<p>This is one of my first drafts. Give me all the advice you can please. This is addressing the prompt:“Evaluate a significant experience, achievement, risk you have taken, or ethical dilemma you have faced and its impact on you.”</p>
<pre><code> When my dad first asked me if I wanted to move to Kauai, where he hoped to retire, I sure enough agreed without much deliberation. Who in their right mind wouldnt want to move to the beautiful land of the fire dancers and home of the pineapple? I remember saying goodbye to some of my lifelong friends and was off to start a new chapter. One that would teach me some valuable lessons that I will carry on for a lifetime.
One of the first people I got to meet when I moved here was my sixth period science teacher, Mr.Cox. He has been my teacher on three separate occasions; eighth, ninth and twelfth grade Physics. The constant with him is that he always has the word, Hoihi printed on his board. When I asked him what it meant in eighth grade he said, It means respect. I give people respect right from the start and all I expect back is the same respect. At first this seemed a little crazy. How could he give people he just met his respect? However as that first year went on it started to grow on me, I could see how it worked. Kids are not used to getting respect and feel the need to respect him for it. Ever since that first year whenever I meet somebody, no matter what I have heard about them, I give them my full respect until they lose it. This is one of the greatest lessons that I have learned here on Kauai.
Back in California I still remember my dad sitting at the desk in his office working on his computer or looking over some files, hour after hour. At the time I didnt really know why he did this. When he decided to move Kauai he started moving from mental labor to physical labor. Instead of spending all day behind a desk he would spend all day behind a table saw. I would come home and ask him if he was almost done and he would tell me that he just needed to finish this job (at the time he was helping build the new house we would be living in). As time went on I learned to admire how hard my dad worked and inspired me to do my best. He showed me that we all have responsibilities and that to be successful you have to have enough responsibilities that you can handle yet helps you grow as a person. My dad as cliché as it may sound- is my greatest inspiration and the one who taught me one of the greatest lessons a boy can learn on his path to becoming a man, Kuleana (responsibility).
I sacrificed malls and lifelong fiends but gained lessons that are much more important to me now, such as Hoihi and Kuleana. I will take my lessons and spread them with Aloha (love) throughout my life, with all my endeavors.
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