College+Essay

Jazmine Gordon Honors English 12 Mr. Bulliet 10/19/11

College Essay: Identify a[person who has a significant influence on you and explain the influence.

She cooks,cleans, works,and goes to school;and finally her most important job,she is my mom. The people that know us the best from our pastexperiencesand current flaws are our parents. After all, these are our support systems:the people we look up to, the people we strive to be like, and the people who are with us each and every day. They sacrifice many things like their hopes and dreams to give us the absolute best lives possible. My mother has a huge influence on my life, making me the person I am today. Many people say I'm a lot likemy mom as we both share qualities like confidence, perserverance, and independence just to name a few. My father has not been a big part of my life or the lives of his other kids for that matter. When he found out my mom was pregnanat, he was really excited. However, when it came time for him to take responsibility he ran. All of a sudden his attitude changed,and he wanted nothing to do wiht my mom, brother, and me. I never could understand how any person in their right mind could just wake up one day and decide not to be apart of their child's life. My mom being nineteen and my dad twenty, she did what any mother would do; she stepped up and cared for her children. Right then and there she chose to put away her hopes and dreams on hold to care for me. She chose then to make her caring form me her first and only priority. Soon her life became filled with the stress of putting and keepingfood on our table, clothes on my back, and bills. In spite of the many struggles my mom never lost hope. Instead, she kept working to improve our family's quality of life. As a result of my mother's perserverance things finally started going out way. By this time she had a successful job, was starting college, and we finally became comfortable as far as finances. My mother's constant ability to provide a better way of life for her family influencedme the most. Seeing my mom go through the things she did, and come out on top in the end has influenced me not only to work hard in life, but to never settle for less. If i work hard and stay determined my options are endless; this is always something my mom instilled in my brothers and me. So much as to say if i don't try my hardest, if i don't stay determined, and if i settle for less, i feel I'm disappointing her most. It makes me feel that I'm not taking advantage of the many opportunities that have opened up for me due to the hard work my mom has put in. There are absolutely no excuses for not reaching my goals if i go through life as determined as she was to be better. If my mom had chosen the easy way out, if she had just given up, or settled for less I wouldn't be the person I am today. Through all the experiences and the things I've seen my mom overcome, I have developed the mentality ofa fighter that i have today.