Jemila Cox

ENGL-221-2663
February 13, 2023

Common App Essay

One day you can be the most confident person with the world in your hands and all it
takes is one person to come and strip that all away from you. The year was 2014. I was
24 years old, carefree, enjoying my life as a single woman. I was in complete control of
my life. One night, while leaving a bar, after enjoying a night out with my best friend, I
met the man who would make my life a living hell.

In the beginning, everything was going well. He was what I wanted in a partner. Things
moved really fast with us. Then the controlling behavior started. Followed by mental and
physical abuse. He would try to control everything I did. If I wanted to hang out with my
friends and even family, it would be a problem. He would call me names like “ugly” and
“fat.” He would call my job and show up if he couldn't get a hold of me. It was just a
horrible situation that I wouldn't wish on my worst enemy. I also suffered a miscarriage,
in which he was not around or supportive at all. I later found out he was seeing
someone else on the side as I was going through everything by myself. Almost two
years after my first miscarriage, I got pregnant with my son, which I think was really the
turning point. I was not going to let my son grow up in that environment.

At first, this affected me in a very negative way. I’ve always been the type of person that
has always said I would never let anyone break me. Well never say never! That is
exactly what he did. He took every ounce of confidence and self-love that I had. I had
completely lost who I was. I became a shell of who I once was. It definitely wasn't the
path I saw my life going on. On the other hand, it shaped me into the person I am now.
It made me a stronger person. It made me value myself and made me want to work
harder to make my dreams come true. I had wasted two years of my life that I couldn't
get back, but I would make the rest of my life count for something. I think a part of me
wanted to prove everything he said to me wrong.

That relationship has taught me a lot of things. Not only about myself, but for life as a
whole. One thing is that I can not save everyone. I believe I stayed in that relationship
because it is in my nature to try to help others, even when it affects me negatively. It
taught me how to put myself first.

Now this is not saying that I am completely healed from that relationship. I still
sometimes have days where I feel insecure. I sometimes take my frustrations out on my
current boyfriend, but I have to remind myself that he is not the same person. I just
know how to look for the red flags when it comes to my relationships. I know how much
I will tolerate when it comes to any type of relationship. I am now in a relationship where
I am valued and treated with the utmost respect.

In conclusion, being in that relationship was living hell, but I came out of it being the
person I wanted to be. Strong and able to take on any obstacle that comes my way.

Scholarship Essay
I am from a working class family in Antioch California. Both my mother and my father
have been working their whole lives. Growing up, I'm sure we were not rich, but I was
never aware of any financial struggles we faced. Which I feel so lucky for because I
know I grew up blessed. My adult life has been financially full of ups and downs. I have
been in a situation where I was struggling, then I finally started making good money until
I was laid off. Currently, I am not in the best financial situation since losing my job back
in August 2022. The only source of income I have right now is unemployment, which is
about to end very soon. I am a single mother of a six-year-old, trying to finish school.

I started my college career back in 2009 after graduating from High School. I tried to
take a few classes here and there but always ended up dropping out due to working and
not having a car. After having to stop going to school to work and make money, I went
through a rough patch and had a child. With that being said, it took me many years to
decide to come back to school. I returned back to Los Medanos College last semester. I
was more focused than ever and received A’s in all of my classes, which I plan on doing
for the rest of my education. I am in school to become an accountant. My love for
working with numbers and financing has contributed to that decision. I wanted to go into
the medical field as a sonogram technician, but after much consideration, I decided that
business would be the path I wanted to take. I will graduate with my Associates in
Business Administration and plan to transfer to Cal State East Bay, since I was told they
have the best business program in my area. I am going to enroll there for the fall of
2024.

For community service, I volunteer at my aunt’s group home on the weekends and also
at my son’s school on Tuesdays and Fridays.

My work experience started at Walmart. I started working at Walmart in 2009. I worked

as a cashier for about 5 years, then I moved to the customer service desk. After being
there for almost 10 years, I finally took the offer that they had been trying to give me for
years as a Customer Service Manager. I ended up leaving the job for good in 2018. I
then got a job working at a call center for a company called Bay Alarm Medical. There, I
worked in the customer service department. After leaving Bay Alarm Medical, I moved
on to a mortgage company called LendUS. In August of 2022, the owner of that
company decided to sell the company, which left mostly all of his employees jobless,
even people that had been working for him for years. I am currently looking for
employment that works with my school schedule and also my son’s school schedule. So
far no luck, but I am hoping that changes soon.