Globalizing My World: College Admission Essay Sample

As a French-American, I am symbolically bound to two altogether different cultural spheres via the hyphen. In its relation to me, the hyphen holds more than symbolic value alone. Growing up in America with divorced parents, my mother French and my father American, the preservation and development of my French culture has necessitated constant attention and perseverance. Along the lines of the hyphen, I have worked hard to develop equal Franco-American appreciation and involvement. Of course, going to an English speaking school, having English speaking friends, and living in an American world gives precedence to English as my tongue of choice; a conscious effort, then, is required to maintain equivalence of French usage and appreciation. I am proud of my duality, and wish to bolster it, learn from it, and maintain it. Being blessed with cultural duality has made me realize what a beautiful gift it is that I have been given, and consequently I race to understand and realize the potential of my interacting cultures.

At home my mother and I speak only French, she taking the liberty to correct my usage liberally - and I taking pains to rectify whatever poor usage or error I've made. It's often easy for my mother and me to slip back into speaking English together, and again, the conscious effort is made to stop the lingual digression. A few years ago we subscribed to TV5 monde - a subsidiary of a larger French television network, and when not involved in afternoon sports I watch world news and French TV shows as a means to come closer to my French culture. My family in France is also very supportive. Every Sunday morning I Skype my grandmother and my uncle about their week as well as recent developments in French politics or news. For Christmas my uncle sends me enough French literature to last me until the following Christmas, and I, of course, am thankful.

Having familial roots in France gives me a feeling of interconnectedness with another part of the world; every visit to France gifts me time to explore other countries in Europe, be it the cobbled streets of Rome, or London Bridge. With this traveling comes a feeling of citizenry that extends past the Atlantic Ocean, and an appreciation for the plethora of diversity therein. For every Steinbeck or Thoreau, I realize, there's a Voltaire, and for every Voltaire a Sun Tzu, or a Rohinton Mistry. Appreciation of my own dual culture has granted me an acknowledgment and awareness of the world as a cultural entity with so much to offer. My duality then, has granted me a form of cultural transcendence and cognizance for world uniqueness. There is so much cultural and ideological variation in the world, and yet it is so easy to forget to extend, and rather, to submit to segregation or cultural alienation.

Practicing my own duality, realizing the opportunities and chances for spiritual development available in the interaction of my own two cultures, has shaped my future expectations of myself. Global economics and world relations, how cultures or people interact and forge relationships as countries or demographic groups, fascinate me. I realize I am growing up in an age of global interconnectivity and leveling; traveling, interacting, and learning from cultures unlike my own is possible in ways it never has been before. I want to capitalize on this. I want to realize my potential as not only a human being with a dual-citizenship but as a human being of this world. Myriad world problems come from a lack of cultural appreciation and learnedness.These can be disarmed. I come from a French-American world, but I esteem and aspire to become an active part in shaping a more globally united one.