People come and go, some forgotten, some missed, but everyone has something to be remembered for. However, that “thing” they’re remembered for isn’t always a positive thing. One of the people who had the most profound impact on me was my father. He recently passed away in July 2021. He died from stage four lung cancer, and he became extremely weak, to the point where he couldn’t move, talk, eat or drink. Growing up, my dad was brutal to us. He cursed us out, hurt us in more ways than I could remember, and permanently scarred me for the rest of my life. He held me back from some of the most important moments in my life. He abused my mom, physically and mentally, abused my siblings but abused me the most. As the eldest son, I had the most responsibilities and I had to live up to his expectations so that he could have something to be proud of. To avoid a beating, I would walk, talk and act a different way when he was around, and I restrained myself from saying anything to him, resulting in me pretending he wasn’t there. He destroyed my dreams and my families and I’s lives. As I grew older, my resentment towards him only grew. However, I began realizing what he had done for me. I learned resilience, the proper way to parent, respect, and humanize others. I learned how to grip onto my dream despite constant belittlement and resentment towards them. After he died, I found different parts, which I would argue are the most important parts, of myself. I was finally freed to be myself and make my mistakes the way I make them. I wasn’t being influenced by anyone. I was finally able to work hard towards my dream knowing that I was going to be able to get there without hearing excessive backlash from the comfort of my own home. I was now mentally safe. Despite the countless methods of torments I, along with my family faced during my dads reign of terror, he taught me some valuable lessons. He helped me grow into an impressive young man, with so much potential to pour out into the world. In the end, his passing made me sad but free. I’m glad that his suffering has ended, and I hope that he is happy in Heaven, with God.

One of the THE biggest problems facing the world right now is DISCRIMINATION! Gosh, this essay is only 300 words maximum, consider yourselves lucky! I can go on and on. In today’s world, millions of people are becoming the victims of discrimination. I say discrimination because I am not solely talking about racism. The rejection of LGBTQ members and other BIPOC kids and adults is an issue that needs to be addressed because without reform, the world will never know millions of voices that could’ve impacted the world in ways we can’t imagine. One way we can fix this problem is by electing people into office who don’t strive to take people down and bring some people up. We need congressional men and women, presidents and vice presidents and governers to all believe that everyone is equal under the law in every country. I am not saying that people should have the same views on everything. That’s impossible and radical! But what we need is people to be elected into higher power who truly believe that everyone is equal regardless of their race, sexual orientation or decisions. If this was a factor when voting for high political power, it would ensure that no matter who was elected, everyone would be protected under the law, which would begin erasing the discrimination under the government from occurring. As a result of this, hate crimes or any form of discrimination can be an act of crime and would be treated as one under a reformational law like this. I hope this gave you some insight into what I think is the biggest issue facing the world today and how I believe we should fix it!

My entire life has revolved around finances. Growing up, I’ve always had to be in charge of my families finances. I never fully understood what finances were until I started getting involved in my parents personal affairs. As I grew older, we grew poorer, or so it seemed. I began developing my own perceptions and opinions, and after witnessing multiple situations dealt with by my parents, I began understanding that their methods of financing, saving and budgeting were not efficient. As a result, I obtained access to our bank accounts and began tracking when and where money our was going. I developed a system with my parents which would allow them to inform me of their average wages received every month, a break down of all our bills and plans for paying them. This familiarized myself with budgeting and actively using my brain power to make ends meet. This became even more relevant when my dad passed away and my mom wasn’t as responsible as I would have hoped she’d be. The family’s finances we’re once again out on my shoulders. Along with my experience in financing for my family, I also began working! As an employee, you are entitled to specific benefits given to you by your employer. I took it upon myself to become more educated on the rights of an employer to ensure I took advantage of my benefits. Wendy’s, the establishment I worked at, had incorporated a new way of paying its employees. Daily pay was an app where you could transfer funds given to you the day after your shift. Learning how to use Daily pay and all its ins and out of transferring money, aligning my bank accounts, and making sure I earned all the money I worked for was something that took time to learn and master, furthering advancing my financial experience. I’ve also been exposed to filing taxes and filing out the forms required. My parents always brought me to H&R Block where they would talk to a tax professional to make sure their taxes were filed with the utmost advantage of their qualifications and filed accurately. I would listen in and try to decipher the language they were speaking, financial language was unfamiliar to me at the time, but I did learn important aspects down the road, like what Federal and State returns were and what a 1040 form was. This became even more relevant when I started working and applying to colleges! I received the W-2’s from my job and learned how to read them, as well as became familiar with the 1040 form needed for financial aid. My knowledge became even more rationalized when I started taking financial literacy classes in high school. Not only did this class build on a topic I already knew a lot about, but it also introduced me to topics regarding finances that stemmed from my prior experience within the field. I learned taxes with more depth, how to invest in stocks and how to use credit effectively. Using this knowledge, I plan on making decisions and budgeting carefully as I begin my journey down my career path. I will use the lessons that I have learned to help me become financially stable through investing and credit as well as budgeting my money properly to ensure financial success and honesty for years to come.

So you want to know about me? This essay should be way longer!!! But if you insist, here’s a little bit about me. I’m Adrian, and I have passions that lie within the entertainment industry. I love watching Netflix and YouTube in my free time, which I hardly ever have because I’m always doing school work, and I work part time at Wendy’s. One important character trait that everyone needs to know is that I put forth my best efforts. Even when I am tired from getting three hours of sleep, when i’m stressed to a level no one should be at, and even if everyone in my life took the high road and left me for dead, I will always strive to put forth my best efforts so as to find my purpose in this world and to accomplish my goals and dreams. My education has never been something I took for granted. I always knew having the opportunity to receive an education was a privilege that not many people around the world see. So I began striving to learn everything that I could. I studied hard and was able to maintain A’s and B’s throughout middle school and straight A’s throughout my three years of high school. Your probably wondering why I’m applying for this scholarship if I’m only in eleventh grade. To prove how seriously I take my education, I was given the opportunity to graduate early from high school. This is just one of the things I was able to accomplish throughout my childhood and I have even higher expectations and goals to reach when I’m older. I plan on continuing to absorb all kinds of information throughout the next years of college and my remaining months of high school so that I am fully ready for the world ahead of me. This has to be my favorite part of the essay! Getting to think about what I want to be remembered for and why is something that I have never been asked before in my life, so I am so grateful I get to express that in this essay. I want to be remembered as a driving force in the world. What does that mean? Let me explain. Growing up, i’ve seen the inequalities that plague this world. From the onslaught of rights on the LGBTQ community and women’s rights to the systematic racism and discrimination, I’ve seen enough evidence to know that change needs to be made. Through my art form and craft, acting, singing, business and writing, I want to do nothing but convey the messages that I believe in. We are all equal, we are all deserving of rights and we are all worthy of love and protection under the law and in our homes. Even though I may not be able to fully FIX these issues, I do want to be remembered for producing messages of hope, equality and prosperity throughout the nation and the world. Not only that, but I also want to be remembered for giving young kids the opportunity to express their passions. One of my biggest dreams is starting a chain of public schools specializing in performing arts. Many kids do not have the opportunity to obtain performing arts education, much like myself, which is why I want other kids to have a place where they can express their passions and dreams without subjugation. This is what I want to be remembered for. Being a driving force in the world through providing opportunity and peaceful protest in my art forms is how I want to be remembered.

Growing up, my only form of motivation was in my head. Nothing in the real world was bringing me any sort of joy, so I began my complicated and ambitious combination of dreams and goals and kept them in a small filing cabinet at the back of my mind. Let’s do a deep dive into what that filing cabinet holds. It looks like first on the list, we have my passion for acting. Acting as a whole has always been a topic of admiration from day one. When there’s nothing else around you bringing you joy, you look to absolutely anything that can. For me, that was Tv. I would get lost in these complex characters of neuroticism and pessimism but also cynicism and dishonesty. Seeing these combinations of people exposed me to the understanding of the impact of the world on the human mind, and it only grew stronger as the times changed and the shows got better. I grew to absolutely love acting and the ability to experience another persons world of troubles and dilemmas that are not of my own. Before I leave this planet and enter the grand scheme of the far beyond, I want to become one of the worlds most incredible actors, and I will work my hardest to make it happen. That’s not where my story ends. Even though acting was the biggest dream for myself, I also plan in becoming a famous musician, screenwriter, and successful business owner. I want to top the billboard charts with my passionate and emotional music, write shows for people to enjoy and connect with, and start a line of public schools for performing arts students to express their passions openly without subjugation, a luxury I was not offered. I hope you enjoyed this essay. Thank you!

I associate skills with superpowers. Everyone has their own superpower that they can use to make the world a better place to be on. Your best skill is usually the thing many people know you for, and it’s one of a persons most defining factors, so with that said, one of my best superpowers is comforting people. Yes, it may be more of a trait, but if countless people have been affected positively by my encounters and conversations with them, then I consider it to be superpower. Growing up, that’s all I knew how to do. The constant abuse, trauma and humiliation I experienced at home prevented me from developing in the way I wanted, and instead of burdening everyone around me with my problems, I decided to use the little time I had away from those negative experiences to make the lives away from their homes more worth while. You never know what anyone is going through, and many different factors may prevent them from opening up, so I carry my kindness, advice and love with me whenever I go. Today, I am constantly improving upon my superpower. Even though the negatives experiences have stopped for the most part, I grew attached to my superpower and didn’t want to lose touch with it. It began defining me, and everyone knew me for how kind I was, how good my advice was, and just someone to talk too overall. So I continued. Everyday, with new friends and people I meet to old lifelong friends, I try my best to make people laugh, enjoy their time and allow them to talk about whatever they desire. Even though I’ve made progress developing my superpower, I will continue to put more work into it, and one day have it mastered.

One thing that gives me hope that the future will be better is…us. Kids. Those of us applying to college right now. Even though there are a lot of flaws within each of us, we each have our own gifts to bring to the table. It’s not our faults that everyone sees the worst in us before they see the best. The things that have happened in the last few years are situations that have never been witnessed in a long time. These situations have exposed us to a new era of thinking, with creative ideas and opinions flowing out of us into the world, and those ideas are going to shape the future world. With these new ideas, situations, experiences and stories coming together to solve the world issues, we’ll be extremely revolutionary when it comes to changing the world for the better. THIS is what gives me hope for the future being better.

Joy is when you feel everything is just right in that moment. Life doesn’t have to be good at all, but in this particular moment, it just happens to be right. It’s an indescribable feeling that sparks a new section of your brain to achieve success in discovering true joy. It’s something that not a lot of people experience on a daily basis, but that’s what makes it special. True joy is considered a gift. A gift of surviving and continuing your journey to success. It’s about living out the moment presented to you and not worry about the future for a while. When you experience true joy, all your responsibilities slip away for that moment in time, releasing your body, mind and soul from its stressful cage, allowing yourself to be fully immersed in the experience. I seek joy in my life through my craft. I love writing, acting and singing, and I do that on a daily basis in order to be reinvigorated and inspired for the next day. I also love hanging out with my friends. Not only do they release my mind from its original cycle of working and stress, but they make me feel like my life is worth something, which is enough for me to continue pushing onward. Joy is a beautiful thing, something that isn’t experienced on a daily basis, but when acquired, can be the best feeling in the entire world.

My dad has made my life something to remember, to say the least. Having him in my life was a difficult situation. For the last 15 years, he’s been ravaging my household and driving it towards bedrock. My family and I had to endure the pain he bestowed upon us while living in this constant cycle of trying to appease him, preventing the release of the kraken. Our lives became based around him and making him happy. I can only recall the many times he’s laid his hands on us, particularly me, for the things he simply didn’t agree with. I’ve endured abuse, torment and emotional, physical and mental drainage from this situation. I’ve had to learn how to reinvigorate my passions and desires after being forced to suppress them during his reign, which has proven to be easier than I intially anticipated, but regardless, should’ve never happened. The constant pressure he’s put upon myself and my family has held me down for years, the constant abuse I faced as well as my siblings and mother faced, and the constant cycle of appeasing him have made me stronger today. Witnessing the beatings of mother and enduring these battle scars myself have opened this fire in me to keep fighting. That abuse doesn’t define my capabilities of doing anything. I am happy to say that his reign has ended, and mine has just begone.

My favorite way to help others is making them feel a different emotion than what they may currently be experiencing. I love making people laugh, smile and giggle at the stupid stuff I do in hopes of getting to see them open up to me as well as feel comfortable within the situation. If I can crack a joke, play a game with them, help them with their assignments or even playfully bully them, my end goal is for them to be smiling or laughing at the end of our encounter. I don’t like seeing people sad or upset over what the world has given them. I too have been through some difficult situations, and the best thing I had going through that was my friends. Now I make it my mission to be a friend to others, no matter how different we are. If a person can come into contact with me and leave feeling happy or ecstatic, then I’ll be the upmost satisfaction. I cant fix their situation, but I sure can help them get their mind off i’m of it for a while!

The growing number of motivated kids makes me hold on to the small sliver of hope that the world will become a better place. As the generations continue on, kids are becoming more aware of what wrongs are presented in this world. With information at their finger tips, we’re unstoppable. We have the power to change the world, to undo the wrongs of previous generations, and to make the newer ones amazing, not only for us but for our kids. We hold the power to make this planet livable. We hold the power to make it great. And we will.

When my father was alive, I always endured his violence towards me. He would be aggressive and hit me, as well and threaten to kill me. He was a severe alcoholic and smoker. He would belittle me, as well as constantly criticize me for my aspirations. I want to be a singer/songwriter and actor and he never approved. Eventually, I stopped caring what he thought and continued shaking interest. He eventually stopped caring. This last year, he died to lung cancer. Even though it was a terrible loss, I feel something that i’ve never felt before. Freedom. I’m free from him holding me down. I’m free from him belittling me. I’m free from the abuse. And now the road is clear. Work as hard as possible to reach my goals. Even though what I endured permanently scarred me, I learned to hold it together very well, as well as how to handle any situation, how to be brave, how to not care, and how to differentiate right from wrong. These skills are not only going to help me in my career, to advance and succeed, but they’re also going to help me in life. I’ll be a better person, and I’ll know how to treat people around me. I know what’s it’s like first hand to deal with this, so It’ll give me a chance to personally connect to victims who also experience this in their homes. Your time will come. It’s the preparation that makes the star.