Scholarship Essays for College Admissions

Personal Essay about a story from your life, describing an experience that either demonstrates your character or helped to shape it.:

I am a twin. At the time of our birth, we were called “Baby A” and “Baby B”. Labels, comparisons, and observations surrounded us from the very beginning. However, these superficial observations and labels do not reveal how my relationship with my sister mad me a stronger individual.
The word “twin” presents a forum that people assume gives them the right to barrage us with questions from every angle. “Who’s the good twin?” “Which one is the fun one?” “Who’s the smart one?” Good, bad, smart, funny, social, shy. as the examination continues countless labels are attached to us from complete strangers. Each person strives to distinguish between Twin A and Twin B. Before we get a chance to speak, strangers figure they can categorize our personalities into black and white.

With the ongoing inspection from outsiders, Michelle and I take solace in each other. We know the other’s strengths and weaknesses. We enjoy that not everything is black and white. Our colorful personalities have many dimensions, many layers who makes us who we are as individuals. By looking at our appearances, we may look like two copies of the same person. However, inside we are unique. We recognize we are two separate people. The difficult part is displaying it to others. I am not one to back down from challenges, though.

To most people, “twin” implies a single unit. In their eyes, therefore, I am half a unit. Some attention we get is agreeable and being a twin is fun. However, some strangers, teachers, and friends, only recognize us as “the Twins”. Outsiders stereotype us with labels. Teachers choose not to distinguish one from the other. People want to be friends with us just to be able to say they know “the Twins”. Some attention we get is agreeable, and being a twin is fun. Nevertheless, what is even better is that once a person can move past the stereotyping and categorizing, they are able to meet me.
Showing people who I am means I can demonstrate myself as a unique, fun-loving, free individual. This ability of expressing my own personal ideals, opinions, and goals is a skill some do not get the opportunity to develop. Because I have to consciously consider how I want people to recognize me, I can display a uniqueness others do not know exists.

Separating the unit is not as simple as cutting down the middle, though. For my whole life, we have been “Jenny and Shelly, the Twins”. Now as we are getting older, we are trying to branch out more. We enjoy different activities, and we attempt to demonstrate to people that we are two individuals by participating in those different activities. She plays golf and I play tennis. She enjoys knitting and I like running. People close to us also recognize our differences on the inside. Michelle is a clown and loves making people laugh. I am a care-taker and making people feel better is my forte. As our interests, activities, and personalities diverge, I find it more and more difficult to identify who I am without including my relationship with my sister. I feel incomplete without my other half. I am me because of my intense, enduring relationship with my sister.

We have built each other into the people we are today. The special bond we share is tricky to explain, and perhaps it is even more difficult to understand, but my sister and I are each half of a twin and one whole individual at the same time. Those two major parts of my life overlap to create me. I am a twin-a unique, separate-but-together unit.