My Experience In My Life

Ten years ago, I was officially a college dropout; leaving Wiley College after only two years was the biggest mistake of my life. Ten years ago, I created a narrative about the type of people who went to college. I made myself believe that college was a place exclusively for extremely smart people who came from nice middle-class families. College was not a place where an African American who lived in subsidized housing went. Although I was enrolled in college and doing quite well, I fell victim to self-doubt and ultimately believed that I did not have the ability to graduate. Consequently, after only two years, I dropped out of college.

Sixteen years old can be a very confusing age in any person’s life. We’re expected to act like adults but get treated like children, the age we begin to prepare ourselves for our last year of high school, the year we start to look into colleges we want to attend and what it is we want to do with our lives. But for me it was the age when my parents thought they would lead separate lives.

Every great dream begins with a dreamer. Always remember, you have within you the strength, the patience and the passion to reach for the stars to change the world”- Harriet Tubman This year has been total chaos but the good kind. I took my first Ap class which I was really terrified of because I thought I was incapable of passing the classes but it all worked out at the end because Ap is actually fun and not easy but moderately okay it is possible for a student to take and pass the class. Also I Joined extra classes this year to help my choice as for my major for next year. These classes were medical courses I took over at SAHS (Santa Ana High School) so in total I had 7 classes and my day ended at 5:30. It was a rocky road to adapting to getting home later that I used to before but I got used to managing my time with my school classes and my after school class.The work always piles up but I knew what I was getting myself into and getting through it removed most stress I had on a weekly basis, but it was all worth it because I am putting that time for my future career and passion And at the end it will benefit me.My junior year overall was Filled with a lot of studying because I took my first SAT and it was nerve wracking especially because it was in a school I didn't know my way around . Despite that I hope I got a good score, but On Top of my SAT I also took my SAT Subjects and ACT this year and that was a little nes nerve wracking because the experience was similar

On August 2, 1999, I was born on a Monday afternoon, at 2:30 p.m, in Hospital Conde De S. Januario. My family resided with my grandmother at Rua Formosa, Apartment 7 on the first floor. She lived behind the Cathedral of Macau, which is a famous landmark and tourist attraction. While my brother, Salman, and I were growing up, we attended the same pre-schools. One of the schools was called Seng Kung Wui. In the morning, all the grades would line up and wait for the teacher to come escort them upstairs to the classroom. I could barely last an hour without being with my brother, and I would cry if he didn't stand in my grade’s line. As a result, Sal started waiting in my line with me, until my teacher came to get my class. After I went upstairs, he would run back to his line to be with his friends. Almost everyday we wore matching outfits, and he would hold my hand while we walked inside because I did not want to be alone. After school, our Avo (grandma in Cantonese), would take us to play in the Sao Francisco Park, get ice cream, or walk through the markets to get our daily groceries. I can still remember walking through the streets and taking in all of the sights, smells, and sounds. I loved the strong aroma of spicy fish ball soup or the overwhelming scent of cigarette smoke that filled the air. The markets were filled with countless friendly faces and a wide variety of merchandise waiting to be sold.The voices of locals bartering over prices and motorcycles racing down the

Maya Angelou once said, “What is the fear of living? It’s being preeminently of dying. It is not doing what you came here to do, out of timidity and spinelessness. The antidote is to take full responsibility of yourself - for the time you take up and the space you occupy. If you don’t know what you’re here to do, then just do some good.” Everyday I think about everything I went through while growing up and forming into the person I am today. Going through all the experiences I have gone through, I didn’t realize how much they would impact me today and serve as lessons. Today I am a freshman in college. I did not think I would make it this far. The precious gift of life is to enjoy every moment as if it is your last.

I am ordinary. I have lived in amongst poverty and on the edges of war, but I am ordinary. But let me sit you down and share some extraordinary things that I feel have happened in my life.

Imagine your story becoming the forerunner of someone else’s. Someone you have never met, yet because of one story, he or she found the strength and courage to become a person far greater than ever imagined. A story of unimaginable adventures, lessons, and hardships, this is the story I, Thu Dang, will create for myself and others.

Throughout a person’s life, there can be many things, such as friends and family, education, or sports, that help them develop skills to turn them into the person they are today. Without these different skills, it can possibly lead to a lower standard of living, which is not what we strive for. The thing that helped me develop my unique skill set that I can use through the rest of my life, which is also my cultural artifact, is a football. Football has taught many different things that I am able to use during the rest of my college experience, and after that during my professional career. The different skills football has taught me is the value of friendship, self-motivation, and time management skills.

Volunteering is an important part of my life, so Tulane’s emphasis on community engagement is one reason we’re a good fit. I actually had the opportunity to travel to New Orleans in the summer of 2016 through the Rustic Pathways organization to help rebuild the city from Hurricane Katrina. Even though I technically spent two weeks aiding others, the experience helped me more than I ever imagined it would. Not only did I immerse myself in the vibrant culture of New Orleans, but I learned firsthand about other lifestyles by meeting new people from all around the globe. We celebrated Bastille Day with Romane from Paris, and comforted her and Thomas when the Nice attack shook their nation. As we mudded the walls of ‘our house’ in the Lower 9th Ward, I shared stories about celebrity sightings with Emma from Rochester, and learned from Aidan that the stereotype of rain in Seattle is true. I’m so grateful that I had the opportunity to meet people who would become some of my closest friends while helping those that have been displaced. I was moved by the sense of connectedness that has emerged in New Orleans since the natural disaster. We worked with the Saint Bernard’s Project to bring families back home after ten years. The organization holds welcome home parties for the families once their house is finished, and our group attended the festivities for an older couple that had been living with their adult children since the disaster. Enjoying cake and conversing with the

My life is a sailboat sailing through the sea. It is a sailboat because sometimes life can be an easy breeze and it feels like you have no worries and nothing else matters except the moment you are currently in. Although sometimes life can almost feel like you’re in the middle of a terrible storm in the ocean ; everything seems to be going wrong in every way. Once you finally get out of the storm, the sun starts peeking through the clouds; the waves become calm again and the cooling sea breeze hits your face ever so softly. Knowing that everything is going to be okay.

I moved around quite a bit as a child and one move my family and I made was to Federalsburg, Maryland. We lived on a farm in the middle of nowhere and there wasn’t much for me to do. I joined the towns swim team to keep myself entertained and while there, I met a lady and her husband, both of whom are neurologists. I sat and talked with them every chance I could get; I was utterly intrigued by how fascinating the kind of work they did was. The lady, Gina, explained to me that being a neurologist isn’t easy, but satisfaction fills the soul when helping treat a patient. Moreover, she explained how interesting the brain is, “It’s a puzzle waiting to be put together.” I knew then that I wanted to be a neurologist and help put the puzzle pieces together.

When I look at how different our lives were five months ago so many things run through my mind, “What could we have done differently?” “What could I have done differently?” The week of finals before the end of my junior year I wondered if bad things really do happen to good people, or if good people do bad things that put them into bad places.

I have only one life and I will use every opportunity to be successful and accomplished anything that comes my way. Because in reality no one is actually perfect to begin with.

There was a time when i was a little boy, only 6 years old and i had a big fear of being alone or being in the dark which wasn't unusual for a kid that age. I was a happy kid and had no problems in life i just had a normal life. One day my mom came in my room when i was listening to music and said “hey honey, the house is kinda boring why don't we go on a vacation for a day or two” i smiled and said sure why not. I didn't get to explore a lot in the world and it i thought it would be a great experience and have a little fun. There wasn't any problem about going on a vacation right? Me and my mom started packing our stuff up and put everything in the car like snacks, drinks, anything you would need for a trip then we hit the road. We were heading to california up by ocean side so we could go to the beach. I would of been my first time going to the beach because i lived in yuma which is a really deserted place, there's nothing there but little water parks and pools so i was very excited to go to a beach. The ride was gonna take about 2 or 3 hours my mom said which kinda disappointed me but i didn't care i was a happy kid. It was about 10 a.m and i was pretty tired, we had 3 hours to go and i thought i could get some sleep to make the time pass.

And emotional breakthrough that I have experienced is, when my 93 year old grandmother had to be rushed to the hospital because, her stomach was bloated. So when my grandmother arrived at the hospital, and they took her to the back they had told us, that it was gas backed up in her stomach. Later, that day they told us that they was going to keep her overnight to see will the bloating in her stomach would go down and run test. Eventually, the next day approached and my grandmother was released. After my grandmother was released, two days later after her stomach went down, it bloated again so we took my grandmother back to the hospital. They recently told us, that my grandmother had pneumonia and it was getting really bad. Soon, that night my 93 year old grandmother had went into cardiac arrest for the first time. The doctors resuscitated my grandmother. Then, a few hours later my grandmother went into cardiac arrest for the second time, and they couldn’t bring my grandmother back. My grandmother was a fighter May 14, 2014 was the day my grandmother would never come back. My family and I were devasted, not knowing that it will be our last goodbye.