“It’s not where you start it’s where you finish” is a famous song lyric that applies to my life story. I believe my journey began in a small, rural, impoverished village in southern China, named Dapu. At the age of ten months I was adopted by my mom and traveled 7622 miles to arrive in Grayling, MI. At the time of my birth, China was under the “one child rule” meaning that families often abandoned female babies so they could have male children to work the fields and take care of the parents as they aged. The future for female …show more content…
I often think about how my life would have been very different if I had remained in China, where many citizens are not allowed the freedom of choice and opportunity .Being one of very few Asian students in my school, it has been a challenge to maintain my individuality and not be pressured into fitting into a stereotype. I grew up in a family that places a strong emphasis on education believing that the more education I have, the more choices I have. This belief has served as motivation for my academic success thus far.
I feel that it is important to give back to my community and to date I have completed 152 hours of documented community service. I have donated time in my city, state, country and internationally. Through the many opportunities that I have had for community service, I have been able to broaden my views, and look outside my community at how others experience our world. I have visited very diverse communities ranging from the inner city of Detroit, MI to a small, economically depressed village in Honduras, to the mountains of Pennsylvania and inside homes very different from mine in my own …show more content…
I was hired at Penrod’s Canoe Livery, a job that turned out to be very challenging. Not only was it physically demanding, it was also challenging to deal with tourists all summer. I was raised to finish what I started, so I continued working the rest of the summer. The following summer I was hired at the Grayling Country Club. I started there in April of my junior year and worked through the end of the summer. I really enjoyed working there and will be returning to work there this summer. I will be responsible for paying for a large portion of my education. I come from a single parent home and my mom retired at he age of 55. . She did not know that she would have a child attending college until she adopted me when she was 45 years old. That does not allow a lot of time to save for college. My mom continues to work as a substitute teacher and student teacher supervisor to supplement her retirement income and will help me as much as she