Personal Statement
An accomplishment that sparked a period of personal growth and a new understanding of myself pulled me through the quarter. I achieved honor rolls in my 11th grade and beyond. Throughout school, I struggled with academics. One day my grandad and cousin shared I was struggling mentally, and the solution was to start doing physical things, like sports. I have always played football, but struggled with school work. I became aware of this and decided to change my course. In my junior year, I earned a 3.6 cumulative GPA, made the DCIAA Football All League Team, and received a Class A Football All State Award. I know football has bettered me in many ways. I have teammates I can depend on to help me when I am confused about work or life and coaches that will get on you about your grades and how you carry yourself as a young man. I started making sure I wasn’t at the wrong place at the wrong time. Nowadays you can be minding your business and two minutes later you can end up dead or physically hurt. I know that I will have to work harder because of my skin. It’s okay because there is nothing too hard for God, and I have Him by my side along with family support.
I thought athletics was all I had, but in reality I am a student athlete that can achieve any goal I set my mind to do. I am happy, yet surprised I'm still alive compared to the death rates in my city. The worst thing about it is that there are young people getting killed every week, month, and day. Unfortunately, I grew up with some now gone. This is not just a request for help, this is a cry to do the best I can. I’m 11 years old, confused and trying to figure out how I can escape this nightmare. The first word I hear that day is don’t do it! My friend Braxton tells this random boy not to throw the brick at the abandoned building, the anger I see in his eyes seems as though he black out and the devil has taken over him. I was scared the keys toward my words were lost. I stayed silent, and the fear that was in my body affected another. This was real life, but something inside of me said it may be just a dream. So change it. I found the key for my words and shouted. The fear in my body disappeared. I ran toward the boy and told him to stop. This meant a lot to my friends and myself. He ran away, and we had to clean up all the mess he made. Then the police pulled up. We all dash and start running. They’re not even chasing us, but they had the boy that destroyed multiple windows in the building. We saw him telling the authorities that it was us. They proceeded to listen to him. They started chasing us again. We feel as though we are about to die. So many black people have been getting killed so we continued to run and we finally outran them. The lesson we learned is that even though you see and address a problem, remember what side the world is on and that obstacles will come and go doing your lifetime. As a rising senior, I managed to overcome those setbacks in the classroom, on the field, and in life. I have picked this university because there are many opportunities to explore. I believe that this university will develop my learning and communication skills. In my community, we have a deficit in education, and I believe that attending this university will help change the statistics of African Americans not succeeding college.
