Prompt: Common Application Personal Statement
Share an essay on any topic of your choice. It can be one you’ve already written, one that responds to a different prompt, or one of your own design.
Essay
I belong everywhere and nowhere. I once called Brazil home, but as I have gotten older, I have come to view the world as home. In no place am I seen as a native, a proud feat. With a total of three passports, I am a global citizen with three countries that I can return to freely: Portugal, the United States, and Brazil.
These three nationalities represent more than just documents to me; the first time I held all of them in May of 2024, I felt as if I had access to the planet. I remember the hassle it was to get a visa to go practically anywhere with a Brazilian passport. I needed a Japanese visa, which took a long time to issue, a concern Americans will never understand. Contrastingly, Brazilians do not need visas to go to Russia; so, during my trip to Moscow, I had the upper hand over my then-American counterparts. Starting in mid 2025, Americans will need online visas to enter Europe, a trouble I will never have to experience. Advantages on the international stage are all relative, and no single citizenship can provide easy access everywhere. Now, each nationality I have represents an identity, an achievement, and a respective benefit.
Portugal is the latest document I obtained, which came through birthright; my grandfather took the time to prove our Portuguese heritage. Portugal is symbolic of my status as a cosmopolitan individual; the nation is part of the European Union, which therefore gives me near-native status in 27 countries; so, part of me not only belongs to Portugal, but the entirety of the EU. The fact that Portugal gives me this status within the coalition allows me to experience a diverse network of cultures. This furnishes me with the adaptability to live outside the usual comfort of my own customs. My first time in Europe as a European was on a flight to Paris in the summer of 2024. It was the Olympic season and the peak of the international rush to Paris, hundreds of flights were landing daily and CDG Airport was flooded with foreigners. Upon my arrival to immigration, I saw an officer who was yelling for the transients to line up and be orderly as they were in Europe and not their countries. Once I got near her, she very sternly looked at me and told me to show my passport; the cover was red and read European Union: Portugal in big gold letters; she looked at it and said “welcome to Paris” amidst her shouts at the nonnatives. There were no questions, no stamps, no nothing, I was an equal in France.
The United States is my second citizenship and it came through naturalization. It represents the work and drive within me, the ambition, and the desire to achieve everything I could dream of. At the cost of nearly a decade of sacrifices, being an American has presented me with countless opportunities and abilities of which I am undeniably grateful for. There is a demand for respect as an American that can be leveraged in transactions, which I have learned to do cordially. I can say with all my heart that the gains outweigh the losses and that this nationality has given me a business mind and a unique professionalism which display the principles of the American dream.
Finally, Brazil is the first and it comes by birth; I was born Brazilian. This one has sentimental value; it represents my origins, my family, my country. On all of my documents, foreign and domestic, the only country listed on all of them is Brazil under the place of birth category, and I am proud of it. I am a global citizen, and though I have left Brazil, Brazil is still home and will never leave me.
Tips for Writing
I, like most of you, had literally no idea what to write about. I wrote, no joke, maybe 20 separate essays and never got past the first paragraph.
I sat down with Dr. Thorpe and started listing what made me different from other people. I have 3 passports. That alone is a feat few people will ever achieve. It gifted me the opportunity to see so much of the world and understand so much more about it. I firmly believe that these documents are keys to a deeper understanding of the world.
When I finally sat down to write about something I was so passionate about, the words just began to flow and I loved to write about this more than anything else. I started writing specific stories and condensing them into what the stories symbolized to me. After months of nothing, I wrote this in less than a week and simply ran away with it.