college essay

A Story by Me

an essay i'm working on for college admissions. i'm majoring in psychology and trying to relate it to that in some way. i'm not that good of a writer and i'd love help/tips. i need to make things flow more.

His childhood had been taken from him. He was diagnosed with severe depression and bipolar disorder at a young age. His only friend committed suicide at age thirteen because he moved away from her. He’d grown up too fast. The problems in his early life led him to this. He’s never had the chance to be a child. I discovered this at three in the morning while swinging on the glider under my deck. I always knew he was an old soul, but I’d never fully understood. Looking at him through the dark I finally realized it wasn’t an act. It was heartbreaking. I could see his past in his eyes, his departed childhood. I wanted to bring his youth back. I wanted to fix everything for him. I told him I believed no one should ever fully grow up.

As a child I used to be upset every year when my birthday rolled around – I never wanted to grow older. My father and I would sit on the couch and he’d hold me while I’d cry and tell him I didn’t ever want to grow up. On my eighth birthday he told me I didn’t have to grow up, I could become mature without losing my childhood. I am seventeen and a child at heart. I love the magic of lights reflecting off wet roads after a storm. Disney World is a dreamland for me and fairies exist. Although I’m still a child, I’ve learned to be an adult at the same time. I’m known as the friend who can fix all the problems and always has the answer. I’m the safe one, the smart one, the playful one.

You lose innocence when you misplace the child in you. And love. You lose playfulness and delight. I’ve seen too many troubled adults. Too many people who just need to run into the ocean and splash in the waves without worrying about messing up their hair or what they look like in their bathing suit. Our society expects us to strive to be perfect. To do whatever it takes to get there. But I believe our society needs to remember how they thought as children. We need to remember perfection is unreachable and there are more important things.

He and I were complete opposites, but it was so perfect. It fit so well. We could never live through what the other had, but I understood him and he understood me. "You know," he said, "I always thought I’d need someone like me, who has been through the same things I have. But now I see that maybe I need someone just the opposite". He teaches me politics and I teach him optimism. I’ve learned that opposites can help and teach each other and that’s what makes differences so great. I’m proud to say that I’ve found the child in him and he’s brought out more of the adult in me.