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My College Essay
"Puzzles"
This is my personal statement that I wrote for my college essays.

“Does this fit?” asks my mother as she tries to jam an obscure puzzle piece into a spot where I know it doesn’t fit. I grin and a chuckle rises from my throat. Working on puzzles with my family has brought me great joy. Each member of my family has a tender story to tell about these times. They generously comment that they will spend hours on end with a single piece in hand, then turn to me, and I will find the right place within minutes.

People say I take after my great grandmother. I’m always honored by this comparison, because she was an amazing woman, who even at the age of 92 could successfully put together extremely difficult jigsaw puzzles. Every summer as a child, I used to visit her at the small ocean cottage where she lived. I recall walking into her living room, which was worn with age. I remember her sitting at the old oak table- several puzzle pieces in hand, working away. The sun shone through the open bay window on her gray hair. Her face would light up in a smile when she saw me. With arms outstretched, she would scoop me up into her lap and say, “tissy-wissy!” Together, we would work; patiently, she would let me place a few stray pieces.

When we were through, she gently let me down, took a glass jar from the window ledge, and handed me a butterscotch throat tickler. I would squeal with delight and slowly walk from room to room. Her walls were lined with puzzles that she had completed in the past, which had been glued together. I was in awe of her accomplishments. To my young eyes, and even today, it amazed me that all those crazy, different shaped pieces could fit perfectly together to form the picture on the box.

Solving a puzzle incorporates many skills, which are often overlooked. It takes imagination, creativity, determination, and patience. These same skills that helped my great grandmother complete puzzles came into play when she was a young woman living through the Great Depression. Patience, determination, and creativity helped her to overcome the obstacles she faced during that difficult time in history. I’m lucky that my great grandmother’s genes were passed down to me over three generations.

The skills I developed as a child while I whittled away the hours doing puzzles unexpectedly resurfaced as a young adult. My life became a huge jigsaw puzzle with more pieces than I’d ever had to sort through before. However, just like any puzzle can be solved; there is a solution to every problem in life. It just takes looking at things in a different way. The dictionary defines an obstacle as something that impedes progress or achievement. That definition just doesn’t fit my perspective. I would define the word obstacle as a pebble in the path of life that should be overcome in any way possible, and which sometimes changes your life for the better.

When I was a freshman in high school, my life took a surprising turn. I went from being an active 14-year-old girl with a circle of friends, a love for soccer, and an interest in learning, to someone who could barely muster the strength to get her feet over the side of the bed. All the doctors were puzzled. They looked at my confusing array of symptoms from many angles, but none of the pieces seemed to fall into place. Frustrated, they even tried to tell me it was all in my head. When an enlightened physician decided to look “outside the box,” the picture became clear. I was diagnosed with multiple chronic illnesses; none of which were in my head!

The sudden isolation of chronic illnesses was the most challenging problem. But nothing is insurmountable. Using my computer skills and my need to connect with others who understood, I created a website for teenagers with chronic illnesses. The overwhelming response to my site has been greater than I ever imagined. It has given teenagers from all over the world a place to go so they don’t have to experience the loneliness that I initially endured. It is my hope that this website gives them pieces to help solve their own puzzles.

As I’ve journeyed through the obstacles presented to me, I have become very adept at dodging, leaping, crawling, and defeating them. It is not important to dwell on these obstacles, but to focus on what I discovered along the way. I now take full advantage to treasure each moment as I work hard to do all I can. I’m much more aware and involved in the world around me, and I have a depth of compassion for others that I never had before. I know that helping others makes me extremely happy, and because of this realization, I now know what I want to do with my life.

My unusual circumstances made it necessary for me to fight for an equal education and for what I believed was right. I have had to bravely pave the way for other sick children who will go through the school system behind me, willingly testing the waters to try new things that others had never thought of before. I’ve learned that every piece is one step closer to reaching your goal or overcoming the obstacles you are facing. And when I insisted on pursuing my Advanced High School Diploma, I learned that you don’t give up your dreams when something stands in your way. You just look at things differently and design another path to get there.

The pieces of my life have come together to form a new picture, one quite different from the one I set out to create when I first entered high school. The lessons I have learned from the puzzles and obstacles in my life have changed me in many ways, and I like who I have become.