First Admissions Essay: How My Mom Changed My Life

When I was a young girl, at the age that other children dreamed of being princesses or astronauts, I always had one goal in my mind: I wanted to be just like my mother. As cliché as it is, she has always, always inspired me and pushed me to be a better, stronger person. Throughout the years, she has showed me what it means to be independent, to be fiercely ambitious and never let anything stand between me and my dreams, and today more than ever I appreciate her steadfastness in building her own future while guiding my younger brother and me on the path to achieving our own greatness.

My mom, much like me at this age, had absolutely no idea what she wanted to do with her life. However, when she was a senior in high schoolshe had the opportunity to spend a year in Italy as an exchange student, an experience which helped shape her as a person and show her the path that she still follows today. As I write this, my first admissions essay of many, I am struck by how similar my mother and I are in this sense. I am now well into my own senior exchange year, this one in Germany, and I could not be happier or more proud to have followed so closely in my mother’s footsteps.

She and my father were divorced when I was three and my brother just one, and as a single parent supporting two small children on a public school teacher’s salary, she faced her own share of hardships along the way. A selfless woman, she always made sure that my brother and I were cared for before her own needs, but as soon as she was able she began attending night classes in order to get her Master’s degree and further her own education as well as provide for our future. One of my very first memories of my mom is her dropping us off at my grandparents’ house, after she had already had a full day of teaching at a local middle school, to attend several hours of night