Hello. I am a freshman in high school currently. I am doing extremely well academically- currently in all honors classes(my school does not offer AP yet), straight As, 3.9-4.0 GPA unweighted, etc. I was talking to my French teacher today, as she was talking about colleges and I mentioned my ambition on getting into a top school. She told me that every single student she taught that got into a top school had some sort of talent that distinguished them among other applicants and made them special, for example, one of her students that was accepted into University of Pennsylvania was a classical pianist. I realized I do not have said talent, but I have time to get one.
I’ll tell you a bit about myself; I am thinking of becoming a lawyer and majoring in some sort of history and political science. My mother is a paralegal at a law firm and my father is a medical technologist. My mother played a large part in influencing me into getting into law, true crime, and history. I love crime novels, shows, enjoy reading upon historical cases, etc. I enjoy history a lot also. I feel what really got me into history was my love of music(strange, but I can explain), which was influenced by my father. When I was younger, he exposed me to classic rock music, hard rock music, hair bands, grunge, alternative rock music, metal, etc. In the past few years I have taken up such an interest in rock music; my favorite thing is to look for new artists and music. I took it upon myself to start a record collection; it’s small currently because I am broke, but it’s growing! I really enjoy the sound of the bass guitar and I really want one for my birthday in July. I spend the vast majority of my free time attempting to discover new music. It is a serious love of mine and I am very passionate about it (however, I am not looking to make a future career out of it).
Currently, I am in my school’s key club, a few volunteer clubs, and the cheer team, I am joining the track team in the spring as well. I am hopefully going to volunteer in a program in the Pennsylvania hospital system.
So, coming from a white, middle-class girl who lives in the suburbs, what could I really do to try to distinguish myself from other people? I don’t know if just playing the bass guitar is enough to live up to it, because I can’t join my high school band to play the bass guitar and don’t have enough time anyways with cheerleading. I don’t think I’m capable of making some exquisite charity or organization, and I don’t have some awesome professor that I could publish some research journal with. I know it’s going to be hard, but I’m open to anything. Thank you!