Personal Statement
Prompt: The lessons we take from obstacles we encounter can be fundamental to later success. Recount a time when you faced a challenge, setback, or failure. How did it affect you, and what did you learn from the experience?
Challenges are something we all face in our lives. How we react and overcome them is what truly counts. So to the bullies of my childhood, I thank you.
Fall 2009 the start of my 5th grade year, I had sat next to this student, this student would always kick me for no reason whatsoever. Every single time I would ask why, she’d come up with a different excuse. One of them stuck with me even to this day,
”You’re so weak it’s easy and fun to do, besides you’re fat you couldn’t do anything anyways”. That sentence stuck with me this whole time. Building my courage up,not wanting to go through that again, I’ve tried my best from that time. However, like most bullies, they don’t let up. One Friday morning, I was taking a test. I studied and tried my hardest on this test even though I was being kicked throughout the whole thing. When the test was finished and we were handing in our exams, out of nowhere like most of myself confidence that year, she tore the golden page in half in a swift moment. All of my effort and work went out into nothing. I was furious, not only at them, but at myself for letting it happen. This was most likely due to my upbringing.
My upbringing being, a child raised in a single parent home, with two brothers and no father to look up to. It’s been a challenge to say the least. Mostly due to the fact that we did not have that much money. We struggled for a while even with the help of my grandparents, but nonetheless we were happy. Through our struggle, I decided to put in extra effort. This way my mother could prioritize getting money. But, even as I put in hard work there was always something blocking my way. This “something” was the constant bullying I had thrown at me. I was physically and verbally abused by students, just because I was overweight. It really didn’t help that the teachers did absolutely nothing to stop the students. The bullying continued, and started to get worse. I didn’t tell my mother, as I did not want her to be bothered with worrying about me. I wasn’t the kind of kid to tell all of my problems to others. Instead, I kept it all inside.
This was a constant struggle that I had to deal with. I had to learn how to ignore the negatives and look at the positives, as well as balance out the work, and make sure my little sibling was taken care of. I had to make time for everything, which helped me learn a very good life skill. That skill being time management, even with all the bullying, I could always count on little things to cheer me up. I love to draw, a lot. Of course the bullies would still try to bully me. But, as long as a I had a sketchbook and pencil they couldn’t get me down. My hard work I put into everything, started to pay off.
My hard work paid off in the sense that I was able to become a better person, and that taught me valuable things. One of those being to never give up no matter what, and that your effort will be shown off in your life. This meant a lot to me as I always had low self-esteem, but seeing my growth throughout the years, really shows how far you can go when you stay determined. Even now, I keep the thought and the feeling I had when I was bullied. For good reasons, this way if I ever feel like giving up, all I have to remember is that feeling of determination I felt back then, and that’ll keep me going.