Usc Admission Essay (My Contribution to the University)

Outward appearances are deceiving. Everyone knows that, but who really believes it? Everyone has heard “Don't judge a book by it's cover”, but how many people can say that they truly live by that philosophy? I know I can't. Everywhere I go, I subconsciously place labels on people and things before I truly understand what it is I am looking at and I know for a fact that I am not the only one. But, over the past few years, I've come to see how much I exemplify “Don't judge a book by it's cover” through my unique circumstances and I know that I will be a student unlike any USC has ever seen.

When people see me walking down the street, in the mall, or at the movie theater I imagine that many of them place labels on me just as I used to. Being a tall, skinny white guy, most people probably don't think that I used to be chubby in seventh grade and that I joined cross country to get my body fat percentage down to seven percent. It is through this experience that I developed a drive to succeed that few can match. They probably don't realize that I am, in fact, not white, but Cuban. As the son of a Cuban immigrant, I have learned how fortunate I am to live in a country that allows me to have economic and political freedom. I doubt that when most people see me, that they think that I have lived in two separate houses my entire life. As someone who has always gone through constant change, I have learned that stubbornness gets you nowhere and that adaptation and a calm, collected mind can get you through the most difficult of times. What is probably most surprising for people who don't know me is that I am probably the biggest nerd they have ever seen. Because I don't where glasses or speak with a lisp or wear tucked in, button-up shirts with pocket protectors I don't fit the label of “nerd”, but those are only outward appearances. Those who truly know me know that I have seen each Star Wars movie about seven times, that I know an unhealthy amount of fictional Star Wars...