Final draft??
Posted: Sun Oct 31, 2010 1:12 pm
This should be pretty close to my final draft. Does anyone have any suggestions? Any would be greatly appreciated.
I awoke to the sight of flashing lights through my blurred vision and the muted sounds of sirens outside the van. A man asked me to hold a bandage against my forehead to stop the flow of blood trickling out of a gash less than an inch above my left eye. Despite that discovery, I felt a surreal sense of calm as I surveyed the scene about me. “Two DOA,” I heard someone yell outside. As I was put in a neck brace, I overheard conversation about the helicopter en route to take the driver of my vehicle to the hospital. Surprisingly, neither of these comments gave rise to any panic in me. Where I was and what had happened in the preceding moments were unclear. Recollection of my whereabouts slowly came back to me in the following hours, but any memory of the crash was lost. It was only over the next few weeks that I would piece together exactly what had happened.
The van I was on ran from LOCATION X to the LOCATION Y airport about thirty times a day. I had elected at the last minute to take the late van to LOCATION Y on Sunday instead of the first one on Monday as I normally did after trips home from college. PERSON X and PERSON Y made a similar decision that night. They, however, chose to drive themselves back to LOCATION X after partying at a bar in LOCATION Y. They were both ejected and died instantly when their vehicle crossed the median and struck our van nearly head on. I was very lucky; had I not been wearing my seatbelt, I would have likely been ejected and faced a similar fate to theirs. I asked the paramedic who rode with me to hospital what my injuries might be, and he recited a list of possibilities ranging from a fractured skull to a dislocated hip. Luckily, none of his guesses were correct. The injuries I did suffer included a partially torn posterior cruciate ligament, a chip in my tibia, and numerous assorted cuts and bruises. I consider myself extremely lucky to have had this be the extent of my injuries, especially after receiving such dire initial prospects. It was still quite a list, however, and would require a substantial amount of rehabilitation.
The wreck threatened to put one of my biggest academic goals in jeopardy. I missed the first two weeks of class and was told by the dean that I should certainly withdraw from some of my classes to ease the burden of the setback. I took her advice into consideration, but reducing my course load was never really an option. I took only four courses the previous semester and often found myself bored and with excess time on my hands. For that reason and others, I committed myself to the goal of graduating in three years without taking classes in the summer. Towards that goal, I registered for eighteen credit hours before finding myself in the predicament I was now in.
Missing the first two weeks of class was not ideal by any means. In fact, it was close to the last thing I needed as a college freshman with a heavy course load. I took a test in one class on my very first day back to school. It didn’t get much easier from there; Long nights sleeping in a full leg brace, frequent trips home to visit the doctor, intermittent pain, and seemingly endless rehab, among other things, made my daily routine much more stressful than it had been before. It took a couple of weeks, but I eventually managed to catch up in all of my classes, and I learned how to best balance the rigor of my coursework with the demands of my injuries. I ultimately achieved a 4.0 grade point average that semester and increased my confidence that I could accomplish my goal of graduating in three years.
I am proud of myself for the growth I made in this period. Not only was I able to make the best of a bad situation, but I now more fully understand how to balance academics with extracurricular activity and that doing so is essential to achieving success. I am intrigued by the opportunity to continue my success in law school. SCHOOL X is clearly a great school at which to begin this journey. The school’s clinic programs especially pique my interest. Both the criminal and civil clinic programs intrigue me and are programs that I will look forward to participating in if I attend SCHOOL X. The opportunity to participate in these practical, hands-on experiences is invaluable, particularly in determining areas of interest in law. These programs along with many other aspects of the school make SCHOOL X a school that I would be proud to attend.
I awoke to the sight of flashing lights through my blurred vision and the muted sounds of sirens outside the van. A man asked me to hold a bandage against my forehead to stop the flow of blood trickling out of a gash less than an inch above my left eye. Despite that discovery, I felt a surreal sense of calm as I surveyed the scene about me. “Two DOA,” I heard someone yell outside. As I was put in a neck brace, I overheard conversation about the helicopter en route to take the driver of my vehicle to the hospital. Surprisingly, neither of these comments gave rise to any panic in me. Where I was and what had happened in the preceding moments were unclear. Recollection of my whereabouts slowly came back to me in the following hours, but any memory of the crash was lost. It was only over the next few weeks that I would piece together exactly what had happened.
The van I was on ran from LOCATION X to the LOCATION Y airport about thirty times a day. I had elected at the last minute to take the late van to LOCATION Y on Sunday instead of the first one on Monday as I normally did after trips home from college. PERSON X and PERSON Y made a similar decision that night. They, however, chose to drive themselves back to LOCATION X after partying at a bar in LOCATION Y. They were both ejected and died instantly when their vehicle crossed the median and struck our van nearly head on. I was very lucky; had I not been wearing my seatbelt, I would have likely been ejected and faced a similar fate to theirs. I asked the paramedic who rode with me to hospital what my injuries might be, and he recited a list of possibilities ranging from a fractured skull to a dislocated hip. Luckily, none of his guesses were correct. The injuries I did suffer included a partially torn posterior cruciate ligament, a chip in my tibia, and numerous assorted cuts and bruises. I consider myself extremely lucky to have had this be the extent of my injuries, especially after receiving such dire initial prospects. It was still quite a list, however, and would require a substantial amount of rehabilitation.
The wreck threatened to put one of my biggest academic goals in jeopardy. I missed the first two weeks of class and was told by the dean that I should certainly withdraw from some of my classes to ease the burden of the setback. I took her advice into consideration, but reducing my course load was never really an option. I took only four courses the previous semester and often found myself bored and with excess time on my hands. For that reason and others, I committed myself to the goal of graduating in three years without taking classes in the summer. Towards that goal, I registered for eighteen credit hours before finding myself in the predicament I was now in.
Missing the first two weeks of class was not ideal by any means. In fact, it was close to the last thing I needed as a college freshman with a heavy course load. I took a test in one class on my very first day back to school. It didn’t get much easier from there; Long nights sleeping in a full leg brace, frequent trips home to visit the doctor, intermittent pain, and seemingly endless rehab, among other things, made my daily routine much more stressful than it had been before. It took a couple of weeks, but I eventually managed to catch up in all of my classes, and I learned how to best balance the rigor of my coursework with the demands of my injuries. I ultimately achieved a 4.0 grade point average that semester and increased my confidence that I could accomplish my goal of graduating in three years.
I am proud of myself for the growth I made in this period. Not only was I able to make the best of a bad situation, but I now more fully understand how to balance academics with extracurricular activity and that doing so is essential to achieving success. I am intrigued by the opportunity to continue my success in law school. SCHOOL X is clearly a great school at which to begin this journey. The school’s clinic programs especially pique my interest. Both the criminal and civil clinic programs intrigue me and are programs that I will look forward to participating in if I attend SCHOOL X. The opportunity to participate in these practical, hands-on experiences is invaluable, particularly in determining areas of interest in law. These programs along with many other aspects of the school make SCHOOL X a school that I would be proud to attend.