Ode To a Toad: College Admissions Essay

I got my heart broken for the first time at six years old. I was watching the news with my dad, and a dark-skinned man of thirty years old, whom I was eerily familiar with, had been taken into custody. Displayed were pictures of the seized evidence including guns and bricks of cocaine. After seeing his mugshot and realizing that I had met this man, the disturbing thought struck me - who was going to take care of this man’s pet toad while he was serving his sentence?

My dad was a notorious man of the eighties. A Scarface type of deal, minus the violence. His glory of being in the spotlight dissipated, however, as he was ‘getting high on his own supply’ and was no longer able to make a profit. He was …show more content…
We do not choose our families. In the spirit of honesty, I would not trade my past for the white-picket-All-American home life that so few children have the pleasure of growing up in. During the chaos of my upbringing, I was observant - primarily of whom I believed to be disturbed individuals. I was so focused on everyone else, I did not realize that I, myself, was spiraling out of control.

Rainer Maria Rilke, in his book Letters to a Young Poet, suggests “Perhaps everything that frightens us is, in its deepest essence, something helpless that wants our love.” I was petrified of who I was. I was also unsettled by others. However, as I reasoned with myself, I concluded that fear is just an idea, not a moral obligation. From an outside perspective, during my period of inner turmoil, I may have scared some people away, when all I needed was a hug, or maybe a good talking-to.

If someone, such as the man with the toad, had the emotional capacity to care for an animal, perhaps that should have been considered as he stood trial. It goes without saying that he does deserve a sentence for the crime, but there are factors to every unethical act. I want to become a forensic psychologist - not to excuse the defendant's’ actions, but to understand them - especially those of young people. As a young person myself, that’s all I could ask for; to be