Look what I found!

This was one of my college application essays. I just rediscovered it on my jump drive. I love it. Oh, and by the way, the topic was about your personal level of intelligence and your achievements or something along those lines. So, no worries, I wasn’t trying to be conceded and call myself really intelligent.

“Intelligent? How could you call me intelligent? Honestly, I am offended. I don’t take credit for any of my achievements. Sure, I’ve won several first-place awards, and yes, I was class president at one point in time. But I caused none of that. I take credit for nothing because I am a procrastinator. I am clumsy. And I am shy.

I give the credit to my younger brothers, for showing me how to live life with genuine innocence.

I give the credit to those “popular” kids in my high school, who made me strive to be something I wasn’t.

I give the credit to the family I lost in my father’s divorce, for helping me realize that losing a cell phone is actually not that painful.

I give them the credit.

I grant all the glory to my cousin who dropped out of high school for showing me just how terrifying the “real world” is.

I grant all the glory to my best friend who taught me how to act like a fool in the most public of places.

I grant all the glory to that one teacher I hated my freshman year for making me work harder than I have ever worked before.

I grant them all the glory.

I thank my mother for being the optimistic backbone in my family.

I thank my father for giving what he could even when he had nothing to give.

But most of all, I thank my grandfather, who’s fatal illness inspired me to think about more than what I was going to wear to school the next day.

And here you were thinking I was intelligent. You thought I did everything myself. You, evidently, were wrong.”