JD Moore College
Application Essay
Mrs. Hudak
American Literature
7 May 2014
It
was always what I had seen in video games; Arab looking men, in their brown
army uniforms, and large AK-47s in their hands standing at the corners of every
sketchy street. It was me, twelve years
old with my mom, dad, and brother who decided we were going to explore the Middle
East, including Cairo, Egypt. I was not
used to the rough cities like Cairo, and only really enjoyed going to the
Caribbean islands for family vacations.
My parents came to the judgment that it would be a brilliant idea to let
me see what is really behind closed doors to young fortunate Americans. The whole four days I was in Cairo, I had not
seen one American besides my family, not one.
That brought me to the comprehension that this place must not be safe
and welcoming to Americans, and my realization was accurate. For the week I was in Egypt, I had to travel
around with bodyguards, and that was not what I pictured as my ideal vacation. I went out to dinner multiple times, received
hundreds of dirty looks from the local Egyptians, and later on was told the
reasoning for such stare downs. It was
because I was blonde. I guess they had
not seen a blonde hair person in a long time, but there should be no motive to
try and scare off a twelve year old meaning no harm. Every time we returned back to our hotel, our
vehicle was searched for bombs, and as we entered the hotel, it was airport
security all over again just to get to our room. While these moments in this trip were
happening, I was thinking deeper into my meaning of life. The fact that I take my life for granted back
in New Jersey. The fact that I live in
an awesome environment. The fact that
crime is not a big issue. The fact that
my biggest fear and concern is how long am I going to have to wait until I get
my next T-bone steak from Ruths Chris Steakhouse. Not only was I traveling around Egypt
learning intriguing Egyptian history, but also I was learning crucial life
lessons on how to interpret life in a different fashion. While walking down the streets of Cairo, and
the thousands of locals begging my family for money in an uncomfortable way, showed me
at such a young age how harsh this world can really be. That violence in a lot of places in this
world is their answer for solution. Six
months after I left Egypt, the severe rioting broke out in Cairo trying to get
their leader Hosni Mubarak to step down.
It came to my reality that I could have been a part of those gruesome
events. That life can change in just a
matter of seconds. Eleanor Roosevelt
once stated, “Do one thing every day that scares you!” She’s right, follow her instructions, because
one day you will scare yourself, and your life will change completely.
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