Personal Statement

When I was 20 years old, I went through a traumatic experience with my partner at the time. While speaking to a friend about that experience's effect on me,  I told him that I was not the same person I was the day before. He replied, "You're never the same person you were yesterday." That statement has continued to shape my life throughout the decade since by sparking a drive for constant self-improvement.

Every experience we have shapes who we are regardless of the size of its impact. Each time we go through something new, negative or positive, our perception changes and we form a new version of ourselves. I believe that change is the only constant in life; how we view change and the opportunities it presents affects how that change impacts us.

Positive change takes intention, it requires us to be aware of our experiences and be willing to learn from them. As the child of an unstable parent, I went through many traumatic experiences throughout my formative years that shaped how I viewed myself and the world. Rather than accepting it as who I am, I constantly look for new ways to transition from who I was to who I want to become. As a result, I've become aware of how each new experience affects me, and I choose to keep the lessons that bring value to my life while discarding those that do not.

When people ask about my hobbies, it is often difficult for me to choose which ones to share. I love to try new things, and what I do in my free time varies daily. One day I may be learning to knit because I wanted to have a scarf I saw in a video game, or I'm learning woodworking to build a feature in my house I always wanted to have. I see opportunity in everything, and I do not let inexperience discourage me from my goals. I will create those experiences for myself. With each new experience comes a new version of me who is more confident and capable than who I was before.

Even if my project fails, I still learn something from it. Failure is a good thing; it helps us improve. We have to embrace failure if we ever want to succeed. I started college later in life than most of my peers, and while it is easy to compare my journey with the journey of others, I know I would not be on the path I am without that "setback." I needed time to learn about myself and what I want from life, and that's okay. I train martial arts, and I fail at it all the time. Those failures usually result in a punch to the face, which hurts, but every time I get hit in the face I learn how to dodge those punches. Failure in life often feels like a punch to the face, but what matters is that you learn from it, get back up, and try again

The ability to pull positive lessons from negative experiences does not come naturally for some, and it did not come naturally for me. Some people need a push, and I enjoy being the push others need to try something new. I've had a lasting impact on the people in my life simply by pushing them to learn a new skill or view a situation in a different light. Each time I help someone grow, I grow myself. I think it's essential to not only learn from our own experiences but to learn from the experiences of others as well. I never look down on someone for being inexperienced or having a different mindset because I know there is always something to learn from them.

As I continue my journey through life, I will iterate over every possible version of myself until my journey comes to an end. Self-improvement has no end, there will always be something we can improve about ourselves. If a negative experience sets me back, I know it won't be forever. I will continue to see the positivity in failure. I will keep growing my skills because I will never stop looking for new experiences and opportunities to challenge myself. I will keep learning new things about myself because each new experience will open me to something I may have never known I wanted. I will continue to uplift the people in my life and leave a positive impact on their lives, and I will continue to learn from everyone I meet.

Who I am now is going to be different from who I am one, five, ten, or twenty years from now. I know I will not have any regrets when I look back on my life because I will have never been stagnant. I know I will pick myself back up from the experiences that set me back, and I will always face difficulty with courage, confidence, and conviction. I will never be the same person I was yesterday, and that will remain true until tomorrow doesn't come.