There is always time to change the world by Thomas

There is always time to change the world by Thomas - December 2014 Scholarship Essay

“Don’t compare yourself with anyone in this world…if you do so, you are insulting yourself.” – Bill Gates. I have grown up with this quote being an overriding thought in my brain. Throughout my entire childhood, my mom would always tell me to not be like anyone else, to be unique in every way possible. She would also tell me to choose a role model, not to look up to, but knowing that one day that they will look up to me. I grew up in the same community I live in today, with family being a central focus of my life. After school, I would not have many friends to be around with because I had invested so much time into my family, making sure I ranked nothing else above them. My parents have never made much money, so I had always told them that one day I will give back to them triple the amount that they had ever given to me. I’ve always wanted to be successful in life for nothing more than to give back to my tremendously supportive parents.

Throughout my early grade school years, I had always seemed to find school effortless, unchallenging and very straightforward. I would rarely go to school energized or psyched up to learn new things because, frankly, I felt like I had already understood everything that was being taught to me. I had many friends within school, and I never felt as if I was depressed or anything to that extent. However, I never felt fully satisfied going to elementary or middle school. The only one thing that I truly enjoyed while in elementary and middle school were the field trips. During third through sixth grade, I would go on at least three field trips a year. Of course, I didn’t enjoy every field trip to the extent that I should have, because the most fascinating field trips for me were the field trips where I would become engrossed and absorbed into the environment.

The most memorable field trip was in the sixth grade where my entire class took a three day camping trip to the beautiful Lake Tahoe. It was here where I felt that my dreams and aspirations were truly shaped. I could feel that during this trip I had experienced something I never had before. I was extremely jubilant and radiant throughout the entire three days, because of the environment I was placed in. During this trip we would research certain things about the environment and discover captivating things about what shapes it, including man-made environments and natural environments. It was during these outstanding three days where I truly discovered that I wanted to be an environmental engineer and use any and all wisdom I had to help preserve the environment throughout the world. I became aware that from then on I had to be focused on keeping the environment a critical piece in my life.