College Application Essay
Prompt: Essay B: Describe a circumstance, obstacle or conflict in your life, and the skills and resources you used to resolve it. Did it change you? If so, how?
I remember when I was in elementary school, I always dreamed of having a big PAL. The Peer Assistance and Leadership program, or PALs, is a mentoring program for at risk children or children that are in need of a role model, and I knew that that was what I wanted. The kids in my class would get to leave early for lunch on specific days, have fun and got to play with their big PAL, which gave me a feeling of envy. I was never assigned one because I wasn’t identified as a kid at risk, which was a primary piece of the criteria for being picked as a little PAL in the program. After not being assigned one by the end of my elementary and middle school life, I decided that I wanted to be the role model to a little life instead.
When the time came in my junior year of high school, I knew that I was finally ready to be a big PAL, and applied for the class for the coming year. I spent a lot of time on the application, making sure that everything was perfect, but in the end, I wasn’t accepted into the program because I hadn’t met the qualifications. In the beginning, I was disappointed and would always feel upset when I would hear about all of my friends who had been accepted. Despite this initial disappointment, it helped me shape the idea of what I wanted to do in my life. After a lot of thinking about what else I could do to help people, I decided that I wanted to become a nurse. It helped give me the push that I needed and I think that it helped me realize that I enjoy helping others in need, and would like to do something with it in my coming years.
Looking back at my elementary school self, the desire for being part of PALs began solely because I wanted the role model that every kid dreams of at a young age which then became the root of what I wanted to become.
I remember when I was in elementary school, I always dreamed of having a big PAL. The Peer Assistance and Leadership program, or PALs, is a mentoring program for at risk children or children that are in need of a role model, and I knew that that was what I wanted. The kids in my class would get to leave early for lunch on specific days, have fun and got to play with their big PAL, which gave me a feeling of envy. I was never assigned one because I wasn’t identified as a kid at risk, which was a primary piece of the criteria for being picked as a little PAL in the program. After not being assigned one by the end of my elementary and middle school life, I decided that I wanted to be the role model to a little life instead.
When the time came in my junior year of high school, I knew that I was finally ready to be a big PAL, and applied for the class for the coming year. I spent a lot of time on the application, making sure that everything was perfect, but in the end, I wasn’t accepted into the program because I hadn’t met the qualifications. In the beginning, I was disappointed and would always feel upset when I would hear about all of my friends who had been accepted. Despite this initial disappointment, it helped me shape the idea of what I wanted to do in my life. After a lot of thinking about what else I could do to help people, I decided that I wanted to become a nurse. It helped give me the push that I needed and I think that it helped me realize that I enjoy helping others in need, and would like to do something with it in my coming years.
Looking back at my elementary school self, the desire for being part of PALs began solely because I wanted the role model that every kid dreams of at a young age which then became the root of what I wanted to become.