College Essay

A. DISCUSS HOW YOUR FAMILY’S EXPERIENCE OR CULTURAL HISTORY ENRICHED YOU OR PRESENTED YOU WITH OPPORTUNITIES OR CHALLENGES IN PURSUING YOUR EDUCATIONAL GOALS.

    I will be straight up honest and say that I really don't think I should go to college. I'm not the best student; always having to be pulled aside for my "lack of motivation" and "bad attitude". Me going to college would probably offset a lot of the other students and I wouldn't make friends either. Heck, college was always too expensive for me to afford anyways, right? An extra four years of pain wasn't really that nice looking in my eyes. The only reason why I'm willing to go is because of my dad.

    He came to America fresh off the boat FOB at the age of eight years old, not knowing any English or even how to pronounce his own name. Even now, his English is a bit awkward and his pigeon game go strong. He had to suffer living almost on his own because his parents- my grandparents- were too busy working to afford having him and his two other brothers live under a roof. Now that he's a grown man and now the father of my brother and I, he is now the one working long hard hours at work, ignoring the pain in his joints and the ache in his back from the meticulous labor of being a car technician. His lectures on how "he wasn't even able to afford a GIO action figure in his days" and how that relates to why I need to get a 4.0 or higher in school always makes me cringe, but I still listen anyways or I'll get yelled at for insubordination. 

    He's always pushed me to do well in school for as long as I've remembered. As the perfect example of an Asian parent, he was never satisfied with my grades because I could have always done better in his opinion. Was he the kind of father that had double standards for his two children? Of course. Those children, one of which being the younger boy and then there was me, the eldest daughter. I've been pushed past my breaking point numerous amounts of times, to the point where I wouldn't do anything but cry. To this, he would apologize and say he was sorry, but sure enough, right the next day, I would be getting lectured for the exact same thing I was bawling my eyes out the day previous.

    This led me to my conclusion of just not going to college altogether since, one, I can't even put up with one parent yelling at me and adding to my skyrocketing blood pressure and two, I have the emotional control of a broken sink faucet. I was really prepared to just run away just like the kids in the movies, to just get away from it all when it was just my imaginative mind making up stories in my head. The one thing that stopped me was my dad. If I had just continued to half-ass everything like I usual did and didn't go to college, I'd be letting down the man that put his hard earned time and money into for fifteen years of my life. I'd be letting him down after all of the, pardon my language, but all of the bullshit I've put him through as a bad excuse of a child.

    If I go to college, I'd be doing what he wanted and in terms, would make him happy. That made me realize the whole reason why I stayed up till three in the morning doing homework, or why I tended not to hang out with my friends like all of the other kids. I wanted to do well to make him proud; the man that fought hard to take custody over me and would always put up with my womanly mood swings and temper tantrums. If I went to college, I'd be able to not only support myself, but I'd also be able to support the man that busted his hump for a bit of extra money so I could enjoy life.

    That's why, as of now, the positives to going to college outweigh the negatives and college doesn't seem like a total waste of time. I could just get a scholarship and get student loans, right? It is another four years of school and a lot of money, but seeing the look of happiness on my dad's face will be priceless.