TAMIU GEAR UP IV 2015 Essay Contest

Full Support Considering your lifetime goals, discuss experiences you are proud of and how your current and future academic and extra-curricular activities might help you achieve your goals. How has GEAR UP IV contributed towards meeting your goals? Life is not just about going to school and getting a job. Life is about finding your passion and chasing your dreams. It is about finding a career that will make you feel like you are not working at all, yet finding your passion and something you want to live for is not something that everyone knows instantly. It is something that slowly develops and makes its way into someone's heart. Parents, teachers, friends, and even strangers are a part of the development. There are things that even books and equations cannot teach you. These experiences come when you do not expect them at all. My high school years have been the most influential. My teachers and GEAR UP coordinators taught me that education is the key to a successful life. However I wondered, "What do I even see myself doing for the rest of my life?" I often found myself saying a doctor because I admired what they do. I like how they save many lives and care for the wellbeing of their patients, but the more I thought about it. I could not imagine myself keeping it together when I would eventually come across a human being that was horribly injured. I want to make a huge impact in the world, but in my heart I knew being a doctor was not for me. While everyone around me knew what they wanted to be and what they had to do to accomplish it. I stood alone and afraid that I would always be indecisive of who I wanted to become, but then came my beacon of hope, my GEAR UP coordinators. They showed me that not everyone knew what they wanted to be. That life did get a little tough and that it was not just me who had the same dilemma. I could not surrender so easily and listened carefully to the wise words of my GEAR UP coordinators. They advised me, "Yes, it is hard to find what you want to do for the rest of your life, but explore all the opportunities that are given to you, because you might end up liking something you never thought you would." This meant to look for extracurricular activities that I could be a part of. With trial and error, I found clubs that grabbed my attention. They were not activities that I had to force myself to join, but something I wanted to dedicate my spare time towards. Throughout my search to find what I would hopefully love one day, I joined the World Geography Club. Not only did it teach me about cities that were unknown to me, but I met a teacher who inspired me to strive to become the very best person I could be. Ms. Salazar is passionate about the world and cultures. She visited so many places such as China and France. She was someone whom everyone, and even I admired. She sparked a fire inside me that I did not know existed. I wanted to one day be the one who told stories about my adventures in other countries, not the one listening. Her passion fueled my determination, and I realized I wanted nothing more than to engross myself into every history book that I could find. My sponsor had noticed my efforts were true and that I was someone who had fallen for the world, just like her. The Model U.N. immediately captivated my attention. It is very different from World Geography Club. It related to the world, but it is mostly about the government. It is about the process the delegate of each country has to follow in order to solve a world crisis. It was uncharted territory, and something that slowly developed my interest in politics. During March of 2014, I went to my first Model U.N. conference. My body was overwhelmed with several kinds of emotions, but most of all I was afraid. I was the delegate of Bulgaria, and the conflict we needed to solve was furthering aid into Russia. I was well prepared with facts to back up my statements.