such different cultural background. From each school I went to, neighborhood, or city, the people around me showed me such different viewpoints of culture. Ive made friends that were of African, Vietnamese, and Russian; just to name a few, that have enriched me with their culture customs and values. I have many viewpoints of diversity just by growing up with people of different heritage and have learned so much more beyond the definition of culture. To me, culture is identity. Culture is everything that makes individuals who they are. I hope to continue to acquire knowledge about different culture, heritage, and values through the new friends I make in the upcoming years.</p>