Scholarships

I'm looking for sholarships to apply to (and hopefully receive), the problem is that most of them are very specific. I can't apply to the ones I see at school because most of them are only for Nova Scotia, I can't apply for the on at Boston Pizza because I won't be working in my first year, I can't apply to any for visual minorities or anything like that. So what I'm left with are generic "we give munies for hyperbolic essays," sadly I'm behind on those to because of how busy I've been. I'm currently woking on an entrance scholarship despite the fact that it's overdue, just so that I can try. I've also tried signing up for an online scholarship site, but I'm having trouble getting the site to work.

Anyways, the reason I'm writing this is to type up my essay for the University of British Columbia Vancouver Major Entrance Scholarship. It asks that I "[t]hink of a significant challenge you have face. Using this example, describe how your successes and failiures in dealing with challenges have contributed to your personal development." I've got five-hundred words with which to write it. Feel free to critique it.

Here' goes:

During my year long exchange to Japan, myself and the other exchange students had trouble fitting in and being accepted. Being a foreigner is hard, especially in an ethnocentric country like Japan. We did everything we could to fit in; I've known people who played the class clown to get attention, people who played up their foreign traits, some who just did as they were told and others who tried everything they could to be "normal."

The First thing was language. I learned both Japanese syllabaries in four days and bought several books on the language. Unfortunately my first host family spoke English which they fell back on a lot. Having been in and out of French immersion, I know how important immersion is for learning languages. I still kept ahead of the other exchange students in my area. I did everything I could, translating comics, watching television and movies, playing games, singing, ordering food al in Japanese, having conversations, learning Japanese ideograms, taking lessons, using flashcards, even reading packaging and signs in the streets. Sometimes I would fall back on English and I hated every time I did.

I also had to live with many different host families. My first was the hardest. I didn't get along with my host father. He wanted me to do as I was told and stay in my room and study, whereas I spent my time going out to experience the country for myself. My "independence" was a constant source of feuds and I spent those months in constant apprehension. It didn't help that I was still only learning their culture and customs. It was in the last three days that I made amends, and the rest of stay went exceptionally well through four more host families.

The greatest challenge though, was the stress of knowing I had only one year. I felt time counting down constantly. I felt every second, minute, hour, day, week, month and season passing and I’ve kept that sense of time. It put pressure on me to learn the language and customs faster, to make more friends, to take it all in and to do all I could before it was over. I learned to use time better, fitting things in, running from one thing to the next, leaving half way through a movie with friends to make it to a meeting across town. I learned to set dates and times, reschedule, accommodating others’ and their plans and anticipating problems. What time I didn’t spend doing everything I could, I spent walking around the city, learning the roads, browsing the shops and looking for a friendly face. By the time I left I knew the city better than some natives.

I spent every moment of a year that I could, trying to gain acceptance of a people foreign to me. I was learning to live among them, building familiar bonds, making friends and all before my inevitable departure.

Anyways, I have ideas for a few more entries but I'm short on time.