During the first year at my current university I was a motivated, dedicated and driven student. I was hoping to reach my goals of graduating as a successful mechanical engineer. I had maintained a perfect balance between academics and extracurricular activities. I was accepted into the ABC engineering program. The program focuses on issues that engineers face in a competitive marketplace.
At the ABC program, I made friends with people from around the world with a wide range of cultural backgrounds. My friends and I organized events such as table tennis and chess tournaments. I was involved in community activism and partook in fundraising for charities that sought to educate children in developing countries. I organized and participated in bake sales, BBQ nights, and a multitude of other fundraising activities.
While I was involved in all these extracurricular activities, I was also taking a challenging class load. The final project for my freshman engineering class, was designing and building a solar-powered fan. It was a thrill to transform what I had designed on paper, into a tangible thing that actually functioned so elegantly. Life was great and I completed my first year with great grades and was placed on the Dean’s list! It was a huge achievement for me and I was ready to take on the second year with plenty of energy and added motivation. Little did I know that my life was about to turn into a melodrama and present me with many challenges that I’d never faced before. I was ill equipped to handle such a challenge; overcoming it took time, patience, and focus.
During my second year I found myself in a relationship with a woman from Chicago. She was from my community and I had seen her at a gathering when I went home for a visit. I thought that I was deeply in love. Within a short time thereafter, with our families’ blessings, we were engaged to be married. At first, everything seemed perfect. School was going good, and my relationship was going great. I had another incentive to do well at university because as soon as I graduated our parents agreed to help us get married. The road to happiness was laid out before me. Unfortunately, my sunny path proved to be an illusion, and it lead me into the wilderness.
After my engagement I began to learn things about my fiancé that I hadn’t known. I am a firmly committed individual and sought the comfort of a mature healthy relationship. Unfortunately, the young lady did not have a developed understanding of commitment. She eventually told me that she thought of us as being in an open relationship. My world seemed to be crumbling around me and I was constantly heatedly arguing with an unfamiliar monster. As difficult as the emotional drama was, ending the relationship wasn’t easy either. Love can make us do idiotic things, and I loved her. Complicating matters more, our families were very close and calling off this engagement would create a wider conflict. I wasted two years of my life in this drama and this lead to a decline in my academic performance. My GPA went from being 3.489 to a 2.06: all the result of this toxic relationship.
As this relationship finally reached its conclusion, I came to the realization that problems come and go, but my grades stay forever. Since the ending of this relationship, I have returned to my former self. I have reengaged and reconnected with former classmates and colleagues who fell to the wayside as I struggled to maintain my relationship. The pieces of my life were carefully put back together by my family’s support and much self-reflection. I learned that I shouldn’t let anything effect my motivation to learn, to innovate, and create: those are my true passions and once those needs of mine are fulfilled, I’m certain that a mature relationship will follow. I am back to my old ambitious, happy, fun loving, and dedicated self. The final component to put back together is my academic achievement. My grades do not accurately reflect my capability and I am eager to prove myself intellectually.
I am once again motivated and driven to reach my goal. To achieve my goal, I feel the best idea is to make a fresh start. Your program seemed the perfect fit. It is highly acclaimed and studying in Dubai will allow me to be near my parents and visit home during breaks, as they have recently relocated to Kuwait. I will have easy access to my family which is my main support group. I have been on the Dean’s list before. I am certain that in your program I will be dedicated, motivated, and driven to excel in engineering. I love the field and the creation that it’s associated with. My passion, combined with your excellent learning environment, will return me to the Dean’s list and academic excellence.
