Assignment
Condense into 1000 characters max.

Message to writer:
Please help me condense this to (1000 characters max – about 200 words) answering the prompt to the best capability.

Include what you think is most important to include for the prompt. Feel free to add what you want and make it more wordy. Make it more formal.

** I put it should see 550 words because I feel like its worth more 🙂
but 1000 characters max* – about 200 words!)

Scholarship Essay: Describe How You Have Overcome Obstacles That Impacted Your Pursuit of Educational or Long-Term Goals.

We will live to see another day. These were the constant words of my mother as I was growing up and still are to date. The opportunity to complete this essay revives fresh memories of my high school years where I encountered myriads of hurdles that hindered the pursuit of my educational and long-term goals. From dealing with bullying, low self-esteem, difficult relationships, having to do odd jobs to supplement my familys earnings to experiencing dire financial constraints, name it. I went through it all, but my family remained my sounding board.
Just a few years back, I vividly remember my family of six being ejected from the place and house we had known as our home for eight years. My father was the only provider, while my mother was a stay at home. We literally lived from pay check to pay check. This means that at all times, we were always one paycheck, my fathers paycheck, away from getting homeless. As a minority family; blacks, my father always experienced challenges in finding great, well-paying jobs. It was only a matter of time that I had to get up and do something.
Grocery store employee? car wash attendant?  dishwasher? grocery bagger? I had to do what I had to do to supplement my households income, albeit at an early age. My father always urged me not to worry and concentrate with school work, but I could not sit and watch my family suffer, I had to do something. Within a few months, we qualified for section 8 housing. We at least had some income to pay some percentage of the required rent. But section 8 housing? my peers would always ask why we wanted to live there, yet the truth is we did not want to, circumstances dictated our situation. To us, however, what mattered was that we had a roof over our head and food.
While my home situation was thick, my personal relationships and school work were suffering. I was struggling to find an equilibrium; my own space and balance. Given my tight schedule, I rarely made friends at school and when I did, most of them did not want to remain my friends for so long since I was not in their status quo. Worse still, I did not have the time and luxury of ample time to hang out and be a normal high school goer. Nevertheless, I had to stay the course and focus on what mattered the most to me, which was to see my family comfortable, healthy and happy at the time.
These challenges were further compounded by bullying I got at school for my incredibly large head and my weird personality. As much as this hurt, there were deeper issues going in my life at the time, so I brushed it away. However, I found myself very emotionally deprived to the verge of depression at an early age.
At an early age, I learnt to overcome hurdles. One way I did so was through talking to my parents about everything. This helped ease my emotional and mental burden. I also overcame the challenge of financial constraint by taking action and finding odd jobs to supplement what my family afforded. Keeping only a small circle of friends who really knew me for who I was and deeply understood me also helped me overcome relationship hurdles. I also overcame the challenge of bullying through reporting to my teachers who took prompt action. To stay connected at school despite my tight schedule, I opted for a leadership position in order to remain in touch with every single thing that was happening at school.
Although I can say that high school was quite an early time to experience quite a lot as a person, I do not think there is a set time frame when things are supposed to occur in ones life. The challenges I encountered shaped who I am today. I learnt to always take action if I want to see a change. Today, I am more of a results oriented person, a doer. I go after opportunities and tiredness or discouragement are never reasons enough to back down. I also learnt the importance of time-planning and balance. Further, more than ever, I learnt to always keep myself around people who get and support me. Lastly, I learnt that most times, life is not about what is happening, but rather ones perspective and how they respond. We were essentially not poor, but rather a low-income based family. I was still flourishing at school, executing responsibilities in my leadership role at school, within the church and our community.
I plan to use my resilience trait and lessons learnt from my challenges to mentor young people to believe in themselves at all times. As long as one can envision dreams and take actions to be exemplary, the universe will always reward accordingly. Great leaders and achievers do not just happen; they are made through fire, hope, the will to triumph through hurdles, presence of life changing opportunities and the zeal to go for such opportunities. Most great people, especially those from minority and underprivileged backgrounds, became who they are today because of the presence of an opportunity and chance. I would be more than grateful to be part of that opportunity to foster my future success through your program, so I can also become the hope in other peoples lives someday.