common app personal essay

Submitted By reda1234321
Words: 596
Pages: 3

I was a typical teenager, one who was healthy, one who wanted the freedom and desire to make his own decisions, one who hung out with friends on Saturday nights, one who played sports, and one who cared about education. However, something changed, I felt different.
I walked out of the doctor’s office, disoriented, disbelieving, and distraught. What was wrong with me? I had discomfort with swallowing any types of foods and liquids. My condition progressed and it got worse. I became underweight, losing almost seventy pounds in a span of 5 months and was severely dehydrated. It impacted my education and school life as I was only able to sleep an hour a day. My grades slipped, and I was isolated from everyone around me. I was in writhing, unimaginable pain while being hooked up to a feeder which was my only food source.
My parents and I searched for answers. We traveled to many hospitals; several doctors attempted to diagnose my condition but to no avail, I listened to their misdiagnoses, took their medicines, and listened to their advice. I returned to their offices with more weight loss and no improvement. I was given the title “zebra case” (an exotic medical diagnosis when a more commonplace explanation is more likely). I thought I was going to face death; my life had flipped upside down. As a teen, my worries were the four AP and college classes I was enrolled in, the two clubs I was involved in, tennis, and my part-time job but, here I was worrying about my fate. The thought of death affected me. Like everyone else, I was scared; my biggest fear as a young teen had occurred to me. I thought of things such as: if I would be able to experience the college life or if I would be able to raise kids of my own.
The thought of death overwhelmed me but, I knew that there was still hope and that I had to be optimistic. I refused to accept the reality of my fate. Instead of giving up and accepting defeat, I decided to cope with it. I took advantage of every second of the day keeping up with my heavy workload and going from doctor to doctor trying to search for answers. After another