College essay #1
Prompt: Name an experience in you life when you have been transformed.
There comes a time in everyone’s life when we are transformed through an increased understanding of the outside world. Finally, we are free from worry about ourselves and free to worry for everyone and everything else. It’s a period of life, much like puberty. However, this period of moving from selfishness to selflessness does not have a set time period. It happens for everyone at a different time in their lives, for an unknown amount of time.
There is a service requirement at my school which everyone must complete by the end of their sophomore year. When I chose to volunteer at the Ronald McDonald House, I had no idea how much it would change me. The program I volunteered for was an American Girls fashion show to benefit the Ronald McDonald House. The models were young girls and I was the announcer. It was very fun and an amazing experience, but the fashion show itself was not what brought about my change. It was the program director, Betts Miller.
Betts is a full time employee at the Ronald McDonald House in Delaware. Her job is primarily to raise money, but she also has a lot of interaction with the patients and the families who stay at the Ronald McDonald House. Her love of her job is the most extraordinary thing about her. She works tirelessly and pleasantly to achieve her goals for the organization.
In our culture today, there is a growing tendency toward bystander apathy. This is the idea that people will not help in a certain situation because they believe that someone else will take control of the situation. Unfortunately in the world today the attitude is to “let others worry about it”. It was strange and exhilarating to come in contact with someone that wasn’t content to sit back and leave problems for others to worry about.
Betts actively searched for situations where she could use the Ronald McDonald House to help someone. When I was volunteering there was a wing under construction. They were expanding in order to accommodate more families. This was made possible largely through the tireless fundraising that Betts organized. Betts also looked for creative ways to raise more money for the Ronald McDonald House. The American Girl Fashion Show was a program that Betts had discovered only a year before I participated. Because of her ability to find and organize these programs, the Ronald McDonald House was able to take an active approach to fundraising instead of simply relying on donations.
These days there also seems to be the cliché of hating one’s job. Unmotivated workers go to their ordinary jobs from 9-5 and come home exhausted and depleted. I’d experienced this with my after school job. A cashier at Chick-fil-a is not a job that anyone would aspire to, and it’s not a very rewarding job. My reasons for staying at this job include its convenience and my co-workers. However, prior to meeting Betts, I was unable to comprehend why adults would remain in a career that was unrewarding. In fact, I still cannot understand the reasoning behind such an outlook.
The first time I met Betts I was struck by her tireless work ethic. She had obviously put much work into this event before the preparations had officially begun. The second and every subsequent time, I worked with her, I was amazed at how cheerful she was to be working. Her attitude was contagious and even if everyone was not as gung-ho about the project as she was, they were still happy to assist her in anyway they could.
Before this experience, I had the notion that there were some things wrong in the world, but it never struck me as something I could change. I didn’t understand how I fit in to the bigger picture. I had no experience with people who were really changing things in the world. I was a cashier at a fast food restaurant. I certainly was not making a difference.
Betts raised money so that families with terminally ill children could stay together while the child received treatment. That meant something. Unlike every other career I had experienced, hers was not a throwaway job that simply anyone could do. My small part in aiding that cause gave me a taste of exactly how much of a difference one person could make.
I had become addicted. I wanted an exciting job that I loved. I didn’t want to sit back and wait for others to do things; I wanted to be a doer. I wanted to make a difference. I wanted to be as highly motivated as Betts.
And so through this transforming experience, I have become the person I am now. The spirit that Betts filled me with has since expanded to encompass things on a global scale. My dream is to work for an international non-profit organization.
It takes a true experience with a completely self-less person to make you realize how selfish you really are, whether voluntarily or involuntarily. After my experience with Betts I am on my path from selfish to self-less. The transformation was a long time coming, but I believe when it arrives, nothing will dislodge it.
Thoughts? I know it sucks, but just general grammar and the like.
There comes a time in everyone’s life when we are transformed through an increased understanding of the outside world. Finally, we are free from worry about ourselves and free to worry for everyone and everything else. It’s a period of life, much like puberty. However, this period of moving from selfishness to selflessness does not have a set time period. It happens for everyone at a different time in their lives, for an unknown amount of time.
There is a service requirement at my school which everyone must complete by the end of their sophomore year. When I chose to volunteer at the Ronald McDonald House, I had no idea how much it would change me. The program I volunteered for was an American Girls fashion show to benefit the Ronald McDonald House. The models were young girls and I was the announcer. It was very fun and an amazing experience, but the fashion show itself was not what brought about my change. It was the program director, Betts Miller.
Betts is a full time employee at the Ronald McDonald House in Delaware. Her job is primarily to raise money, but she also has a lot of interaction with the patients and the families who stay at the Ronald McDonald House. Her love of her job is the most extraordinary thing about her. She works tirelessly and pleasantly to achieve her goals for the organization.
In our culture today, there is a growing tendency toward bystander apathy. This is the idea that people will not help in a certain situation because they believe that someone else will take control of the situation. Unfortunately in the world today the attitude is to “let others worry about it”. It was strange and exhilarating to come in contact with someone that wasn’t content to sit back and leave problems for others to worry about.
Betts actively searched for situations where she could use the Ronald McDonald House to help someone. When I was volunteering there was a wing under construction. They were expanding in order to accommodate more families. This was made possible largely through the tireless fundraising that Betts organized. Betts also looked for creative ways to raise more money for the Ronald McDonald House. The American Girl Fashion Show was a program that Betts had discovered only a year before I participated. Because of her ability to find and organize these programs, the Ronald McDonald House was able to take an active approach to fundraising instead of simply relying on donations.
These days there also seems to be the cliché of hating one’s job. Unmotivated workers go to their ordinary jobs from 9-5 and come home exhausted and depleted. I’d experienced this with my after school job. A cashier at Chick-fil-a is not a job that anyone would aspire to, and it’s not a very rewarding job. My reasons for staying at this job include its convenience and my co-workers. However, prior to meeting Betts, I was unable to comprehend why adults would remain in a career that was unrewarding. In fact, I still cannot understand the reasoning behind such an outlook.
The first time I met Betts I was struck by her tireless work ethic. She had obviously put much work into this event before the preparations had officially begun. The second and every subsequent time, I worked with her, I was amazed at how cheerful she was to be working. Her attitude was contagious and even if everyone was not as gung-ho about the project as she was, they were still happy to assist her in anyway they could.
Before this experience, I had the notion that there were some things wrong in the world, but it never struck me as something I could change. I didn’t understand how I fit in to the bigger picture. I had no experience with people who were really changing things in the world. I was a cashier at a fast food restaurant. I certainly was not making a difference.
Betts raised money so that families with terminally ill children could stay together while the child received treatment. That meant something. Unlike every other career I had experienced, hers was not a throwaway job that simply anyone could do. My small part in aiding that cause gave me a taste of exactly how much of a difference one person could make.
I had become addicted. I wanted an exciting job that I loved. I didn’t want to sit back and wait for others to do things; I wanted to be a doer. I wanted to make a difference. I wanted to be as highly motivated as Betts.
And so through this transforming experience, I have become the person I am now. The spirit that Betts filled me with has since expanded to encompass things on a global scale. My dream is to work for an international non-profit organization.
It takes a true experience with a completely self-less person to make you realize how selfish you really are, whether voluntarily or involuntarily. After my experience with Betts I am on my path from selfish to self-less. The transformation was a long time coming, but I believe when it arrives, nothing will dislodge it.
Thoughts? I know it sucks, but just general grammar and the like.