Nicholas Rosan Touches Emotions in College Essay

Nicholas Rosan is one of the most popular personalities around Huntington High School where the Blue Devil senior has made a name for himself on the football field and track. He’s regarded as an all-around great kid with a winning smile and a friendly demeanor.

Mr. Rosan’s college and career plans have not yet come into focus. He’s in the process of applying to various schools and consisting a variety of options. When faculty members read his college application essay they knew it needed to be viewed by a wider audience.

“My life’s story is one that goes beyond the prejudices that society might obtrude, followed by adversity, resilience and integrity,” writes Mr. Rosan in his essay. “There on the track, where my perseverance is emulated with every stride, I obtained strength as a young African American male discovering a path through swirling tides.”

The teenager goes on to discuss family dynamics and “clouded questions” by the “on-and-off presence” of certain individuals. He speaks of “unsolved questions that carried on like a spinning cycle,” before giving props to his mom.

“My mother [has] continued to be the bedrock of my family; a pillar of absolute strength,” Mr. Rosan writes. “Not only that, she is the root of support; a role model steering me through the perplexity of life with a toughness that paralleled the drive phase of a vigorous athlete.”

The next section of the essay moved Blue Devil coach Ron Wilson to tears. Mr. Wilson has coached the teenager in football, indoor and outdoor track and served as a mentor every step of the way.

“Track and field became my haven; a place where I could escape the constant doubt in my head and grasp hold of my fate later on,” Mr. Rosan writes. “With each footstep I found the ability to rewrite my story and run toward a brighter future with each stride. The firing of the starting gun was a calling to break through the ‘impossibles’ that life imposed. The hurdles are like an indestructible brute force similar to a wall towering over you. They became a symbol of overcoming obstacles and hardships in life. Residing in myself I found discipline; a liking to discomfort; a way to prevail when being looked down upon.”

Mr. Rosan is striving to be the absolute best version of himself in and out of the classroom. “My older brother always told me minor setbacks set the stage for a major comeback,” the teenager writes in his essay. “Even with all the holes I dug up for myself, I still persevered and climbed out. Seeing my grades rise and plummet numerous times and letting it happen is the old me. I might not be the smartest cookie in the jar, but I know I am confidently capable of achieving anything that is necessary to succeed. I look at these patches as opportunities to grow and better myself for what’s yet to come.”

As he enters his the spring season, his final one in a Blue Devil uniform, Mr. Rosan is looking ahead.

“Moving forward and not dwelling on the past has taught me the ability to rise above either being victorious or letting the cookie crumble,” Mr. Rosan writes in his essay. “The job is still not finished. The synthetic rubber wasn’t just any surface I would simply run on, it was a blank canvas where my aspirations and thoughts would sprout and blossom. Envisioning new goals and passions near the last few meters as if its reaching out to me, my eyes opened up and lit a relentless flame unlocking so many possibilities I thought were never possible at first.”

Mr. Rosan waxed poetic as he closed his essay with touching words about his last months as a Huntington senior.

“As I approached the last and final lap of my high school journey the lactic acid started to seep in, realizing it wasn’t just a means of escaping to something, it was simply rather finding redemption within myself,” the teenager wrote in his essay. “Never knowing what I truly wanted to do and letting time pass didn’t bother me until this last year. It hit me like a thunderbolt seeing how daunting it is. I find this as another building block that I’m going through to embark and embrace a new journey, a chapter in my life with a healthy mindset to refine and trust in myself to reach heights that once seemed far-fetched.”