Sample Essay - Jonathan L

Is this even worth it? It’s the summer after my freshman year, and I’m up at 6 in the morning

waiting for the Metro 60 bus. What’s even worse, I’m not a morning person! Even as I walked

outside my house, my dad had already left for work an hour before me. I don’t know how he can

do this every weekday, but I know why he does it. He has no other choice but to do it to provide

for my family.

Today is my first day at REACH Academy for Young Men, a summer program created to help

young men find a place in the world and inspire leadership roles. I knew this program would be

a great opportunity for me, but it is far from home. Not only was it in Beverly Hills, but it was at

least a 2-hour bus ride away. I was never the type, however, to let obstacles like no

transportation get in the way of what I believed would be a great opportunity, and I took that

long route gratefully.

After two hours, I finally arrived at the church where the program took place. The first day was

the scariest. I knew nobody! Almost everyone came from different backgrounds. I knew I worked

for this spot here and received the scholarship, but did I fit in? Would I be able to do this every

Monday-Friday for three weeks? Could I contribute or help anyone? It was at this moment that I

thought about my family. I thought about how when they first arrived, they didn’t fit in, and yet

here we were, figuring out everything one step at a time. Change is daunting; however, it

doesn’t have to be paralyzing.

What I believe finally made me feel like I belonged was my group filmmaking class. Our task for

the week was to make a group film and share it with the rest of the boys in the program. This

project really was the turning point for the rest of my weeks there. My group and I became pretty

good friends, and we really enjoyed the filming process. Ever since that project, I was able to

talk to more people, and I had my own group of friends that I could talk to. As I woke each

morning, it was no longer dread that I felt, but excitement.

After a long three weeks, we were finally being rewarded with an all-day trip to Santa Barbara!

We were going to the beach to play games, swim, relax, and go canoeing. I had always wanted

to go canoeing, and now I finally had the opportunity to. When we arrived, they gave us

lifejackets and started to explain how canoeing involved a lot of teamwork and being in sync. My

team all thought it would be easy, but how little did we know. Splash, splash, splash, is all I

remember. It had been fifteen minutes, and we were still not any closer with getting anywhere;

however, each attempt was better than the last. We understood how we needed to work

together to achieve balance, but most importantly, how we needed to all be pulling towards the

same goal. We started striding through the water, going faster with each stroke, finally making it

to the finish line. In triumph, we raise our paddle to the air and laugh and cheer for each other.

These once strangers, only three weeks ago, had become the highlight of my summer.

Saturday morning, the program is officially over. I still woke up at 6 in the morning. However,

this time I don’t have to get ready and go wait for the bus. I can finally stay in and use the rest of

my summer break to relax. Yet, all I could think of was being back on that bus headed towards

the program.