Describe the world you come from for example, your family, community or school and tell us

how your world has shaped your dreams and aspirations.

From the moment I was given my name, my life was immersed with hate. My life, was a
pendulum of confusion and lies. The pendulum swung circular, backtracking itself while trying
to move forward. It became the very definition of insanity.
By the age of three my parents settled the disputes of my custody, after I was stolen,
taken back and recycled. Shifting between households proved to be an obstacle in itself. It took
some time to adjust to my new lifestyle. The circular motion of the pendulum became larger and
faster, from week to week as I was passed around between homes. My mom's house, the only
attempt to give me a childhood. I had a close relationship with my mother, I was a mamas
boy. That term became my undoing at my father's house, my step mother hated it.
Behind the pendulum was the cover of a book, cinderella. In an alternate universe
assuming cinderella became a man, I would be him. My Step mother hated me for a variety of
reasons I suppose I would cry when my mom dropped me off, I wasnt hers and I was the
cause of all the drama in her life. Ironically, she was the cause of every problem in mine.
Ironically, the woman who destroyed my life and many others, gave me a way out. My
pendulum was soon to become disrupted in the best possible way. She gave me football, the
perfect emotionally releasing sport there is. I loved it! The pendulum slowed down, during every
practice it became calm. The sport absorbed my life.
Football became my equalizer slowing the pace of my pendulum, it improved everything
in my life. My mother cleverly, noticing my love for the sport, used it against me. The trade
between grades and football became a normality in our house. My grades improved, my social
life improved, and so did the tension between my houses. My mother struggled when I was little
but she taught me a lot about hard work and the rewards that followed.
I was the smallest kid on the field, I was short, skinny and uncoordinated. Then through
hard work I became a defensive end, a linemen. I would out work every kid they put against me
until my sophomore year when size does begin to become a boundary. My hard work made me a
starter and turned me into a leader.
Football stabilized my life, the pendulum. My world wasnt a beautiful, but my chaos
became regulated. I took football and gave it with all I had. It repaid me with a sanctuary. My
mother laid the foundation for me, football pushed me through. The pendulum is starting again.
This time with a new purpose, one of success.
Through football I learned how to be part of a team. I learn what it took to become better.
I saw that hard work would lead me to my dreams. I wanted to build myself and others a better
life, I soon saw engineering as that opportunity. The good and the bad of my childhood molded
my goal of being an engineer. My competitive spirit from football, the ability to work in a team
and the want to build my away from the pendulum created my dream of being an engineer.