Columbia University Pre-college Program Application Essay

I was born in a developing city in China. After graduating from elementary school, I immigrated and settled down in Washington state with anticipation of my future journey. Before immigrating to America, I was at the top of my class for oral English speaking. Moreover, I had intensive English lessons weekly that began two years prior to the time I settled down in America. So I thought everything would be a breeze. However, things differed surprisingly from what I anticipated, and my mood hit rock bottom. For instance, I used to get mostly straight A’s in China, peculiarly in English related subjects. While in middle school, I could barely follow up with the small group discussion because of the slang classmates were using and my mediocre oral English. Furthermore, whenever other classmates inquired if I had supplemental information that I would like to share, I barely answered yes. Since it was even burdensome for me to comprehend their discussion. Apart from academics, socializing also became a barrier at the beginning of middle school. I was feeling extremely apprehensive about going to school because I was sitting alone all day long and having no conversation at all with any of my classmates. Not getting the grade that I was expecting to get and didn’t have even one confidant caused me to become introverted.

After spending several months in a bleak mood, I gradually comprehended that if I set my expectations to be exceedingly high, I would be living in suffering forever.  Meanwhile, I pondered about if socializing is really essential to my life or not, because looking back to the past few months, I didn’t do anything substantial for making friends. My pondering followed by a short break, and I noticed that I felt exceptionally desolated from not seeing people, and I hated this kind of feeling. So then, I realized that socializing is indeed an indispensable part of my life. Therefore, I started gossiping with my desk mates from each class period. I also participated in the golf team and band at our school, because I wanted to be more active in this huge community and be capable of showing my personality in front of people. Unsurprisingly,  I got familiar with a girl named Kylie, she introduced me to numerous ardent friends. We walked to class together, talked about the recent enthralling events, etc. She really helped me blend into this community. Aside from my school, I also joined a debate club outside my school because I knew that I would be able to meet more people from different schools. Within this debate club, I incidentally met a girl who is several years older than me; she was the president of that club, and I was her assistant for compiling some information etc. we gradually became friends, and she was the person who suggested me the high school that I am currently enrolling in, I really enjoyed the life here.

After settling down in the US for around 2.5 years, I went through an excruciating period of adjustment to the environment. I really appreciated those torturous days, they let me learn that all adversities could shape me to be a more unyielding person. Now on, whenever I have a tremendous expectation, I should be proactively working towards and achieving my goal, no matter how frustrating the situation could be, I should not compromise and give in. Also, I now consider being hopeful, resilient and proactive as the most predominant components of living a better life.