<p>I just wrote my personal statement and its my first draft. Tell me if i should change or take out anything and most importantly is it good? Please feel free to criticize it.I know its a bit long but I'm planning to trim it down. </p>
<p>Prompt 1 </p>
<p>"Lord grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference."</p>
<p>The world I come from is full of failed dreams and regret. I was born in Los Angeles and raised with my two sisters by my mother and stepfather. My dad past away when I just three, so I never knew my dad. Almost all life I looked up to my family, whether it was aunts, uncles, or cousins. It always seemed like my family had everything going for them, they had job, house, and looked very successful. Friends I thought were going on the right path. It wasnt till high school until I notice the flaws in the people who I looked up too. Most of them got married young and had a family and never finished their dreams, my cousins that barely made it out of high school and are struggling to find a minimum wage job, and friends that I notice changed and followed the crowd, rather then make their own path. Right there and then I notice my family never did the best in life nor fulfilled their dreams and friends that I thought were going to bring me up never would but in reality they would bring me down. Right there in then it felt like my perspective on life cracked, I knew that I would never want to go through the struggles I seen the people in my life went through and importantly have the regret they feel everyday.
Since I was a small kid, I would remember always being very involved and active in my school and community. My community has always been involved around my family in church. My mother and my father were a big part of the church in East Los Angeles. The aspects of helping others better their life and giving them a reason to not give up on life, stuck to me. In elementary school I remember being everywhere, I was part of the after school program and more importantly student council. From a small age I always felt the sense of leadership, I was part of the treasury of my school. We had meetings of ideas the school should fund and I would take part. We would restore the school form painting murals to planting gardens. It felt good being part of something bigger then myself. I had motivation and determination to do the best in life at the time. When I left and finished elementary school the ideals of being a good and helpful student stood with me through middle school. I had the drive to be the best student and leader I could be.
When Middle school was over I lost my drive. My mother had been married to my stepfather since I was four. He was a good provider and father but as the years went on he began to change. The bills and stress at work started coming on him it was much for him to handle. He began to drink everyday to relax and ease the stress but at the same time it brought the anger out of him. Eventually my mother lost her job because of the bad economy and we stopped going to church because my stepfather wanted to be home and rest. Since my mother was very involved person she would be out a lot helping out the church occasionally. As time went on that made him mad because my mother would hardly be home, which resulted us not going to church anymore. For us it was a big part of our life, it raised the people who we are today. The financial and family problems began to get worse at the end of my ninth grade.
The problems started hitting and affecting me everyway possible. Almost everyday I came home my mom would be in a fight with my stepfather about the cooked meal, the bills, or the something. I didnt want to hear the yelling or the crying so I would just go to my room in the back of my house, lock the door get my work done and let the day past by and wait for the next day that waited me. As time proceeded I started losing my drive, I became more anti-social and I just wanted to be myself. At the time I thought all I needed were the grades to get in to the college of my dreams. Days by days the situation got worse. I started seeing the scared face on my sister and the concerned and worried look on my mothers face. For a while we were actors in this family, pretending everything was good and having a fake attitude and look on ourselves. Life and school began to get harder because situation that came upon my life. Next thing you know tenth grade was around the corner, holding a bat with a name on it.
Tenth grade was one of the biggest changes in my life. I was doing well in grades because thats all I was concerned with at the time. I was never aware of extra circulars because I wouldnt have the best of people nor would I be at school much, I would always be home getting my work down and ignoring the problems that have come upon my life. In second semester one my friends was joining the tennis team and wanted me to join with him, and being from a dominantly Mexican culture, tennis was very weird. The tennis team was all Asians and my friend was trying to motivate me to join but I made up excuses why I couldnt join. I found out days later I needed a sport for my college application, so I joined. At the time I thought it was a stupid idea and felt very weird on the tennis team. As time proceeded I would start to realize that most people on the team where in the top 10% of class. I started to get to know them and eventually became friends. I started enjoying the competitive feel of being the best, at the sametime taking my mind off what was going at home. With there help I started realizing I need to do more if I wanted to be on the top like in elementary school, that sense of successfulness with that drive, I lost because of the situation at home. I would finally realize joining the tennis team was the best decision I made for my self but just when I felt I was going back to the top the biggest event in my life occurred with 2 weeks left in school.
It was the weekend and I was finishing up my homework, my family left out to my step fathers-sisters party. I was at home alone, I get a call from my sister crying telling me that my other has been beaten up by my step father, she told me run to my aunts house! I scared, sad, and frightened at the moment. I couldnt recognize my mother when I saw her with the bruising and swelling. We stayed with my uncle for two weeks. The last thing on my mind was school. I didnt realize how many days were left in this school year. I came back home, I woke up from the nightmare and realized it was finals week. I went to every class asking what my grade was in the class; all my teachers told me I had Fs and Ds. On that day I felt everything I worked for meant nothing, my dreams were gone. I stressed and began to feel bad for myself and with only a week left in school I sat at home thinking that this was the end but I knew nothing was going to stop me from being on the top of the crop. I worked so hard on that last week, studying for finals and doing missed work. I saw one F turn into an A and one by one I knew I could make it. I was leaving nothing on the table and not living in the regret I seen people in when the times get rough. At the end I was able to pull all my Fs and Ds to As and still have the determination to take math analysis for summer.
Summer school was tough because even though my stepfather was gone the problems seemed to get worse. I was only able to get a C in math analysis but I was glad I didnt step back from the challenge. I took 3 AP classes my eleventh year; still trying to be at the same level my friends on the tennis team were on. Theres only so much a person can handle until they can make an excuse. I never liked making excuses for my results but when your mother has no job and when the bank takes the house away and then the power or the water goes out and everything your family has owned is gone then I think theres an exception. It was very hard to manage my classes while keeping my composure in school and outside but as a strong individual I never wanted to give in to resentment.
I still fought through the struggles. I did my best in my AP classes; I joined clubs and did volunteer work at my church. My tenth and eleventh year was a roller coaster through hell but Im glad to say I made it. I finished as number 21 out of 289 people in my school, being in the top 10 percent. I took the AP classes and study my hardest to pass the AP test, even though I didnt pass any, Im happy to say I didnt give up. My world hasnt been the greatest or the happiest but the events and challenges put in front me have only made me a stronger and a better student as well as a person. For some reason Im glad I took the challenge because it has only lead me to become more determine to fulfill my dreams of becoming a engineer in this world.</p>