College Admissions Essay: In The In-Between

In the “in-between" I was brought up in the “in-between”. In between two nationalities, families, manners or ways of perceiving the world, there was me who drew all of this in and made it into a person. Born in Brazil to a predominantly Iberian family, I have had one label attached to my head “The outsider”. This way, I felt the necessity to fit in somewhere, and eventually, I found my space on being very active and doing a number of different activities, especially the ones that challenged me physically or intellectually. Programming and learning languages brought up the systematic animal I have always been in a healthy way. Addicted to things that follow cyclical patterns, both brought but my creative and the obsessive brain into …show more content…
I found myself being happier inside than outside water, so competitive swimming was a natural start. Despite the number of injuries over the years, swimming allowed me to develop a combination of precise individual and team combinations which allowed me to gain the mental strength I needed to perform well under pressure, as well as the idea of relativising both winning and loosing. As there are four generations of horse riders in my mom’s side, riding and especially dressage came out as a natural choice to do something athletic at a higher level while injured. Cyclical and precise but subjective, dressage brought up the ability to relax while leading, which gave me a sense of confidence I had never experienced, while jumping allowed me to develop a sense of reacting well to adrenaline. But no other activity changed me more than the piano. The piano allowed obsessive thinking and extreme focus to shine through, but also precision, care and delicacy all needed to succeed in sports and school. It opened space for a voice that had trouble to come through in words but flew effortlessly in the pressing of keys. It opened up space for the illogical, the unthinkable and the abstract, and showed me how not all things need to be seen to be true. It drove me to think a behind facts and words, and to be confused in a good