- March 2019
Personal Statement
As a swimmer of seven years prior to joining my high school’s crew team, I learned the value of hard work. What I didn’t learn, however, was the value of my teammates. Rowing has taught me that I thrive in a team setting where we can support and push off each other. Last year, I was voted co-captain of my team- one of the few rising juniors to ever be elected. As a captain and the team “hype-man”, I try my best to bring perspective to the team and encourage teammates to focus on the end goal when stress is running high and the days feel endless. You can catch me dancing to Mamma Mia before pieces to lift the mood, and I’ve been told that the one thing I say the most is: “guys, we got this.” I hope rowing in college provides me with the opportunity to contribute to a tight-knit, hard working team. I aspire to push myself physically and stretch myself mentally while staying light-hearted and level-headed along the way.
Academically, I hope to open myself to areas out of my comfort zone in college. I expect to encounter obstacles, but I have confidence in my ability to adapt and grow into the challenge. Straight out of a middle school where grades weren’t given and tests were rarely administered, I was in for a challenge coming into my freshman year of high school. I had chosen the most rigorous course load my school had to offer, and that first quarter hit me like a ton of bricks. Slowly but surely, armed with the discipline and efficiency rowing has taught me, I was able to pull myself back up and finish the year successfully. Now in my junior year, I am taking yet another brutal course load. When I’m overloaded with 4 tests, 3 essays and a 2k, I can stay in the right mindset knowing that everything is manageable with some careful planning. And when things don’t go my way, instead of melting down, I’ve learned to take a deep breath, brush it off, assess what went wrong, and fix it.
