College Essay

                                                                    College Essay

Prompt: Describe a place or environment where you are perfectly content. What does it mean or experience there, and why is it meaningful to me?

            There are many stresses like grades, sports, and my future in the world that takes me out of life but one place always puts me back in.  There’s something about shoes stomping on the black top court, the bouncing of balls, laughter of friends, and the sweat on my forehead from shooting a ball just puts me at ease.  This place is Park and Ride basketball court.  Park and ride is a recreational park with a basketball court, baseball field, Dog Park, and a wide-open field for anything your heart desires.  It is only one mile away from my house so when I get frustrated from any problem I walk down they’re alone and forget about everything by shooting my problems away.

            This place is special to me because it is always in arms reach.  Also it always creates a fun and happy environment.  So whenever I go there I always come home happy.  Whenever I shoot a basketball there its like a problem goes into the basket and falls to the ground.

            The first time I went there I knew this was a great place to be.  I liked how it was relaxing and very green.  It was bursting with life I knew that I would have good memories there.  Knowing that I started to play basketball with my friends there and magically the court created good times and made me happy.  Which made it special and makes me calm.

            I remember the first time I went there when I was frustrated.  That day was going well until my sister started to get mad at me.  But I didn’t know why she got mad at me.  So I got really frustrated and stormed out of my house with a basketball in my hands because I knew exactly where I wanted to go.  The court is a place that always relaxed me.  So I continued out the garage into the street.  I was so enraged when I was walking down I was talking to myself.  But after 15 minutes I made it to the park.  I looked around and started to calm down.  The sun on my face, the wind rustling through trees, and the beautiful view of the sun touching the horizon, which helped me, let go a little bit.  Then I walked in and found a court in the front.  After a while of watching other guys play an intense game.  I started to shoot my ball.  As I let the first one go I started to relax and let go.  After about 100 shots I got bored and started to walk around.  Just the beautiful scenery was making me happy.  There’s also Dog Park that is near so watching the dogs made me happier.  Then completely happy and forgetting why I was mad I went home when my mom arrived because of the good memories, happy people, competitive edge and the feeling of release when playing basketball relaxes me.  Compared to other places they don’t match up so I don’t have all of these things in every other place.  So it is very special to me to the bottom of my heart.

            That is why Park and Ride are special and always makes me perfectly content because of the scenery and all the happy people around.  So that’s why when I am upset I always go there.

Word Choice Olympics

(man) A father, after 5 years, finally gets to see his kids again. The intensity of love overwhelms the father when he sees his kids. Tears of joy blur his vision. He can only see three delicate figures running toward him. Before he knew it, a fathers pride and joy were in his arms once again.

(gun) Walking through the dark alley, Candice senses an ominous presence. The sound of soup cans in her tote bag echo in the passageway. Walking at a steady pace, the woman couldn't shake off the feeling of being watched. A man steps in front of the woman. Clothed in jet black, he approaches Candice. The woman stood her ground with no intention of losing. She understands the situation and prepares to make the decision. Every stel the man takes, a movement Candice makes toward her purse. Her revolver, Little Mary was equipped in the right hand. Fear was instilled in this shady man's eyes. He feels his life in danger. Death was standing right in front of him. Realizing the worth of life he fled the alleyway.

(balls) Match Point. The words heard by the two United States beach volleyball players. Tension was in the air. Spectators stood silent and held their breaths as the ball was served. Bi, Bam, Bap, the sounds of a volleyball being hit all over the court. One confident yell was the last sound heard. Game. The crowd went wild as U.S.A. won the Olympics. Cheers weren't stopping. The players couldn't believe they won. It was the best day of their lives.

(image1) One punch was the end of their worries. The prisoners were ready for this moment. Ricki has trained days and nights for his moment. The wall was tall and strong like the Chinese Army. Ricki was going to prove he is stronger than wall holding his vigilant soul. He took his time walking to the wall, channeling his energy. Standing in front of the wall, he positioned his fist on the rock. POW. The sound of rocks cracking. A hole formed in the wall that can fit many. Ricki has redeemed himself and saved the prisoners. He is the true Master of Karate.

(image2)  Fighting crime was the daily routine for Spiderman. After delivering justice at night, Spidey decides to go on a joyride throughout the streets of New York. Shooting web to each towering skyscraper to propel himself forward, he stops on a building for a rest. The tired hero takes a second to look at his reflection. After looking for a moment, Spiderman realizes how much he has drifted away from his original image. Spiderman shakes off his nostalgic feeling, and moves on with his life, knowing that he is stronger and better than his old self.

College Essay

College Essay

            There are many stresses in the world that takes me out of life but one place always puts me back in.  There’s something about shoes stomping on the black top court, the bouncing of balls, laughter of friends, and the sweat on my forehead from shooting a ball just puts me at ease.  This place is Park and Ride basketball court.  It is only one mile away from my house so when I get frustrated from any problem I walk down they’re alone and forget about everything by shooting my problems away.

            This place is special to me because it is always in arms reach.  Also it always creates a fun and happy environment.  So whenever I go there I always come home happy.  Whenever I shoot a basketball there its like a problem goes into the basket and falls to the ground.

            The first time I went there I knew this was a great place to be.  I liked how it was it was relaxing and very green.  It was bursting with life I knew that I would have good memories there.  Knowing that I started to play basketball with my friends there and magically the court created good times and made me happy.  Which made it special and made me calm. 

            I remember the first time I went there when I was frustrated.  That day was going well until my sister started to get mad at me.  But I didn’t know why she got mad at me.  So I got really frustrated and stormed out of my house with a basketball in my hands because I knew exactly where I wanted to go because the court is a place that always relaxed me.  So I continued out the garage into the street.  I was so enraged when I was walking down I was talking to myself.  But after 15 minutes I made it to the park.  I looked around and started to calm down.  The sun on my face, the wind rustling through trees, and the beautiful view of the sun touching the horizon, which helped me, let go a little bit.  Then I walked in and found a court in the front.  After a while of watching other guys play an intense game.  I started to shoot my ball.  As I let the first one go I started to relax and let go.  After about 100 shots I got bored and started to walk around.  Just the beautiful scenery was making me happy.  There’s also Dog Park that is near so watching the dogs made me happier.  Then completely happy and forgetting why I was mad I went home when my mom arrived.

            That is why Park and Ride is special and always makes me perfectly content because of the scenery and all the happy people around.  So that’s why when I am upset I always go there.

Writing Prompts

https://admission.stanford.edu/application/freshman/essays.html
http://www.usc.edu/admission/undergraduate/apply/fresh_essay.html
http://www.admissions.purdue.edu/apply/essay.php

http://admissions.vanderbilt.edu/vandybloggers/category/the-college-essay/

I would write my college essay on Describe a place or environment where you are perfectly content. What does it mean or experience there, and why is it meaningful to me?

I want to go to stanford because it is a ivy league school, USC because it has a good engineering program, Purdue because of its Landscape Architecture program, and Vanderbilt because it has good tuition and good mechanical engineering program.

Coming of Age

Coming of Age

            Life is like a basketball game.  There are many defenders that prevent you from scoring but you always have other teammates that help you out.  Like in life you have to surpass many obstacles to be successful and there are many people that help you surpass them.  When you face these challenges sometimes you succeed other times you fall.  But the main thing is that when you fall you get back up.  I experienced this when I tried out for my 7^th grade basketball team and I wasn’t even close to making it.  But I gained a lot more from not making the team then I would have if I made the team.

            I was in 7^th grade when the first major defender hit me I remember it very well.  One day I was in the cafeteria eating lunch with my friends.  When a booming voice gave a big announcement.  “Boys Basketball tryouts next week Wednesday if you want to tryout please get a form and fill it out”.  Hearing that my friends and I rushed to the front to retrieve a form.  We were so excited about it we couldn’t keep quite we talked about it the whole day.  The days went by in a blur after that and before I knew it, it was Wednesday the day of basketball tryouts.  Once the bell rang all off the 7^th graders ran down to the basketball court waiting impatiently to play.  While waiting the butterflies started to kick in making everyone nervous.  When the coach arrived it was dead silent.  All of the players having mixed emotions.  He then collected the forms and tryouts began.  We started off with a long good stretch too get our body loose.  After we started to do lay ups and jump shots. We started to do many other drills that were so long and agonizing.  The sun started to set in the sky, which meant that day one of tryouts, was almost done.  We did our last drill, which was a prolonged scrimmage.  Then the moment we were all waiting for happened.  It was the first day cuts.  The coaches broke us into 2 groups.  I was put into the smaller group, which I thought something was up.  Then I found out I got cut from the team.  That day I was really depressed and sad. That was when I fell to the first defender in the game of life.  After that horrific experience my confidence took a turn for the worst and continued in that direction for a year.

After I still played basketball for fun but I didn’t intend to play basketball seriously.  But I hit another big defender on the court that hit me hard which was Coach Doc standing right in front of me.  On the first day of practice I was nervous but it went well I met a lot of new people.  But after a few practices he showed his true colors to everyone.  During that practice I found out that he is harsh and plays his favorites.  He yelled at me and then he put me on the spot when I didn’t take a lay up when I had an open lane.  He also played favorites by not yelling at them when they did something wrong or disciplining them.  Lastly he made everyone run as a team when one person was at fault.  It got so bad that I came home crying from one game.  I also ended up quitting the team because my confidence plummeted to a all time low.  It dropped so low until I had 2 other players came into play to support me.

             My first teammate that came into the game that I was dreadfully losing came in under the name Coach KP!  He was my trainer to prepare me to try out my ninth grade year.  But when he heard that I didn’t want to tryout he sent me a motivational email that said “there are several factors that are reasonable: 1) you are afraid to not make the team, 2) you don't want to let your parents down, 3) you don't want to put in the work it takes to be your best. In any case, make the decision to play or not play based on what is best for Dylan... Don't feel sorry for yourself and play the victim.  It is at this juncture that you have to learn how to make decisions and live with it because you made the decision. I wish we could have had this talk in person, but circumstances have made that impossible. Nevertheless, I know that you know that your parents and sister love you to death. Your parents do everything they can for you and they are good people and they love you. Your sister still gets emotional during workouts when you are struggling... You have an awesome support system, don't ruin it”.  Those pep talks gave me a lot of confidence back and helped me surpass defenders.  Then the second teammate came into play under the name Coach Cy!  He always motivated me to tryout.  But when he found out I didn’t he spoke to me and motivated me to overcome defenders and tryout next year. 

To sum up, that is my coming of age experience and lesson that when you fall always get back up.  That is how I changed from getting depressed when you fail to always having to get back up and having to take risk to be successful.  There were also many obstacles that were in my way but there were 2 main supporting roles.  But I have changed in a big way.

            Life is like a basketball game.  There are many defenders that prevent you from scoring but you always have other teammates that help you out.  Like in life you have to surpass many obstacles to be successful and there are many people that help you surpass them.  When you face these challenges sometimes you succeed other times you fall.  But the main thing is that when you fall you get back up.  I experienced this when I tried out for my 7^th grade basketball team and I wasn’t even close to making it.  But I gained a lot more from not making the team then I would have if I made the team.

            I was in 7^th grade when the first major defender hit me I remember it very well.  One day I was in the cafeteria eating lunch with my friends.  When a booming voice gave a big announcement.  “Boys Basketball tryouts next week Wednesday if you want to tryout please get a form and fill it out”.  Hearing that my friends and I rushed to the front to retrieve a form.  We were so excited about it we couldn’t keep quite we talked about it the whole day.  The days went by in a blur after that and before I knew it, it was Wednesday the day of basketball tryouts.  Once the bell rang all off the 7^th graders ran down to the basketball court waiting impatiently to play.  While waiting the butterflies started to kick in making everyone nervous.  When the coach arrived it was dead silent.  All of the players having mixed emotions.  He then collected the forms and tryouts began.  We started off with a long good stretch too get our body loose.  After we started to do lay ups and jump shots. We started to do many other drills that were so long and agonizing.  The sun started to set in the sky, which meant that day one of tryouts, was almost done.  We did our last drill, which was a prolonged scrimmage.  Then the moment we were all waiting for happened.  It was the first day cuts.  The coaches broke us into 2 groups.  I was put into the smaller group, which I thought something was up.  Then I found out I got cut from the team.  That day I was really depressed and sad. That was when I fell to the first defender in the game of life.  After that horrific experience my confidence took a turn for the worst and continued in that direction for a year.

After I still played basketball for fun but I didn’t intend to play basketball seriously.  But I hit another big defender on the court that hit me hard which was Coach Doc standing right in front of me.  On the first day of practice I was nervous but it went well I met a lot of new people.  But after a few practices he showed his true colors to everyone.  During that practice I found out that he is harsh and plays his favorites.  He yelled at me and then he put me on the spot when I didn’t take a lay up when I had an open lane.  He also played favorites by not yelling at them when they did something wrong or disciplining them.  Lastly he made everyone run as a team when one person was at fault.  It got so bad that I came home crying from one game.  I also ended up quitting the team because my confidence plummeted to a all time low.  It dropped so low until I had 2 other players came into play to support me.

             My first teammate that came into the game that I was dreadfully losing came in under the name Coach KP!  He was my trainer to prepare me to try out my ninth grade year.  But when he heard that I didn’t want to tryout he sent me a motivational email that said “there are several factors that are reasonable: 1) you are afraid to not make the team, 2) you don't want to let your parents down, 3) you don't want to put in the work it takes to be your best. In any case, make the decision to play or not play based on what is best for Dylan... Don't feel sorry for yourself and play the victim.  It is at this juncture that you have to learn how to make decisions and live with it because you made the decision. I wish we could have had this talk in person, but circumstances have made that impossible. Nevertheless, I know that you know that your parents and sister love you to death. Your parents do everything they can for you and they are good people and they love you. Your sister still gets emotional during workouts when you are struggling... You have an awesome support system, don't ruin it”.  Those pep talks gave me a lot of confidence back and helped me surpass defenders.  Then the second teammate came into play under the name Coach Cy!  He always motivated me to tryout.  But when he found out I didn’t he spoke to me and motivated me to overcome defenders and tryout next year. 

To sum up, that is my coming of age experience and lesson that when you fall always get back up.  That is how I changed from getting depressed when you fail to always having to get back up and having to take risk to be successful.  There were also many obstacles that were in my way but there were 2 main supporting roles.  But I have changed in a big way.