Fashion Forward by Sabrina

Fashion Forward by Sabrina - June 2017 Scholarship Essay

Like most six-year-old girls, my dreams of the future resided in satin shoes and pink, puffy tulle tutus. Being a ballerina seemed to be a cure for the unfortunate curse of adulthood. Ballet dancers never grew out of wearing frilly dresses or pretending to be fairy princesses, and those were great appeals for me. My dreams seemed so sturdy in my six-year-old mind, but with the passing years, my ten-year-old self began to see something different. Just by looking in the dance studio mirrors, I saw I did not look like the other petite and willow-limbed girls. I was tall and had early curves, and I knew I was not meant to be a dancer. Still, I was not kept down. My interests from wearing fluffy dresses shifted to making fluffy dresses. By ten years old, I had dreams of designing costumes for ballets.

This love for extravagant clothing never chose to fade. It only manifested in a different way. In school, I started to gain a real love for history. History was full of people wearing extravagant clothing. And while my love for historical aesthetics still continued, my mind found fascination in all of history’s incredible achievements. History classes became my favorite courses throughout middle school and high school. United States history was the first AP class I ever took, which I earned the highest score on. My hours spent reading and studying for history classes, lead to my interest in current events. It is no lie that learning the past helps make sense of the present. My mind became absorbed with the voices and words of journalists and commentators, or the contemporary storytellers and historians. Maybe as unrealistic as a young girl’s hope of becoming a ballerina, the teenage girl had started to dream of becoming a writer and reporter.

My education shaped the trails on my desired career path. While my heart will always belong to the six-year-old girl sitting in on polished floored with her hair wrapped in a tight bun, my future lives with the teenage girl, her cups of coffee, and the endless nights trying to understand the French Revolution. The classes I chose in high school, and the classes I will continue to take in college, push me in the direction of understanding humans as a whole. I have devoted my education to our past and present, and I want my career to help our future. I want to keep the Earth’s eyes open to the wonderful world of human power. I want to be an educator, a listener, and someone who shares the truth in times when we fear the worst and believe in the best. My education made me who I am, and I am a journalist.