College Admissions Essay: A Musical Career

When I was in the ninth grade when my choir teacher told me I had the vocal ability of a 20 year old. Because I was so young, the praise felt unreal. What ifs began to dreamily swirl in my head. Fantasy has always soared beyond sensibility for me, yet by being brought down to earth bit by bit I have learned a lot about myself and what is most important to me. Consequently, starting in the fall of ninth grade I began the struggle between my love of singing and my love of my religion.

First and foremost, my struggle began only a few seconds after that first bit of praise.
“Kaitlin, what is your 5th period?”
“Spanish, why?” I replied with a mixture of glee and anticipation.
“Well, I would like to put you in my Varsity Choir. They have their

Already, at a million miles an hour, I was weighing the pros and cons. First thing I had to remember was choir hadn’t been strategic choice all leading up to a musical career. Singing a passion not a profession, what I wanted to do full time was the voluntary Bible teaching work that I already did on the weekend as a Jehovah’s Witness. Varsity would mean after school hours practicing and dedication that would take time from volunteering. Furthermore, it was my first year in choir, I didn’t know anything about singing with a group. So, making a choice that I thought would hint something to Mr. Clark, I stayed where I was. However, as the class progressed, I saw my teacher had a pattern of choosing sacred music. Sacred music was music written for the church, I could not sing it with a good conscience as my religious beliefs differ with the pagan origins that many songs came from. Henceforth I ended up only singing 10 minutes in a class. Along with that, others in the class started to view my silence and my teacher’s allowances as a kind of favoritism. So instead of being refreshing the class turned into a nightmare.Towards the end of the school year, I knew I had to make a choice. Around the dinner table with my parents on either side was when I came to my