Common App Personal Statement (replacing prompt #46)

The world I come from is a world that demands the very best of me at all times if I want to break the prediction of an African American in the future. That prediction is getting in trouble with the law and ending up in prison.The world I come from is a world where working as hard as you possibly can is demanded at all times. It isn’t easy to just say I will work hard either. I have people constantly trying to throw me off track with drugs, alcohol, or trying to do something that can get me in trouble with the law. Fighting peer pressure is hard because everyone wants to fit in but I know that if I don’t fight it, 20 years later I will probably be doing the same thing unless I separate myself from the crowd. My parents always have wanted the best for me and have told me the best way to make it out the struggles that our family has and to make it out of the community, is to be a successful person. A person once told me "Hard work beats talent, when talent doesn’t work hard." Hearing this and being able to see it happen, has changed my life. I have friends that have natural talent, just let it go to waste. They think that because it come easy to them, they don't have to do anything to make it any better. Those people with natural talents that don't take advantage of them usually end up doing drugs and hurting themselves. The people I see doing that, I make sure they aren't in my life. I know as an African American male, I can't afford to get off track and have those bad influences in my life. My family’s support and the person in my life that told me that quote has helped me shape my dreams and aspirations. I know that anything I want, I can have. I just have to work to get it. The more value that goal or object contains, that harder I have to work to get it. I may not be the smartest, fastest, strongest, quickest, or the wealthiest, but I know if I put my mind to something and put enough hard work out, only good results can come back to me. Even if the main thing I want doesn’t come to me, I have learned that when one door closes, another one opens right up. That mystery door may lead to something greater than the door you originally wanted.