There's nothing to know about little ol' me =P Dun worry, I'll add something when I get the inspiration.

    Anyway, can't juss leave you guys with nothing so here's my final draft of my personal statement that I sent to the University of California. 82)

Two Pages for Nearly Two Decades of Experience

    I have gained many experiences and influences from high school. Graduating middle school, leaving my friends and finding my way through high school changed me. The experiences from my three years of schooling can never be translated into a mere page or two of text. Yet I must endeavor to do so. To the best of my ability, these pages contain the most significant experiences that I have gained during high school.

    I think I finally saw the world around me, thought still a small world. I came into Arroyo High School thinking it would be very difficult from the beginning. It wasn’t, though I did have trouble staying awake in first period. I wandered through freshmen year without thinking of anything but academics. The next year though, I began to join clubs. In particular, I joined Leo Club, a small community service organization on our campus. Why did I join this club? To put it on my college applications, of course! While I must admit that that was my first intent, I soon changed. During Christmas time, Leo Club went to Rancho Los Amigos Children’s Hospital to help at a carnival. I had to attend in order to fulfill the five hours of required community service; however, I began to enjoy helping these handicapped children. It made me feel good to see the happiness I could bring to them. Not only did my work lift their spirits, but it lifted mine as well. This experience led me to join other clubs and organizations. I wanted to contribute to the world as a whole and I believed I had found a meaningful way.

    My interest in engineering helped me seek out the annual JPL-Spaceset competition. The competition required a team of thirty to work together in order to create a settlement on Mars. That year, I saw how a true leader can inspire others. The leader was a senior in high school and also an accomplished Eagle Scout. I watched in amazement his ability to shape the team. This inspired me to not only participate in the competition for two more years but also to model myself into such a leader. I don’t remember his name, or even his face, but I will never forget how he was able to lead. I believe that this was the first time I wanted to become a leader. After my first Spaceset competition, I strove to become a leader myself by contributing more to the classroom and clubs that I joined.

    The summer of 1999 is one that I will never forget. I applied to the UC-LABI program at Riverside and was accepted into Project: Write. Leaving home and interacting with people from around California provided an experience that I would never forget. For the first time I saw other minority students striving to achieve more in life. I met people who were just as enthusiastic about school and the community as I was. During this one-week program, I went to camp for the first time. The counselors there showed me that I could do anything. I gained a self-confidence that I would have never been able to achieve in school. The entire program provided me with the experience of college and inspired me to strive even harder in high school.

    My academic progress faltered junior year. As I look back, I see that I had gained too much confidence in my abilities, with good reason of course. I had done fairly well both freshman and sophomore year, but I had done well with incredibly bad study habits. I had spent little time doing homework and studying my sophomore year. When I became a junior, these bad habits did not work for me, and I was crushed underneath the work. I figured out that my old ways were never going to work and I figured it out the hard way. I strove to change my habits by asking for help from my friends and family. They were able to encourage me into a better way of living and studying. I still struggle with some of my old habits, but I believe that I have conquered many of my poor study habits.

    After thinking over all I have learned and experienced in high school, I realize that I have grown and matured more than I ever could have imagined. I grew from a person wanting only to get into the best college to a person who wants to contribute to his community. I believe that once in college, I will begin to learn about what it takes to make a difference in the world.