When did my baby grow up?

Look at this-- it's my daughter's first college essay:

My first college essay.
Basically we had to write a reflection essay. So here ya go.

I was born on March 23, 1990 in a hospital near my hometown of Bowie, Maryland. I lived with my brother, Cory and my parents, along with a plethora of animals. We have always had a dog in the house. Currently, it's our smallest dog ever, an American Eskimo, Suki, who we love to death. My schooling experiences have not been traditional, to say the least. When I first went to preschool, up until about first grade, I didn't enjoy school because I would get homesick and not want to leave my mom. After I settled into the idea of school, I loved learning, until sixth grade came along. I had an awful teacher, so bad that I had to transfer classes. This year began the rapid decline of my public school career. I made it until tenth grade, when my grades were remarkably low, and I never wanted to go to school. It was then that I decided to become homeschooled. This decision changed my life. I learned so much about myself, and became so much happier than I ever was in public school. My life experiences so far have taught me that I am in control of my life, and I don't have to do anything just because it's the "normal way."

I have an interesting story on how I ended up at Montreat. I came to two of the youth conferences here, one in 2004 and one in 2006, with my youth group. The first year, I absolutely hated everything about my experience, and swore to never come back. However, in 2006, I was feeling called to give Montreat a second chance. So I decided to come back, and it was absolutely the right choice. On my second trip here, I truly found God. When I was considering apply to college last year, I felt a strong feeling that God wanted me to come back to Montreat and go here for school. The feeling was so strong that Montreat was actually the only college I applied to.

Outside of the classroom, I am a total theatre person. I love to sing, act, and dance. I've been in over twenty shows in the past six years. Offstage, I love to take road trips, exploring the beautiful world that God has created. I enjoy taking these trips, or hanging out at home, with my friends, who are always fun and know how to have a good time. My mom is my best friend, but both my parents are my heroes. If I had to pick one word to describe myself, it would definitely be "optimistic," and I'm pretty sure my friends would agree. I am always trying to look on the bright side of things, and if people are feeling down, I'll try to cheer them up and show them that things could be worse. I try to not take life too seriously, and I don't enjoy when people are stressed or angry. A philosophy of mine is "why waste precious time being upset when you have so many things to be happy about?"

The thing I am most excited about being at college is the same thing I'm most afraid of, and that would be living in a place so completely different from my hometown, and having to be away from everyone I know. That's probably the hardest part of living in one place your whole life: not knowing what else is out there. That's also my biggest problem in the classroom. I've always had bad experiences with school and learning, so I came already expecting to not have a good time. Little did I know that college is ten times different than what I know, and I am already having a great time with my classes. So my next biggest problem will be not procrastinating and actually taking time to study, which is something I've rarely had to do before. I am motivated by how proud my parents are of me, as neither of them got the chance to go to college; they make me want to succeed.

I think that being educated is not about knowing everything in the world. I think that a truly educated person is someone who is happy and comfortable with themselves. They don't worry about how they are being perceived; they just do what feels right to them. I can only hope to build that kind of confidence in myself over the next few years.

I am pretty positive that I want to major in Bible and Religion, with a focus in Youth Ministry. I have always loved kids, and work well with them. I would love to help middle schoolers and high schoolers find salvation in God and Jesus Christ. I would love to be able to help them find true happiness, just as I have found, because it can be hard at their age. Five years after graduation, I see myself working in a church, taking the youth groups on trips to places like Montreat, but most of all, I see myself happy.

She sure got the proud of her part right. :)