Common App

When I asked a friend who I should write this essay about, she asked me, “Who inspires you the most? Who makes you get up every day? Who makes everything worth it, and makes you want to do good things with your life?” To be quite frank, I had no idea. The answer then hit me; it is my nearly three year old niece, Kadynce Ryley Collins. She is all of those things and more embodied into one tiny person. She influences me (sometimes by force) to get out of bed every day, and makes me want to be a better person so that I will be a better role model for her. Many people think that children can’t teach you things, or inspire you. They have the mindset that kids can’t influence ‘grown-ups’ in an everyday manner; thinking they are superior because they’re ‘wiser’. But I have learned more in the time I have resided in the home of this little girl than I think I ever would otherwise. Kady has taught me what it’s like to unconditionally love someone; to get so frustrated with a person, yet not be able to stay mad for more than a second after they apologize. She also taught me that doing something bad, and following it with “Was that funny?!” usually makes it so. She has shown me what it’s like to experience pure fear: that moment when you think the child you’re supposed to be watching has disappeared from the park, only to find them standing right behind you.d for to do gd things wt I have always been the baby of the family. By the time I was born, four of my five siblings had moved out, and when I was four, the last one followed suit. Needless to say, I have never lived with a small child before, and while I have always been one to push the envelope and always test limits. I had never learned what truly pushing people’s limits was until I had the experience of living with Kady. At times we fight, and I have to remember she has yet to learn common courtesies, but she influences, inspires, and impacts my every decision now, and I wouldn’t have it any other