College Essay

Hannah Hafsos

Block 2: Independent Living

College Essay – Common App.

Option #5: Discuss an accomplishment or event, formal or informal, that marked your transition from childhood to adulthood within your culture, community, or family.

Love is a violent weapon and a comforting smile. Physical, mental and emotional support allows the human race to inhale and exhale deeper breaths of relief. Happiness, in its most serene state, ignites a firework of bliss. When a family, or a single soul, endures a stressful and life altering event, love, support, and happiness are dismissed from the situation. Although these necessities have temporarily lost their way, determination shapes attitudes. If an incident is grave enough to mark an individual’s transition from childhood to adulthood, one can assume this individual managed the situation quite well, and only found ways to push through those challenging times with a growth mindset. This individual is me, almost three years ago, when my parents finalized their divorce papers.

In 2004, my mom, brother and I left my dad in Yakima and set forth for the place I now call home, my 8th birthday approaching rapidly. I labeled my parents crazy, uncaring, ridiculous, and selfish for years, questioning the desire they had had to walk out of each other’s lives with such dignity. I was young and ignorant, oblivious to the core issues that sparked this tragedy; but I knew our family size decreased to three, and registering this new fact in my still curious brain was beyond difficult. In fact, near impossible. However, I decided to use the scarring situation as a learning tool for growth and treat it as a life lesson.

Modifying to the new lifestyle my family and I were presented with was excruciatingly painful. Adjusting to a new house, new town, new environment, new people, new school…new family; all so overwhelming. Exhausting in fact. I would occasionally have the opportunity to visit my dad’s house for a short...