This is what will get me in.

This is what I wrote in response to the first prompt for my personal statement. Basically the question was how did you decide on your major.

Everyone tell me that it is super good. It will make me feel less nervous.

"I did not choose Media Studies as my major. It chose me. I fought it hard for two years. As a high school student, I dreamt of being an artist, and showing the world beauty through my creative expression. I wanted nothing more than to live in a cardboard box held together with twine and decorated with glitter and acrylic paint.

My journey to accepting my fate started my first semester at Diablo Valley College. I enrolled in English 122—the basic English class every student has to take if they ever hope to transfer. There I found my voice and my love of writing. I discovered ways to convey my message not through paint and graphite, but words--beautiful words full of history and elegance. Here my fight began. My teacher would often use my papers as examples for other students, and talk to me after class about how I should pursue writing. I ignored this and reminded myself that I was an artist.

My next challenge came the following semester in my Philosophy class. Here I learned how to reason and persuade through words. I wrote over twenty papers for the class. Again, my teacher had nothing but praise. I was confused. My whole life I wanted to create, and while my art teachers treated me as nothing more than mediocre, my Philosophy and History teachers told me that I was something special, and that I needed to pursue writing and the study of human nature.

I met the teacher that finally changed my mind in the spring of 2009--just eleven months ago. John Hanecak walked into my speech class the first morning and asked those who were afraid of public speaking to raise their hand. I looked around, my hands folded in my lap, and realized that I was the only one without a hand raised high. He looked in my direction, smiled, and nodded. Over the next four and a half months, I thrived. Giving speeches came like breathing.

On my final day of class, I finished my last speech and walked up to my teacher to receive my grade. He was grinning from ear to ear and told me what an honor it was to have me in his class. He said I was one of the best speech students he had ever had. As I walked away with my grade in hand, I read the note he had written on my paper, "Consider speaking in any field you are in. You will make such an important impact, as you have done here".

Feeling that it was too late to change my major, I said goodbye to my friends and family, packed my belongings and moved to Southern California to attend Cal State Fullerton and pursue art. I lasted two weeks. I knew it was wrong. I moved back home, got my old job back, and began plans to study not art, but writing, and speaking, my passions.

As all humans, I was born with multiple talents, but now I know the one that shines brightest is my ability to communicate with others—for after all, what is art but conveying a message, and I am an artist."