Essay - Admissions Essay Never in My Life Have I Felt More...

Admissions Essay

Never in my life have I felt more helpless; I am merely a puppet without a voice!" ***** can still remember that thought while walk*****g beside my parents and my brother as our family hurried anxiously down the long passages into the immigration office. Anxiously forcing *****self to explore the "new world" as if I were from an alien planet, I can still remember the morning dew ***** glistened on the terminal windows of the Los Angeles Airport during that bright sunny spring ***** in 1999. Even as the sunlit bliss outside captivated my heart with serenity, I w***** still very aware of the apprehension and seriousness that lay *****in ***** parents' eyes' ***** I understood their concern: we weren't home free just yet.

We stood in line while my father nervously checked through all of our documents over and over again. The wait seemed like an eternity to me. Finally, our family advanced to the next available immigration *****ficer. At this point I was thinking

Touchdown, we're finally in America!" but my excitement turned to fear the moment ***** officer opened his mouth ***** asked me a series of questions ***** English. To m*****ke matters worse, ***** baggage was overtly large and bulky, which only led ***** a string ***** additional questions I could not understand. The officer then singled me out and muttered something as I drew a complete blank, st*****ing there dumbfounded. Even as ***** tried to formulate some type of answer for this man, all I could think about ***** the fact ***** my English schooling in Korea never prepared me for this. One would have thought that three years ***** English classes would be enough ***** understand the officer's questions.

How could this happen to me?"

********** my mind, that moment was the watershed event of my past that permanently changed ***** course of my one-directional life before immigrating ***** the United States.

Previously, I had always considered myself to be above average in everything that I did in South Korea; even if ***** was not ***** best at someth*****g, I had never experienced utter ineptitude at anything else to the degree th***** ***** found myself unable to understand ***** immigration ***** questions.

In Korea, I lived in a spoon-fed comfort zone; since that turning point at the Los

Angeles ***** terminal I realized th***** ***** needed to become much stronger, ***** confident, and fully ***** for any obstacle that lies ahead. After being exposed to the harsh reality of the linguistic barrier in America, many might ***** given up and simply conformed to ***** Ameri***** stereotype of the "typical foreign immigrant," ***** I decided right ***** in the ***** office to ***** someone successful in America by applying my talents ***** abilities to my education and to channel ***** energies into achieving something worthwhile for myself, my family, and also my people.

Since *****, I regained my confidence and participated proactively in my academic responsibilities and extracurricular opportunities. Part of my strength