Written Answers

My grandmother’s illness instigated my interest. When I was eleven years old, my grandmother, who never showed signs of pain, collapsed on an airplane while traveling and she was suddenly diagnosed with leukemia. At that time, both of my parents were

     A lot of anger dwells inside me.  My mom recognized it ever since I was young.  She use to always yelled at me for not studying or doing homework. On the other hand, she always mentioned that I was “very serious”.  Of course I didn’t believe her

Improvise, Adapt, Overcome.  A thought that comes to my mind nearly every day.  I work and do what I do because I feel like there is always the need to improve and become better.  I am not a person that can sit still and be content with where I stand

It is a feeling of strength and accomplishment.  Nobody can buy the feeling of hard work and the accomplishments that result from it and I am fortunate enough to experience this feeling much more frequently than the average person.  As a member of th

I do what I do because there are limits to what I can do.

During my high school years, my favorite subject was science. However, upon entering college, I became more realistic as I could not imagine myself being in a lab with hazardous materials. On t

Growing up in my neighborhood is hard, there is so much temptation for someone to fall into the life of drugs and hard core partying, dropping out of school, teenage pregnancies, to come out on top is very rare. I was always thought of as some typica

When I was a kid, my parents used to suggest various careers to me. Once my mom suggested I become an engineer or something like that. My dad suggested that I become a doctor or a lawyer. Those options seemed so boring. Choosing any of those careers

I am someone who loves dealing with finances and I want to more than anything be successful in life when it comes to money, so I want to go into the business world with my future career. I am an individual who is consumed by numbers, which concerns m

I do what I do day in and day out because I have always done this activity. I would not even know how to run my life without this activity in my life. I am the one who decides what I do with my time and am happy that I have the opportunity to still b

Never knowing whether the decision an individual makes is smart or not epitomizes my parents. They made the choice to emigrate from the Philippines to the United States without envisioning what the future would hold. Once they arrived, they would nev

I love the feeling you get when you run full speed into someone. There honestly isn’t a better feeling than putting pads on and knowing that you just became in a way invincible. The shoulder pads and helmet that I put on during the few weeks in the s

Wes Miller

Student, Musician, Life Stylist

Los Angeles, California

            It’s two o’clock in the afternoon and while society tells me that I should be at school getting good grades to finish up my senior year, I’m passing a joint to my band mate

Why do I do what I do?  Because I can never do enough.

Every since I was a child, I have been extremely fortunate.  Life has been far from perfect, terrible at times, but I think I'm fairly fine now.  Sure, in the midst of struggles and distress, I fe

The first two things I did when I was born was drink a whole bottle of milk and take a nap, a hobby I still partake in to this day.  From the earliest of ages, I got used to being given exactly what I wanted.  This continued on for the next ten years

        A feeble, outstretched hand.  Tattered clothing.  Barefoot against the scalding pavement under the brilliant, July sun.  A stomach yearning for a single grain of food.  Perplexed eyes filled with tears of sorrow and immense pain.  Alone.

            I lost both my parents by my freshman year in high school.  They were physically at home for dinner and physically ready to drive me to school.  But mentally, they were out of my life.

           When I was eight years old, I ran into the

I will touch the skies and reach new heights that very few have reached. Many dare to get there, but very few survive the hurdles. I want to be at the top.

Becoming one of the richest men in the world is a feat. It takes interpersonal skills, ingenuit

I hated math. Nothing about it made sense. In the third grade, my mother forced me to memorize the first fifteen multiplication tables. She expected so much out of me, a boy who could barely count without his fingers. It was hard in the beginning, bu

         I never considered myself bold or forward. Ever since I was a 

child, I was more of a follower than a leader. I wasn't active in 

leadership positions but instead liked to blend in with the crowd. 

For years, I was just drifting through life, s