all 5

so i got into all five schools that i applied to ... hehe and i wanted to share my UC personal statement ... and i am actually proud of it so here it is (and yes i know it can be jiral but hey everything needs a little jiralness in it):

I am a “Japorean”, a second generation half Japanese and half Korean girl. Since I am a child of first generation parents, my exposure to the Japanese and Korean culture was very authentic. Not only was I exposed to contrasting foods, I was exposed to different customs. Because my father grew up in Japan, he naturally learned to be accepting of others and reserved. However, my mother learned to be cautious and passionate. Although my parents found strengths in each other, they were too different and eventually ended up clashing a lot. Being Japorean meant that I had to mediate between my parents whenever they clashed with each other. As I dealt with these contradicting personalities, I gained skills that allowed me to get along with all sorts of people. These skills helped me gain friends that came from all over the world. This is where diversity started to play a big role in my life.
As I became used to the different races, I became comfortable in any location, whether it was on the bus, different parts of the city, different parts of the country, just anywhere. I started to love California’s cultural diversity and my understanding of different types of lifestyles grew when I went on a road trip to Alaska. This road trip was a specific program called “Cross Country” and the purpose of this road trip was to teach teenagers independence, communication, and many other things. I was nine when I went on this trip and on this trip I met all different sorts of people that had various lifestyles. I learned street smarts from a girl who ran away from home. I learned boxing from seventeen-year-old boys who lived on their own without their parents’ help. As I learned about these different lifestyles, I started to embrace my fellow campmates for who they were instead of judging them for being different from me. When I came back from the road trip, I was fresh with knowledge about other peoples’ lives. I had learned about all the different kinds of lifestyles and what type of hardships others had. I used this knowledge to become friends with all sorts of people and embraced these people for who they were. This helped me to become friends with an even more diverse group than I had before. Not only were these kids from various ethnic backgrounds, they also had different lifestyles.
I became friends easily with everyone and as I grew older, I started to take an interest in their cultures. My best friends now are Sri Lankan, Brazilian, and an adopted Chinese in an American family. Learning about their strange yet new cultures was fun. Sri Lankan people always came late to a party and when they ate their traditional food, they ate with their hands. Brazilian people are very laid back and always try to look for a way to have a good time. Caucasian American people had a set of rules for the whole family. As I became immersed in all these different cultures, I realized that I was addicted to diversity. I wanted to surround myself with diversity. That’s why I aspire to go to a college that is diverse and academically challenging enough for me. And what is more perfect than a college that is a salad of diverse cultures? Going to a UC school is one of my aspirations because I know that I’ll flourish under an admirable academic education as well as an excellent exposure to many cultures.
Being a Japorean has not only made me love two contrasting cultures, but has opened my heart to other cultures as well. That’s why I wish to be submerged into various cultures at my undergraduate college and I wish to have my nursing class a sea of all sorts of people.


second prompt:

Rolls of laughter can be heard, as my friends watch me flare my nostrils, cross my eyes, and gape my mouth open. This was a daily routine that would be often seen amongst my friends and me. I love to see my friends happy and it’s a natural instinct for me to try to cheer them up whenever they are feeling down. Ever since I was young, being happy and making others happy were things that I loved to be and do.
When I was younger, my brother was often scolded and disciplined because of his actions. Most of the time, these disciplines were severe and would bring my brother to tears. As I would quietly observe my brother, I felt a need to cheer him up. However, I was scared to because he would often push my help away since I was the younger sister. Watching my brother become depressed and slip further into darkness, I realized that couldn’t let this happen to him and I stopped being the bratty sister that I was. I opened up myself and would crack jokes to him. I wasn’t the one that brought my brother back into the light, but I know that I helped him. When my brother came back into light, I knew that my happiness could bring others happiness. After my brother returned to normal, he became the hilarious person that he used to be and I soaked up his antics to help cheer up my friends.
As I became better at cheering up people, I gained a skill that helped me. I became very keen towards what other people were feeling and it became easy for me to tell whether or not my friends were irritated or sad. Whenever I sense unhappiness from my friends, it becomes my mission to cheer them up or to let them know that I am there for them. Cheering up people has always been my thing and it’s a quality that all my friends will tell you about me. It’s a quality that will never disappear for as long as I live.