My Common App Essay
Lately I have found myself thinking about the achievements that I have made throughout my life until now. All the scholarships, the honors, the awards, the education, the training, and the opportunities that have risen because of them.
I cannot think about them without thinking about people my age who have the same aspirations but are unable to fulfill them. At the same time, how can they fulfill these dreams while worrying about where their next meal will come from? How can young girls pursue dance when they have to take care of their siblings? How can young boys pursue sports when right outside their courts lethal violence lurks the corners? How can they be inspired when the media they consume feeds them information that tells them that their dream life is unattainable?
These questions circled through my mind even more this past summer while I attended the Berklee College of Music Aspire: Five-Week Performance Intensive on a full scholarship.
Before starting the program, I prepared myself by investigating the opportunities that would be available for me. This proved to be a great help because, when I arrived, I was ready to audition for all of the special ensembles. As a result, I was accepted into three out of the four ensembles that I had auditioned for.
Unfortunately, as the program progressed, I realized that I was the only one out of my friends who had taken advantage of the opportunities. Out of all the musicians that I saw auditioning, none were my friends. Why?
Even after the program, I continued to think about this phenomenon, and now I finally understand why.
As I prepared to take full advantage of my opportunities at Berklee, my friends were dealing with more important matters. A.A. and A.B. were focused on surviving inside and outside of their schools. M was dealing with the weight of being the only man in his house and battling the need to protect and provide for his family. G was focused on not being taken advantage of in the train station. D was dealing with the absence of his father and living away from his mother in boarding school.
They were, and still are, trying to survive while dealing with mental health challenges that are specific to teenagers. The last thing on their minds was auditioning for special ensembles.
Aside from not thinking about auditioning for the special ensembles, auditioning for college was even further away from their minds.
This awareness compelled me to help. I convinced them to audition for college, write their essays, and prepare strong audition pieces. They expressed their gratitude for helping them find the motivation to pursue their goals.
But it went both ways.
In addition to them showing me firsthand how worries about survival impacted their ability to pursue their dreams, this experience also connected me to my deeper aspirations and the reasons behind the work that I do.
A huge part of my aspirations as a successful artist is to help young people have fewer survival worries so that they can spend more time pursuing their dreams and learning to be happy.
Unknowingly, I have already been working toward this goal through nonprofit organizations such as Inspiring Girls Panama, Fundación Danilo Pérez, NHS, and Atelier Matamoros, all of which provide opportunities in the arts to underprivileged young people in Panama.
Through this reflective process, I have come to realize that these organizations have become places where I find motivation to continue creating, learn from others, and discover ways to give back.
Just as I have been fortunate to receive opportunities because I was prepared for them, I believe there are many others who would also thrive if they were simply given the chance to focus on their dreams instead of their survival.
