Personal essay(College)

Limitations…do we have limits to our abilities? A while ago, I realized that we do not unless we accept them. Most of the time society projects limitations onto us, and once we do not meet its expectations, we are judged. I was judged.

From first grade to fifth, I was studying at gymnasium, a school which primarily serves the rich and smart kids, and I didn’t meet the requirements. My parents were poor then but I was able to pass the entrance examination, so I was accepted. But because of my financial difficulties, children, their parents and teachers judged me harshly. The administration of the school community told me that I had to leave. At the age of twelve, I did not understand the judgment, but I realized that I had to accept it and take responsibility. I moved to another school, where I immediately started improving myself….

By the time I turned 18, I had been working hard to pass final exams and get into the best Russian Universities. Simultaneously I was running a small business, acting as a president of the school, helping parents with my physically challenged sister and helping my father renovate flats. On Sunday mornings I would wake up, go to a BBQ with my family and then to the Theater with friends. While I was working as hard as I could, I heard the same phrases repeatedly.

“You will never be accepted into any of your dream schools,”

“You are doing everything wrong,”

I was being judged again.

However, at my graduation party, I received my high school diploma. That night I was the subject of many thanks for my presidential work from students and the school administration. Furthermore, I met all the requirements to be enrolled in the Moscow State University, which had long been my dream. However, more importantly, for the first time, I realized that it was not "my" dream; it was rather “theirs”. 

I felt that it was time for me to challenge myself and go toward my own dream, get an American Education. I went to the U.S. high school representatives in Moscow and was accepted into an EF Academy in New York.  I bought tickets to America, packed my clothes and in three days was standing at JFK, waiting for a cab. I was alone in an entirely alien country – a place I had never been. I knew a little English. It was the first step in pursuing my own dream and the start of my new challenge as 18 years old.

In July, I started attending language classes, searched for tips on how to live in America and tried to complete my paperwork in order to set myself up in the US. I was getting used to living in Thornwood, NY despite the fact that I was having trouble learning English quickly enough.

Now, at 19, when I walk through the financial district, knowing the area very well, I feel like I have been here for years. I look forward to my parents visiting me, one day, here, at my home, to show them that their efforts were not wasted and to thank them for everything they have done and are doing for me.

Currently, I am writing this essay because I want to be accepted into one of the strongest colleges in the USA. After the experience, living independently, I realized that this is my dream. Actually, it is my goal.

Comparison essay

Nowadays, many people believe that children, who have parents will have a more promising future, than children from orphanage will. However, I believe that children with families can have as difficult life as children without them.  If we look at two main characters, Jeannette from The Glass Castle and Jerry from A Mother in Mannville, both have a difficult destiny, at their small age they had to participate like adults.  

Jeannette, physically, was born in a family with two parents, but mentally did not have them. Jerry did not have any parents; he was growing in the orphanage, completely along. Children participate in a similar way and face similar problems.   

Jeannette at the age of 4 found the way to overcome hunger and learned how cook for herself, even she faced many difficulties such as heavy water to carry, too high cooker, hot water and getting on fire once. “…to cook hot dogs, watching them swell and bob…”, and Jerry at the age of 12 was able to chop wood for several hours, without stopping “Then he began to chop…I suppose an hour and a half passed… An astonishing amount of solid wood had been cut.” He does so even better than many adults would do, I am sure better than many of us. So both of them can take care of themselves and do work, which many other children would never do.

Both children described as very calm characters. They do not panic or cry as many others would do, they just accept situation as it is and tries to do their best to make it better. When Jeannette was at hospital with many burns on her skin, she was not crying, she was answering on doctor’s questions very calmly and making jokes “Look, I’m half-mummy” as nothing dangerous happened . At a Mother in Mannville story the narrator started judging Jerry for his age and high, and Jerry’s answer was similar to the one that a middle-age men would give,  " Size don't matter, chopping wood,"… “I've been chopping wood at the orphanage a long time.", it is calm and not emotional.

Jeannette and Jerry got used to live without any authority and take responsibility for themselves, sometimes even for other people. When Jeannette was cooking hot dogs she would give some to Juju, hungry dog. “I stabbed one of the hot dogs with a fork and bent over and offered it to him.”. Jerry was called integrity when he refused money that he payed for a broken ax handle. He broke it by accident, but took responsibility and payed repair cost. ““I'll pay for it,” he said .  “I broke it. I brought the ax down careless.”“.

Hence, both children are strong characters that have different life situations, but share the way of participation in life and ability to take responsibility. 

Creative essay

Many-many years ago in a poor farmer's family was born indescribable beauty baby, male baby. Everybody was judging him for his beauty, and nobody loved him, except his mother. She was a young lady with strong beliefs in God, purity of thought and success. She named the child Alphonsus, which meant noble and ready in Latin. She believed this name would give him power and success in the future.

In addition to Alphonsus, she also had two sons; one was 14 years older and another 16 years older. Alphonsus was growing up in this family of three children. He was the youngest one; both brothers were harmful to him and were trying to make him upset. Always, when Alphonsus was trying to do some work, brothers would just punch him and say that they can do this job better, and it did not matter what they did. However, there was one field in which they were not able to do anything, architecture. They did not know how to do statues from clay and how to work with clay. While Alphonsus just loved to create something new from clay.

At the beginning of his passion, brothers were trying to make pastime with clay unpleasant to him, but they were not able to make something better than he was. Therefore, they got bored with it and just gave up on this idea. Alphonsus was spending all his time with the clay and trying to make unbelievably beautiful sculpture.

After many years of practicing his room was full of sculptures, that there was no space for him to sleep. His mother decided to sell some of them. She went to the marketplace to sell it for nothing. However, the first buyer gave so much for a small sculpture that she was able to live on it for a year. She came back from a marketplace, brought all family to the table and put that small sculpture in the middle. She told the price that was offered, and the room kept silent.

Brothers were looking at her, then at the sculpture and again at her. They were shocked. At that moment, Alphonsus was sitting on a chair and calmly was watching the sculpture.

Many of us have a place, where they like to go. Place, which makes us feel good and removed from the reality, a kind new world in which we can jump for several minutes or hours.  I found one, like this at Calhoun College.

It is Calhoun library, very quiet, authentic and meaningful place. Every time when I come in, I feel knowledge that was gathering for centuries and get an understanding that many smart people were studying here. If you come in, go to the room with tables, take a seat at huge circle table and leave windows that look at Elm street behind, you would be able to contemplate all beautifulness of old wood furniture in dark brown colors. Brown is a solid and elegant color, it is soothing, not annoying, and giving the feeling of comfort and security. This color inspires me, once I seat at this table, I want to work and achieve.

It was a rainy, dark early morning; I was on my way to the airport, looking outside the window and realizing that I was leaving Moscow for a very long period. Now I understand that at the time I did not realize what it meant to live alone in another country without family, friends, anybody and anything that you used to have. I was not able to imagine what I was going to face there, on another continent.

Let us come back to the flight, that early morning I took my first very long flight, a flight into the unknown. Of course, at that moment I already knew some tips about American culture and how things would be. However, when I finally deboarded the plane I saw a completely different world than the one I used to live. I was shocked by huge space everywhere. In Europe, everything is smaller and this new world with enormous cars, corridors and alleys was something strange. I went through the corridor and studied the customs lines. There were very long lines and it hit me “It does not matter whether it's USA, UK, Germany, Russia, every country has these crazy lines.” . However, after several seconds I saw a machine in which I just inserted my passport and it allowed me to go. The customs officer did not even look at my passport he just stamped it and told me, “Have a good one”. It was unbelievably quick; I had never imagined that it could be that fast. I took my luggage and left the building. Something that caught my attention was a Range Rover. I thought to myself "Why is it so small?" when in fact it is not small - it is America that is so big.

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On the way to my new home, I started getting used to huge sizes -roads, buildings and everything else. The taxi driver from Jamaica was describing America and asking about Russia. I understood almost nothing, especially his accent. Nevertheless, it was the first person with whom I had a long conversation. At that moment, I thought too long.

Finally, I arrived at the small town of Thornwood, NY. To me, it looked like a village, a rural area. There was a forest, some houses and a road from nowhere to nowhere. I had never experienced anything similar, but I was much more struck when to my simple question, “How to get to a grocery store and how long will it take?” I received complicated instruction and an estimated time of 25 minutes on foot. Back in Russia, it would take me the same amount of time to reach the center of Moscow. Thinking about it the same idea returned to my mind -  America is so big.