[Aramail]

1st draft, anything appreciated, thanks in advance.

Describe the world you came from and how your world has shaped your dreams and aspirations.

The world I came from was diverse. Family, friends, traveling, learning, growing, and now, reflecting. While contemplating this mess that was my history, I realized two parts of my life had, for some reason, had an extremely significant impact on shaping my dreams and aspirations for life. They were my experiences with Magic: The Gathering and Musical Theatre.
Games were part of my life for as long as I can remember. Board, video, strategy, chance, I’d play anything with whoever I could get to play with me. Most significantly, was Magic: The Gathering. When my family returned to Southern California after living in South Carolina for three years, I never truly connected with anyone at my new school. I wasn’t socially inept or exiled or anything, I had always had people to talk to and hang out with at school, but I never made any good friends. I found a local card shop and picked up an old game my brothers had taught me, Magic. It grabbed me instantly and wasn’t letting go. A card game, Magic combines chance with resource control, micro managing, strategy, and bluffing. Unfortunately, as with many games of chance, in Magic sometimes you make every correct decision and still lose. It’s easy to second guess yourself in situations like these, but to be successful in Magic, I learned you must be ready for any situation, think ahead multiple steps the consequences of your decisions, adapt, have patience and control, and above all; be confident in your decisions. My dream is to always go through life with the same approach. Thinking about the consequences of my actions, knowing I did what I thought was right, and gaining confidence through this, even if the out come isn’t what I had hoped.
Musical Theatre also acted as constant in my life. I did musicals every summer, and the experience was unforgettable. The performing aspect wasn’t what attracted me, I never minded being in front of people but I never found it that rewarding. However, I could never get enough of the experience. Theatre naturally attracts the outgoing type, and the people I met were the most interesting and diverse group I had ever been a part of. Meeting and watching all of these people interact showed me how people really should be treated. People in theatre always seemed to be open to each other, rejecting childish stereotypes and not passing judgments as I had been exposed to for so long in society. I believe the way you treat people is one of the most important aspects of your values or morals, and theatre first exposed me to that idea.
Though games and theatre are minor pebbles in the mountain of my life, they truly shaped my dream of how I want to live my life. Like a game of magic, evaluating decisions and committing, and like theatre taught me, always open minded, and never juding.