What makes me unique

On the surface I think I am like most young and modern Filipina women: I take school seriously, I have dreams and goals for the future that I am determined to make happen, and I don’t expect anyone to do the hard work for me. I come from what is an increasingly normal background: my parents are divorced and I live with my mom and sisters and only occasionally see my dad since he now lives on the other side of the country, but I still feel very lucky to have a supportive, if spread out, family behind me. What makes me different from the rest of the crowd though is how I choose to fill my time away from school. I come from a middle income background so I knew I’d have to get a job in the summers and/or after school to help fund college, but instead of getting the easiest job I could find like many of my friends, I purposely sought work that would teach me new skills as well as give me a sense of fulfillment, which is why I turned to coaching soccer and working as a camp counselor. I know that every summer I am out there I’m helping the kids in my community, not only by watching to make sure they are playing with skill and determination, but also by helping them learn invaluable life lessons, like how to be a good teammate and friend, and how to settle disputes fairly and efficiently. I also have now added the title of waitress to my resume and while at first glance this job may not seem to offer me skills useful in pursuing a college degree, I have found it to offer incomparable training in multi-tasking, responsibility, money-management, perseverance and compassion for others. My grades have always been high and I am especially proud of this because I don’t naturally excel in all subjects. Writing has always been a challenge for me because I find grammar to often be confusing, spelling too, but I have learned through my involvement with many varsity level sports that quitting never feels as good as conquering your own fears, which is why I have sought not only advanced placement writing classes to really help me focus on mastering the written word, but I have also challenged myself to take advanced placement Greek which, while very difficult, has helped me immensely with learning word origins, giving me the foundations to figure out challenging words in English as well. I am now on the cusp of attending college and preparing for a career, and I am confident that the determination I have displayed thus far will only grow stronger as my course work becomes more demanding. At this point I think I want to focus on a career in the law because the riddle of our legal system fascinates me and I really believe that, coming from a divorced household myself, I could offer empathetic legal counsel to others facing the ordeal of family court. I know that I am young and the career path I find myself on after earning an undergraduate degree may be very different than what I envision now, but I plan to make my college education a well rounded and broadening one that hopefully will allow me to explore both my academic and artistic interests so that wherever the future takes me I will have a solid foundation upon which to build a career.