First Draft what do you think?
Posted: Wed Apr 02, 2014 12:39 pm
When I searched for advice on Google on how to write the best law school admissions essay, I found an exceedingly large number of suggestions. Some people advise to be personal without being too personal, to give information without giving too much information. Others implore you to write about the diversity you offer, or the economic hardships you have overcome. Well, I am a Caucasian male, raised in the upper middle class in the Deep South. I am not the poster child for hardship or diversity. So I am going to tell you the only meaningful story I have to tell. I don’t follow the advice of the self-proclaimed experts, and I certainly do not enjoy telling this story. However, I am expected to embark on the fool’s errand of painting the picture of who I am as a person in a two-page essay. If I am truly going to give you the best insight into how I think, this is the only sincere essay I can write.
Although family is the most important aspect of my life now, it has not always been that way. Throughout high school, what mattered to me was myself. My problems were important. If my mother asked me to take out the garbage, I preferred to complain and whine rather than to just help her out. Even my first year in college, I was more concerned about going out with my friends than any of the problems my family might have been having. The hard exam tomorrow seemed like the end of the world. I was selfish and not well grounded.
My life changed when my younger brother started having seizures. It started innocuously enough with him dropping his fork at the dinner table for seemingly no reason. At first my family thought he was trying to be funny, and I thought he was faking for attention. Within a few months though, cuts, bruises and bloody noses from violent grand mal seizures were the norm. Weeks later, my dad was diagnosed with a very rare type of t-cell lymphoma. Even the specialty t-cell lymphoma doctors at Sloan Kettering in New York City had never seen anything like it. After a few rounds of radiation and chemotherapy, my mom and dad went to New York for a bone marrow transplant. My father’s weakened immune system would prevent them from travelling home for several months.
While my parents were in New York, I was left alone with my brother. As the stress of my dad’s illness mounted, the frequency of his seizures increased substantially. At its worst, I’d find him convulsing on the porch every week, rather than every couple months. Obviously I’d previously been involved with taking care of my brother, but up until that point I had never been the primary caregiver. With my parents 1200 miles away, I didn’t have anyone to fall back on.
When you are calling 9-1-1, hoping that your brother will start breathing again, with no parents to fall back on, suddenly that Labor Economics exam tomorrow morning doesn’t seem stress worthy. Whatever you were fighting about a year ago doesn’t either. Certainly what your friends are doing this weekend seems trivial. This new perspective has been immensely valuable to me. While I would never choose for my dad or brother to be sick, the experience has changed my outlook on life in a positive way. I’ve found myself not sweating the small things. If I prepare well for a test, there is no reason to stress. In the end it is just one test. I’ve also noticed that over the past few years my family has become more accommodating toward each other. We all seem to be concerned about each other first. We even enjoy each other’s company. I never would have seen that coming.
As I move forward, I will not forget the lessons I have learned over the past years. I know what is worth stressing about. I know where my priorities are. I know what’s important to me as a person. Law school will be filled with new challenges and roadblocks that I will have to overcome. But I want to go to law school. I have found the law classed I taken to be fascinating, and I think my past academic achievements indicate I will be successful in law school. Whatever the challenges I face in the coming years, I will be able to handle them with a newfound perspective that will allow me to prosper regardless of the circumstances.
Although family is the most important aspect of my life now, it has not always been that way. Throughout high school, what mattered to me was myself. My problems were important. If my mother asked me to take out the garbage, I preferred to complain and whine rather than to just help her out. Even my first year in college, I was more concerned about going out with my friends than any of the problems my family might have been having. The hard exam tomorrow seemed like the end of the world. I was selfish and not well grounded.
My life changed when my younger brother started having seizures. It started innocuously enough with him dropping his fork at the dinner table for seemingly no reason. At first my family thought he was trying to be funny, and I thought he was faking for attention. Within a few months though, cuts, bruises and bloody noses from violent grand mal seizures were the norm. Weeks later, my dad was diagnosed with a very rare type of t-cell lymphoma. Even the specialty t-cell lymphoma doctors at Sloan Kettering in New York City had never seen anything like it. After a few rounds of radiation and chemotherapy, my mom and dad went to New York for a bone marrow transplant. My father’s weakened immune system would prevent them from travelling home for several months.
While my parents were in New York, I was left alone with my brother. As the stress of my dad’s illness mounted, the frequency of his seizures increased substantially. At its worst, I’d find him convulsing on the porch every week, rather than every couple months. Obviously I’d previously been involved with taking care of my brother, but up until that point I had never been the primary caregiver. With my parents 1200 miles away, I didn’t have anyone to fall back on.
When you are calling 9-1-1, hoping that your brother will start breathing again, with no parents to fall back on, suddenly that Labor Economics exam tomorrow morning doesn’t seem stress worthy. Whatever you were fighting about a year ago doesn’t either. Certainly what your friends are doing this weekend seems trivial. This new perspective has been immensely valuable to me. While I would never choose for my dad or brother to be sick, the experience has changed my outlook on life in a positive way. I’ve found myself not sweating the small things. If I prepare well for a test, there is no reason to stress. In the end it is just one test. I’ve also noticed that over the past few years my family has become more accommodating toward each other. We all seem to be concerned about each other first. We even enjoy each other’s company. I never would have seen that coming.
As I move forward, I will not forget the lessons I have learned over the past years. I know what is worth stressing about. I know where my priorities are. I know what’s important to me as a person. Law school will be filled with new challenges and roadblocks that I will have to overcome. But I want to go to law school. I have found the law classed I taken to be fascinating, and I think my past academic achievements indicate I will be successful in law school. Whatever the challenges I face in the coming years, I will be able to handle them with a newfound perspective that will allow me to prosper regardless of the circumstances.