From Sheltered to Enlightened by Laura

From Sheltered to Enlightened by Laura - October 2013 Scholarship Essay

One sister. Three brothers. One mother. One father. Fourteen cousins. Five aunts. Three uncles. One grandma. All of these constitute the 29 people on the paternal side of my family. Each person has their own special characteristic for which they are known. For instance, my brother Kevin has a special talent of creating and fixing things, especially wooden items. My cousin Ben is an artist, and my older cousin Joe tends to treat me like a younger sister since I don't have an older sibling of my own. My Aunt Becky and I share a love with Xavier basketball that borders on obsession. I consider my family to be very close. We have spent most of our summers together since we all live in the same neighborhood. I have grown up with this family my whole life, but it was not until a little over a year ago that I was truly able to understand my family in a unique and different way.

For the first sixteen years of my life, I have lived a sheltered life. I have grown up in a Catholic parish and school in a middle-class environment not knowing much about the lives of those less fortunate. Sure, I had seen the poorer parts of Cincinnati and Covington and realized that many people lived a much less fortunate life than me. I had also seen the homeless in the street and been to the soup kitchen, but I never had a face to associate with that group of people. This all changed when I started working.

A little over a year ago, I began to work at a small sandwich shop in my hometown. The advantage to working at a smaller shop was that I was able to get to know the people I worked with a little better. Some of those people I worked with represented the faces of those who lived with much less than I had. They weren't homeless, but they definitely didn't live the life I was used to seeing. I also came to understand that their families were not exactly the support group that I had growing up. Many of those I worked with did not attend college which I previously thought was a given for most young people.

Through my experience working, I have come to realize that your family is the basis for many aspects of your life. In my interactions with my colleagues, I learned that for most of them, their families didn't provide them with the education in which I was blessed. They also didn't have the encouragement and love I had received from my family which I had taken for granted for so many years. While I attribute much of my success to hard work and dedication, the support and influence of my family cannot be underestimated. I wouldn't be as successful and determined as I am if my family didn't encourage me to reach my full potential.

I want to be able to give back to others what my family has given me. I thrive with encouragement to rise up to the challenges I face. My family is the basis for the determined, hard-working, optimistic, and dedicated person that I am. I want to provide others with the same comfort and encouragement they have provided me in order to help them succeed with their life goals.