College essay

Daniel Truong
Mr. Gallagher
English 12 CP Period 6

College essay


I have always been a follower and not a leader. My mom has always called me “hien” which in Vietnamese means “east and nice.” Throughout my life I had been very “nice”. I had always been known by most who know me as very mathematically intelligent, but lazy. My mom also agrees with all of this.

My mom came here as an immigrant from Vietnam with her mom when she as my age and works hard to somehow become successful enough to raise six kids and live pretty comfortably herself. My mother is also a great singer who continually impresses people with her singing. This inspired me to take music classes in school in which we usually sing in different languages such as Italian, Latin, French and Spanish.

Growing up in a home with five other siblings isn’t the most relaxing thing in the world. Because in my home, in the culture I live in being the oldest means getting all the responsibility the most people my age would have gotten on top of responsibilities my siblings should have to themselves. My brother would go to school and it would be my job to help him study and do homework along with my other siblings, but if they ever brought home a test with a bad grade on it I would be the first to get yelled at and punished, often more severely than my brother or sister who got the bad grade in the first place, and even though it was unfair to me it has shown me how much mature I am now that I see my brothers and sisters go through the things I used to go through. This is when I came to a realization on how much value my life can be. I am talking about my transition to being a selfish kid to being a responsible young adult, actually helping other people’s lives. After seriously considering this I started to tutor kids in both math and chemistry making sure they can get the grades I think everyone should be able to get.