I can’t bring myself to write my personal essay. If I have been good at writing essays my whole life, why can’t I write this one?
Where do I even start? What do I write about? I could talk about how I’ve given my all in school just so I could get into college, but that wouldn’t be true, because I’m not the one who has made great sacrifices to get where I am today, my parents were the ones who did.
They risked their lives to travel to the United States from Mexico to be able to provide a better future for my brother and me. My parents are from Molcaxac, a small town in Puebla with a population of roughly 6,668 people. Molcaxac is shadowed by a beautiful reserve called El Tentzo, El Tentzo has large mountains that create the most beautiful views surrounding the town.
Despite the fascinating beauty of the nature, Molcaxac itself is still considered a poor town. When describing her childhood my mom would mention the struggles her family faced as they were actively fighting poverty. From sharing one pound of meat with her parents and 5 siblings to only affording to own one pair of socks for daily use, these aren’t even some of the worst conflicts my mom faced as a child. She’s never let me know what the worst were like.
Despite immigrating to this country with nothing but a small bag of their belongings and very little money, my parents have given me everything I’ve ever wanted. They’ve afforded me the opportunity to even be able to think about going to college.
Writing about my parents’ struggles feels cliche, but what have I done that compares?
Whenever I start writing I can only think about the nights when my mom gets home at 7pm after an 11-hour day of cleaning houses. Or the mornings when the sounds of the coffee maker would wake me up because my dad is getting ready to go stock freezers at Costco at 3 AM. Despite the lack of time together, my dad always makes sure to stay awake and talk to my mom as she’s eating dinner even though he should be sleeping by the time she gets home.
After all the sacrifice my parents have made, and the obstacles they’ve faced, I can’t even write a 650-word essay?
As my parents have been working tirelessly for almost 30 years it’s hard applying to college knowing that my acceptance will only mean that they will have to work even harder to pay for my tuition. But, I would be disregarding the vision that they had in mind for the future of their children if I didn’t seek higher levels of education and opportunity.
The admissions people reading my essay will never truly understand who I am and where I come from outside of the document I submit. It’s almost impossible to collect 17 years worth of life onto one page.
All I want to do is make my parents proud. Getting into college is a huge deal to my family as only very few of my family members including my brother and cousins have attended four-year universities. I would continue a legacy that the new generation of my family created. Our parents were not able to attend college, or even finish middle school, but they did provide us with the opportunity to continue our education past receiving a high school diploma.
As I dream of receiving an acceptance letter from UNC, I also dream of fulfilling the prophecy that my parents created: to be even more resilient than they were.
Thank you for this beautiful essay. You’ll make your parents proud no matter what you do! Best of luck with the application process! As an alum, UNC-CH would be lucky to have you as a student.