College Essay: Ethan Ably
From day one, my dad has been the one to teach me and my brothers how to do almost everything. From learning how to tie our shoes in kindergarten, and teaching us how to ride a bike in first grade, to being my at home sideline coach for softball, and helping me with my pre calculus homework when I’m having trouble. My father is one of the few people that I look up to when becoming who I want to be.
My grandfather grew up in a military household. His father was a cook in the army during the Korean War, therefore there were many rules and the expectations were high. The way that my grandfather was brought up, resulted in some of the ways he raised my father. My grandparents would always tell him to do his best, and “to do things right the first time, or don’t do it at all”. That quote right there sums up a lot of what my father is like. He always tries to have things done right the first time, and then expects that upon my brothers and I.
My father is a project manager of fixture design at The Bernard Group in Chanhassen, Minnesota. In high school, he graduated salutatorian of his class. He then went off to study graphic design at the University of Wisconsin Stevens Point. Dad then decided that major wasn’t for him, and went to study industrial design at the University of Wisconsin Stout, where he met my mother. My father’s drive for perfection has helped him be successful in his education and career.
One of the things that makes my father who he is, is his sense of determination that he always holds with him. There are many nights where he will stay up until four in the morning just so that he will finish a project for work. He then goes to work tired, but also satisfied with his accomplishments, because he was able to get the project done before its deadline. Not only does he do this with work projects, but for home or personal projects also. I have taken upon this habit too. I feel that it is important to get things done when they are supposed to be done. I feel irresponsible if they are not.
Pendant. A person who is excessively concerned with minor details and rules or with displaying academic learning. That is a good word to use to describe my dad. He won’t ever stop until it is done in the way he wants it to be done, that it should be seen as perfect in his eyes. Perfection can be seen as both a positive and a negative. It can help heighten your expectations, allowing yourself to not accept less, but it can also take over your mind, and unless what you have is perfection, make you unhappy. It’s important that you can also accept imperfection when the stakes are not high. I share this quality with my dad. Perfection is the reason why I don’t like working with groups; I’m worried as though what we are working on might not meet my standards. The want for perfection also makes me more satisfied with whatever it is that I am doing.
The way that my father lives his life has a huge impact on mine. Lots of people say that I’m the spitting image of my father, because we’re so alike. So many of the things that make up who I am, come from what I’ve learned from him. Not just in the way that he does things, but also with his hobbies and ways of thinking. He is successful and is always happy with how things work out in the end, thanks to his work ethic. My father is the type of person that I want to become.
