Help with my PS please, I feel completely lost....
Posted: Thu Jan 14, 2010 2:26 pm
This is a little late, but I took the Dec LSAT to make my score higher and I've been having problems writing this. I feel like I've scrapped a million drafts. I already used one for one of the top 30 schools I applied to, but this is for some of the better schools, and I really need to get it down.... I kind of feel like the last paragraph could go, and I could scrap the laundry list of personal achievements. Any thoughtful comments are appreciated, I feel like it's lacking a clear direction.
3.73 GPA
169 LSAT
“Please stop,” I pleaded, staring down at my legs, “Don’t you care about us at all?” It was the summer of 1998. I was eleven, and begging my father to enter rehab and to stop selling drugs. Even as a child, I knew that the policy of leniency on the judge’s part would inevitably wear out. If he were arrested again, he would be put into prison for good. “Don’t worry so much, -----,” he said, reassuring me all would be fine. He placed his worn, arthritic hand over mine. All conversations about the future were temporarily paused. Sadly, this was the last time I saw my father for many years. He was arrested for the final time shortly thereafter, and sentenced to thirty-six years for the manufacturing and distribution of methamphetamines.
It goes without saying that drug addictions usually arise out of an inability to deal with life. My father’s lifelong dream had always been to become a forest ranger, which unfortunately, was never fully realized. He immigrated to the United States with his family, where they met the concept of the American Dream with extreme optimism. Unfortunately, my father found himself incapable of overcoming the language barriers. He dropped out before finishing high school, thereby rendering his dreams of attending college impossible. He instead entered the construction industry and achieved success as a carpenter. But the work was hard and took a severe toll on his health. A general discontent for the direction his life took, coupled with a feeling of helplessness, eventually manifested itself in the very serious drug addiction that landed him in prison.
I wish I could say that I was mature enough at the time to realize this. But if I had to use an emotion to describe the next few years of my life, it would be anger. Although he clearly regretted his actions, he seemed incapable of apologizing and accepting responsibility for what he did. I faulted him for being weak. I hated that he hit rock bottom several times and still couldn’t change. Above all, I was most angry at him for not loving his family enough to stop. The upside of this anger was that it allowed me to avoid dealing with real issues. The downside was that it began to consume me. I hated weakness in anyone, including myself. I would agonize over small mistakes for days. Worse, I was unforgiving of other’s faults; sure that weaknesses were a result of not trying hard enough to be better. I became a perfectionist where the human character was concerned, but didn’t realize that forgiveness and understanding are virtues.
Thankfully, the anger eventually subsided. In it’s absence, I began to reflect and realized that what my father did was a coping mechanism for a desperate sense of unhappiness. I believe that his problem developed from believing that his future and his happiness were out of his hands, which turned into a self-fulfilling prophecy. He became a product of circumstances that he felt were outside of his control because he felt they were outside of his control.
It is a common refrain that any limits we experience are self-imposed; looking at my father, I know this to be true. Everyone is a product of the circumstances in which they grew up to some extent, but it is only if you allow them to constrain you that it becomes negative. My anger was making it impossible for me to move on. Furthermore, with anger as my driving force, I was in turn allowing myself to be constrained by circumstances that were fully within my control. So I worked on accepting that weakness is a human characteristic, not a flaw. I forgave myself for my own weaknesses, and through this, I forgave my father too. My driving force was no longer to differentiate myself from him. In accepting that my future and my happiness were in my hands, I already had.
Since then, I’ve been determined to live differently. The statistics of the likelihood of children in such situations becoming criminals or addicts themselves is astronomically high. I realized early on that drugs and alcohol would inhibit where I was able to go, so I consciously chose to avoid them. I also knew that education was an integral part of staying ahead. The rural town in which I lived did not have the educational opportunities I felt necessary. I made a trip of over sixty-miles a day to attend a high school with AP courses and the International Baccalaureate Program. With the exception of my mother, I was the first in my family to graduate from high school and attend college.
In Hawaii, I worked full-time to support myself and to pay for college, as my mother was unable to help me with expenses. Despite this, I made the Dean’s List every semester, and self-studied to place in the top three percent for the LSATs. It is because of my commitment to achievement and my ability to persevere that I have arrived at this point, and am applying to one of the most prestigious law schools in the nation. I know that ultimately the only person who can control my happiness or my future is myself. In accepting that, the sky is truly the limit.
So what makes me unique? I am determined to all ends, but this is something characteristic of all applicants. It is determination that brings us to the point where law school becomes a possibility. Furthermore, it’s not what I’ve encountered in my life that makes me unique; everyone has obstacles to overcome. I believe I’m unique because of how I’ve handled the obstacles I’ve faced, and how I’ve matured and changed as a result. Not many people know who they truly are and where they are going, or are able to accept their weaknesses. I feel lucky to count myself amongst those who do. I am more understanding and compassionate because of this, and endlessly more satisfied with my life. It is with compassion and competency that I feel justice is best served, and I look forward to the possibility of further learning these qualities at ------------.
3.73 GPA
169 LSAT
“Please stop,” I pleaded, staring down at my legs, “Don’t you care about us at all?” It was the summer of 1998. I was eleven, and begging my father to enter rehab and to stop selling drugs. Even as a child, I knew that the policy of leniency on the judge’s part would inevitably wear out. If he were arrested again, he would be put into prison for good. “Don’t worry so much, -----,” he said, reassuring me all would be fine. He placed his worn, arthritic hand over mine. All conversations about the future were temporarily paused. Sadly, this was the last time I saw my father for many years. He was arrested for the final time shortly thereafter, and sentenced to thirty-six years for the manufacturing and distribution of methamphetamines.
It goes without saying that drug addictions usually arise out of an inability to deal with life. My father’s lifelong dream had always been to become a forest ranger, which unfortunately, was never fully realized. He immigrated to the United States with his family, where they met the concept of the American Dream with extreme optimism. Unfortunately, my father found himself incapable of overcoming the language barriers. He dropped out before finishing high school, thereby rendering his dreams of attending college impossible. He instead entered the construction industry and achieved success as a carpenter. But the work was hard and took a severe toll on his health. A general discontent for the direction his life took, coupled with a feeling of helplessness, eventually manifested itself in the very serious drug addiction that landed him in prison.
I wish I could say that I was mature enough at the time to realize this. But if I had to use an emotion to describe the next few years of my life, it would be anger. Although he clearly regretted his actions, he seemed incapable of apologizing and accepting responsibility for what he did. I faulted him for being weak. I hated that he hit rock bottom several times and still couldn’t change. Above all, I was most angry at him for not loving his family enough to stop. The upside of this anger was that it allowed me to avoid dealing with real issues. The downside was that it began to consume me. I hated weakness in anyone, including myself. I would agonize over small mistakes for days. Worse, I was unforgiving of other’s faults; sure that weaknesses were a result of not trying hard enough to be better. I became a perfectionist where the human character was concerned, but didn’t realize that forgiveness and understanding are virtues.
Thankfully, the anger eventually subsided. In it’s absence, I began to reflect and realized that what my father did was a coping mechanism for a desperate sense of unhappiness. I believe that his problem developed from believing that his future and his happiness were out of his hands, which turned into a self-fulfilling prophecy. He became a product of circumstances that he felt were outside of his control because he felt they were outside of his control.
It is a common refrain that any limits we experience are self-imposed; looking at my father, I know this to be true. Everyone is a product of the circumstances in which they grew up to some extent, but it is only if you allow them to constrain you that it becomes negative. My anger was making it impossible for me to move on. Furthermore, with anger as my driving force, I was in turn allowing myself to be constrained by circumstances that were fully within my control. So I worked on accepting that weakness is a human characteristic, not a flaw. I forgave myself for my own weaknesses, and through this, I forgave my father too. My driving force was no longer to differentiate myself from him. In accepting that my future and my happiness were in my hands, I already had.
Since then, I’ve been determined to live differently. The statistics of the likelihood of children in such situations becoming criminals or addicts themselves is astronomically high. I realized early on that drugs and alcohol would inhibit where I was able to go, so I consciously chose to avoid them. I also knew that education was an integral part of staying ahead. The rural town in which I lived did not have the educational opportunities I felt necessary. I made a trip of over sixty-miles a day to attend a high school with AP courses and the International Baccalaureate Program. With the exception of my mother, I was the first in my family to graduate from high school and attend college.
In Hawaii, I worked full-time to support myself and to pay for college, as my mother was unable to help me with expenses. Despite this, I made the Dean’s List every semester, and self-studied to place in the top three percent for the LSATs. It is because of my commitment to achievement and my ability to persevere that I have arrived at this point, and am applying to one of the most prestigious law schools in the nation. I know that ultimately the only person who can control my happiness or my future is myself. In accepting that, the sky is truly the limit.
So what makes me unique? I am determined to all ends, but this is something characteristic of all applicants. It is determination that brings us to the point where law school becomes a possibility. Furthermore, it’s not what I’ve encountered in my life that makes me unique; everyone has obstacles to overcome. I believe I’m unique because of how I’ve handled the obstacles I’ve faced, and how I’ve matured and changed as a result. Not many people know who they truly are and where they are going, or are able to accept their weaknesses. I feel lucky to count myself amongst those who do. I am more understanding and compassionate because of this, and endlessly more satisfied with my life. It is with compassion and competency that I feel justice is best served, and I look forward to the possibility of further learning these qualities at ------------.