Speaker A
Hello, you guys have been asking for three months now, and it's finally here. I'm gonna be reading my essay that got me into Princeton, Brown, Duke, Dartmouth, UPenn. Just a warning, this is emotional. Like I said, it's very personal to me. I was considering not reading it, but then, like, it's kind of a [ __ ] move. I mean, I should care, but I don't really care now. Listen, if you read this in the future and you meet me, please don't think differently of me. Not, how do I say this, like, I'm not—yes, okay, this, this essay I say doesn't define me, and if you know me personally, I hope this doesn't change too much about, like, what you think about me. Just understand I don't think about this every time I'm talking to people. Again, it is very sensitive, emotional. I'm just gonna read it. Whatever. Yeah, the box of crumbs. My camera's covering this thing. That's like how to read it from this side. I should have needed this already. Oh yeah. Oh, I'm getting nervous yet. This summer, the box of crumbs. In a rectangular box, I kept my precious earnings, countless hours of hard work and dedication stashed away in nothing more than a metal container. In this precious box, I collected eraser crumbs, hundreds of eraser crumbs, the precipitate of hours spent on homework and doodles. With these crumbs, I would make my own clay, and I shaved them into an unsanitary mixture of white eraser and the occasional hair strand. I rolled these balls into—evolved these crumbs into balls, flattened them into pancakes, coiled them into snakes. I had an infinite supply of my personal clay that I could use to make whatever I pleased. My vida and Los Santos, Los Angeles, the City of Angels, home of the Dodgers, melting pot of cultures, the city where I was born and raised, where I developed my identity encompassed by cultural diversity and financial adversity. The city where I came face to face with the hardships of life experienced by both me and those around me. There is no makeup to cover the problems on the face. Ability from a young age, I came face to face with the harsh reality of life. Yet in the ugly face of adversity, I found beauty. From the elderly homeless man who reeked of marijuana that I played tennis with, to my friend's single mother who worked minimum wage to support her kids, from my passionate North Korean math teacher to the friend I taught multiplication to after school, all rated for our parents. Every experience was like shaving a crumb, a memory in my mind that I could mold and build into my character. With every stroke of my racquet, I learned from the elderly men not to prejudice others. By parents, every visit to my friend's apartment, I witnessed the power of love in the form of another overworked mother. With every lecture I gave and received, I learned what practice and dedication could accomplish. I crafted the foundation of my character using the experiences from my life in LA, the old men at home. I confronted the remnants of my dad's difficult childhood, a childhood as an orphan, as an alien in the United States after being adopted by a Caucasian family of six. The remnants of his childhood which emerged in his fits of frustration as an adult and as my father. From the time I was three, I faced the onslaught of his emotional and physical abuse, which only worsened as I grew older. I learned to fear the sharp sting of his back scratcher, which eventually snapped in half, his white-knuckled fists taut with anger and uncontrolled emotions, the blunt force of his metal pole that slammed into my backside. He spat words of hatred that made him almost unrecognizable in his monstrous rage. In his monstrous rage, I was battered with my battered emotions and years of grudge. I continued to add to my palette crumbs. Every blow only added to the clay forming a vicious paste, viscous paste with which I used to build upon myself and heal my wounds. I learned, Brazilians learn to get up when I fell and ignoring the dark thoughts in my head. I learned to be a protector, intervening when I witnessed my sister in the same position I was in. But I also learned that forgiveness, letting go of bitter memories and holding onto the endearing moments like a traitor, nay, even one. It was 2:00 a.m. I was as demanded by my workload, awake. My mother called. She was at the hospital. She was at the hospital with her sister, my aunt, but she was more than just my aunt. She was my second mother who bathed me in the kitchen sink and picked me up from school. She was a woman of struggle who lost her savings after moving to America, who developed breast cancer, fiber school, and was not grasping for life. All the tumors in her brain ate away her existence. She was lucid that day. She called to tell me that she loved me. I knew that would be the last time I heard her voice. Hey, what? Sorry, from my aunt. I collected the memory of her life, her optimism, and relentless faith in God. I collected her years, the turmoil, tears of agony and suffering, years of never giving up. She would live forever in our memories. From my aunt, I learned about life. I learned to cherish every moment, to laugh, to cry, to live in the present because there might not be a tomorrow. Insane, I love you. We are instead if we are insignificant crumbs, worthless until we leave a part of ourselves in someone else's box. Here's one together that we can grow and grab something beautiful, something filled with meaning. Yeah, that's my—I see, like I said, very personal to me. Yeah, please don't think differently of me if you like, if I know you or if I get to know you in the future. Alright, thanks for watching. I'm just debating. We're not really gonna post this, so yeah, looks like it's gonna happen. I made a promise. I'm gonna keep that promise. And again, you don't need to write about some pathetic, like, a sad story, you know, life tip it into college. There are all the ways. There's other essays, and I'm gonna try to find examples of that, like people who didn't write sob stories like me and Gordon. So sorry for, sorry for not uploading this in like two months. You know, I honestly, I would have done this a month ago. I was just very lazy and unmotivated. I'm gonna try to make like a skincare video, like my acne goes away. Look at this. Like, it looks okay from the distance. Let me zoom in, and it's like bad. Yo, I'm stopping saying, although also I don't even have an excuse to, like, to give to you guys that I'm not uploading because like school's over basically, APs are over, Valor is closed for like the next four days, and yeah, so I'm just gonna make videos now, and I'll try to make more. Anyways, hope you enjoyed. Bye. Subscribe. See you next time. Thanks for watching.
