Please read and don't hold anything back. I'm looking for mainly content critiques, but anything as small as a few grammar corrections are amazing too.
Thanks.
Edited from original to below
Growing up, I saw the families of my friends and became jealous. Compared to theirs, my family was full of conflict. It was not short of love or caring for me; it was just full of fighting. Though as much fighting as there was, I could never ignore it, whether I wanted to or not. Each fight stirred me to jump in the middle and attempt to put an end to it. It is this unwavering sense of concern that prevented any overwhelming feeling of fractionalization and ultimately led to where I stand today.
My parents consist of a stern, fiscally-conservative father and an emotional, fiscally-spontaneous mother. From childhood through adolescence, they argued daily and dangled divorce above the heads of my four older sisters and myself like a menacing puppet but never went through with it. Through teary eyes, I used to jump in the middle of their fights whenever I could muster the courage, always finding myself to be the only child to do so. To the best of my abilities as a kid still in grade school, I would try to mediate the situation and reason why divorce was not an answer, mostly for my own selfish good. As I grew older the fighting finally began to lessen. With maturity came an actual grasp of the issues at hand and the ability to talk to my parents with a genuine impact. I progressed from a crying child concerned only with only my parents’ unity to a son concerned with my parents’ happiness as individuals, no longer afraid to even bring up divorce.
The marital conflict between my parents at home was often echoed by the martial conflict of my oldest sister. Phone calls from my sister came frequently in which I could always hear her audible sobs in the background. Her fights continued to grow worse, which in turn would fuel further conflict between my parents. In the midst of her troubled marriage, my sister had my first nephew when I was ten-years-old. The birth of my nephew was a remarkable experience for me. I saw my nephew as a chance to act as a mentor and have an actual positive impact, as I felt I had no true impact on the conflict at home no matter how hard I tried. Three years later my sister finally filed for divorce, starting another year-long conflict for custody of my nephew. Though I had seen the darkest parts of my sister’s marriage, the most unsettling part was the subsequent legal battle in which again my nephew was in the middle of a battle beyond his control. He was not treated as a young child who needed caring parents, separate or apart, but touted as a materialistic possession to be won. This quality still remains internalized as frustration through present day.
I became heavily interested in the legal system shortly before entering college at the realization that at its core is resolution of conflict. From my starting role as a nine-year-old, self-motivated mediator, I continued to naturally take a proactive role in attempting to resolve each fractionalizing conflict in my family. The experiences I have had throughout life have wrought a passion that guides me towards my ultimate goal of becoming an attorney. More specifically, I wish to enter family law, where I will have an opportunity to act as both a litigator and mediator in an area I have always been passionate about. While family law presents a broad variety of cases, most of what I find attractive in the practice are the virtues of which can be attained from it. Namely, the protection of rights of those indirectly affected by a legal case is a virtue that remains as important to me as the resolution of the case itself. As a family law attorney, this virtue stands out as the protection of the well-being of juveniles who remain in the middle in custody hearings or similar case in which they have no large degree of control.
I have learned through my maturation that conflict is not something to be ashamed of or avoid, but something to resolve, grow from, and ultimately let guide your passions. I bring to the University of Nebraska College of Law a persistent work ethic and an undeterred drive to succeed fueled by a specific purpose. I have come this far in life due to my persistent concern and dedication. I now find myself filled with a passion to do much more and am ready to ultimately move forward into the legal field. But before I can make that move, I put full concentration on the three years lying ahead that will provide me the education and skills necessary: law school.
