Eric Osborne - The applicants

College essays that made a difference - Princeton Review 2010

Eric Osborne
The applicants

In high school, Eric was actively involved in many areas of student life. He was assistant editor of his school’s yearbook, a columnist for its student paper, and a member of its civic-service organization. During his senior year, he was president of Government Club, through which he served as lieutenant governor at his state’s model legislature. He lettered in track for three years, in yell-leading for two, and won his school’s Spirit Award senior year for his dedication and inspiration to the track team.

Stats

SAT: 1460 (750 Critical Reading, 710 Math)

SAT Subject Test(s): 800 U.S. History, 800 World History

ACT: 32

High School GPA: 4.10 weighted

High School: Memphis University School, Memphis, TN

Hometown: Memphis, TN

Gender: Male

Race: Caucasian

Applied To

Amherst College (early decision)

Essay

Evaluate a significant experience, achievement, risk you have taken, or ethical dilemma you have faced and its impact on you.

From a Dunce to Demosthenes

ERX, the word rings clearly in my ears today. In 6th grade some of my peers decided it would be funny to make fun of the lisp that Eric Osborne had. They took my first name and added a lisp sound to the end of it, finally arriving with a new nickname for me, Erx.

As a little kid I had somehow learned to say “S’s” incorrectly. Rather than the smooth hissing sound most people make, my “S’s” were a saliva-filled slur that lisped sideways from my mouth. In my earliest years my teachers, parents, and friends would try to correct me. Wanting to please them, I would swallow all the saliva in my mouth and speak slowly, enunciating as clearly as possible. But it never made a difference.

As I grew older the other kids started to make fun of my speech. Every time I opened my mouth, some sneering comment was sure to follow. I was embarrassed by all this and soon preferred keeping quite to being made fun of. I became something of a recluse. Eric Osborne was the shy kid who, for fear of being made fun of, hardly ever spoke. Mute, I became a virtually friendless wanderer.

My parents had opposing views of the situation. My mother was worried about me: she was worried that I never brought friends home, that I never went out to spend the night, that I always seemed sad and depressed. My father had a different view: he was upset that I could never “enunciate clearly.” My speech impediment irked my father greatly. For years he corrected me to no avail, and he became more upset with each passing day.

By third grade I had gone through speech therapy, but things had not improved. Afterward I had always looked upon speech therapy as something only young children went through; I did not consider repeating it myself. But by eighth grade things were changing. Although I now had more friends, the teasing was continuing, and I was more aware of my personal image. In addition my father had decided that enough was enough and it was now time to put an end to my impediment. Speech therapy seemed the best course of action. With my guidance counselor’s help we found a speech pathologist, and I went back to speech therapy.

It took the pathologist less than ten minutes to diagnose my problem. She told me to move my tongue to the level of my teeth and blow out air. I did, and a correct-sounding “S” reverberated through the room. It was the smoothest feeling that had ever come out of my mouth. A new world of possibility seemed in front of me. For the next year I worked on consciously placing my tongue. I would stand in front of the mirror and practice, pushing against my jaw, moving my tongue, and blowing air. I progressed slowly from the ABC’s, to short sentences, and finally to conversation. When talking with my friends I tried to speak correctly, and if I messed up I would correct myself. My friends were amazed at the transformation, but nobody was happier than I when the pathologist pronounced me cured. Fixing my speech problem was an amazing accomplishment that I had never truly expected to achieve, but what amazes me the most is how far I have come since. In ninth grade I joined our school’s Government Club and became actively involved in Model UN and the Youth Legislature, conferences involving public speaking and debate. The kid who just a few years before would not talk with anyone, was now giving speeches before groups of a hundred people. Time and again my advisors and my peers would commend me for my speaking (once a fellow delegate even compared my speaking to that of the great orator Cicero). Junior year I won great praise for a campaign speech I had given: dozens of people told me the speech, citing the importance of friendship, had moved them. The speech got me elected Lt. Governor for next year’s conference. A month later I was elected President of the Government Club. I had come all the way from being a recluse to being a gifted orator and the leader of our school’s largest and most speech-oriented organization.

I consider overcoming my speech impediment to be one of my greatest achievements ever. No longer am I a friendless wanderer, now I am more extroverted and enjoy having many friends. I speak up in class without hesitation and converse freely with strangers. I am even scheduled to give a twenty-minute speech in assembly, something rare for students. Anyone who knew me as a child and could see my outspoken self today would be amazed at my transformation. Correcting my speech impediment was a great achievement that has changed my life … no one calls me ERX anymore.

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