<p>asking this because i've not much time for faking a personal story during the 25 minutes, but could force myself if i really had to. also, tell me if adding a literature paragraph would help A LOT. i could force myself to read to kill a mockingbird, merchant of venice or lord of the flies now. :P</p>
<p>anyway here is my 3 history examples essay tell me what you think is bad about it and what can be improved. :) toned down on the grandiloquence from the previous one.</p>
<hr>
<p>Are we free to make our own decisions or are we limited in the choices we can make?</p>
<p>Many cultures believe in the notion of 'destiny', that the fate of every person has already been predetermined. I have to strongly disagree. History has shown us shining examples of people who have successfully carved out great miracles of their own with their own volition, free from the limitations of an ostensibly preordained fate.</p>
<p>One of these would be football star O. J. Simpson. Born into poverty, as a child he was stricken by malnourishment and rickets, which left his legs so bowed and his calves so atrophied that he was nicknamed "Pencil Legs". He seemed destined to remain sickly for all his life. But he did not submit to this apparent bleak future that awaited him, and fought it vehemently. He set for himself a great aspiration: to be a star running back like his idol Jim Brown, and break all of Brown's records. With a lofty goal and a strong heart, he set out to transform himself into a football phenomenon that indeed broke all of Brown's records and even set some new ones of his own. He chose greatness, and his life story attests to the freedom with which we all are blessed with to make the choices in our life.</p>
<p>Take Terry Fox for instance. His future too seemed to lead anywhere but sports. He lacked an athletic gift, ranked last out of the nineteen players in his Junior High basketball team when in Grade Eight. Yet he chose actively to battle the odds to reach for his sporting passion. He trained hard and pushed himself to excel in basketball. By Grade Nine he had become a starting guard for the team. his sports dream continued with his dabbling in long-distance running. Yet again, misfortune befell him. He was diagnosed with osteosarcoma at the young age of eighteen. He short life was to end uneventfully in a hospital ward, resigned to the suffocating arms of cancer. Again, he saw that he was free to make the choice to fight, resolving to run across Canada in what he called "Marathon of Hope" to raise funds for cancer research after seeing the suffering of other cancer patients in hospital, many of them children like him. And hence ensued one of the greatest sporting feats of humanity, executed by a disabled cancer patient who had had his leg amputated and nevertheless was determined to limp across Canada on a prosthetic leg.</p>
<p>Last but not least, we look at Anthony Robbins, a living testament to the immense freedom of choice in our lives. With little education, he certainly did not seem to be able to go far while working as a janitor for his uncle. Yet he saw that anyone could take control of his or her destiny and shape it, and so unbelievably achieved higher and higher goals, surging to the top of the self-help world with immeasurable success. He was confident that the odds could be beaten and pummeled into submission, and is now living beyond his wildest dreams just by making a conscious choice to do so, and work towards it.</p>
<p>Fox, Simpson and Robbins are all living proof that the freedom to decide is all in our hands. We must not resign to a seemingly unremarkable life, and must keep an open mind, for we may just stumble upon a choice that will transform our lives and fill it with meaning and color. As Hannibal famously said, "We will either find a way, or make one." We have the unlimited power of choice.</p>
<hr>
<p>remember to answer my question about the examples! 3 history or 2 hist 1 pers?? and how should we order examples? strongest case study first or last? and where should quotes be tossed, at the introductory paragraph, as part of our conclusion or as a magical ending line?</p>
<p>Thanks!! hope this will help much for the millions taking SAT tomorrow/the day after.</p>
<p>Edit: OMG! i just realized i managed to write 587 words in 25 minutes</p>