I Am a Survivor :: Law College Admissions Essays

I Am a Survivor    I grew up the youngest in a family of five. My mother and father divorced when I was a few months old. My mother struggled to take care of five young children on her own. Because her parents died when she was a little girl, she never considered giving us up for adoption or to relatives. My natural father never kept in touch with us. He never helped my mother care for us and so I never knew him and have no recollection of him.    My mother tried her best to ensure we had a good family life by marrying twice after her divorce from my natural father, but neither man in her life served as a role model for my three older brothers. My brothers suffered the most from the breakup of my parents' marriage and my father's abandonment of his parental duties. All three have ruined their lives through drug abuse and crime. My oldest brother lives from day to day without any hope and with the constant internal battle against a drug addiction, which he often loses. My second oldest brother has been in and out of state mental institutions for over fifteen years. He is forty-two years old and is schizophrenic. My third oldest brother is somewhere in New York City, and he doesn't want to be found. He calls my mother from time to time to let her know that he's alive.    I talk about my brothers first because even though they had problems growing up, they managed to protect and shelter me from their troubles. They made me believe in fairy tales and tried to shield me from the ugly reality of the world. It was because I lived a child's fairy tale life that I would later learn that fairy tales don't come true. I would learn to struggle, suffer, and survive.    When I was eighteen years old my mother moved away and left me in New York City with my friends to attend college. I guess my mother thought I would easily succeed and become the first college graduate in our family and I would easily learn to be responsible and independent. She must also have assumed that because I had never struggled for anything, I would be okay and I would doubtless succeed in becoming a lawyer. I Am a Survivor :: Law College Admissions Essays I Am a Survivor    I grew up the youngest in a family of five. My mother and father divorced when I was a few months old. My mother struggled to take care of five young children on her own. Because her parents died when she was a little girl, she never considered giving us up for adoption or to relatives. My natural father never kept in touch with us. He never helped my mother care for us and so I never knew him and have no recollection of him.    My mother tried her best to ensure we had a good family life by marrying twice after her divorce from my natural father, but neither man in her life served as a role model for my three older brothers. My brothers suffered the most from the breakup of my parents' marriage and my father's abandonment of his parental duties. All three have ruined their lives through drug abuse and crime. My oldest brother lives from day to day without any hope and with the constant internal battle against a drug addiction, which he often loses. My second oldest brother has been in and out of state mental institutions for over fifteen years. He is forty-two years old and is schizophrenic. My third oldest brother is somewhere in New York City, and he doesn't want to be found. He calls my mother from time to time to let her know that he's alive.    I talk about my brothers first because even though they had problems growing up, they managed to protect and shelter me from their troubles. They made me believe in fairy tales and tried to shield me from the ugly reality of the world. It was because I lived a child's fairy tale life that I would later learn that fairy tales don't come true. I would learn to struggle, suffer, and survive.    When I was eighteen years old my mother moved away and left me in New York City with my friends to attend college. I guess my mother thought I would easily succeed and become the first college graduate in our family and I would easily learn to be responsible and independent. She must also have assumed that because I had never struggled for anything, I would be okay and I would doubtless succeed in becoming a lawyer.