Personal Essays Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Personal Essays - Essay Example A community draws strength from its environment. I am passionate about the environment, and its contribution to the betterment of my community. I have served as a volunteer with the Central Oregon Trail Alliance, the Friends of the Deschutes River, and the Smith Rock Parks, getting down to the basics: cleaning, picking up and digging! With Girls On The Run, I have passed on my love for running, as the path to empowerment and self-confidence, to other girls. Living in harmony with nature, and testing the limits of one’s physical and mental endurance, is my way to an inclusive, caring community. My love for traveling, which has taken me to twenty-two countries, has made me appreciate diverse cultures and the underlying goodness of people all over the world. I have studied Spanish for five years, and have spent a summer in beautiful Mexico: it was a learning experience beyond compare. I threw myself into everything, from salsa to mole sauce. My seventy-year-old hostess, who lived, shopped and cooked independently, was also a devout Catholic and doting mother, and a revelation to me! I have come to acknowledge that there is no one, cast-iron, way to do the right thing. My travels in the Middle East, particularly in Egypt, brought home to me the sad fact that the gender bias, which is so alien to us Americans, is very much a part of the life of women in many parts of the world. As a woman of no religious affiliation, with uncovered head and independent attitude, I was dismayed and even intimidated, by the hostility I sometimes encountered.