Help Anastacia Study Abroad in Germany

Hello everyone who might read this!

My name is Anastacia R.S. Jones. I am currently twenty-one years old and a college student at Pima Community College. I had been very fortunate to be accepted to a study abroad program in Germany this summer!

I am very grateful for this opportunity; it could be a gateway to a successful future. I dream of helping our world in any small way I am able to.

However, I do not come from money and honestly have had a rocky start to my life. I wish to continue and expand on my education in any way I possibly can. I am determined to succeed, and I will not stop until I do!

The Statement of Purpose

I believe the point of my life is to grow, change, and learn. I have lived in the United

States my whole life. It's comfortable and familiar. If I wished, I could reside in the States until

my death. The United States is a beautiful country, with lovely people and ideas but also a place

where the rest of the world falls away. To a lot of people in America, the other countries of the

world don't generally matter. It seems the necessary and common ideals of individualism in the

United States become a habit of not thinking of the wider world.

I am not immune to this way of thinking. I have fallen into this mindset before as well.

However this is wrong, it is diametrically opposed and an enemy of my growth as a person. It

appears that this comfort the USA provides will limit my ability to gain perspective.

Perspective is interesting; you cannot fully understand the big picture until you've

observed it. Like a painter who only focuses on the details and doesn’t take a step back their idea

of the image will be skewed.

I believe this is my current mindset of the world and I don’t find this acceptable.

Germany is a country I find to be fascinating with a rich culture and a speckled past. At

times it can resemble the United States for better and for worse. I have always wanted to see it so

I could understand it better.

When I was a child, a part of my family hosted two different German exchange students.

It was my first taste of the world beyond the United States. They were kind but different from the

people around me with quirks and a language I couldn't understand. I found them to be

captivating. How interesting is it that a location you are born into builds you as a person? How a

roll of a dice decides the building blocks of your personality. Though because I was young I

didn’t ask, however, I was very curious. I hope that with this opportunity I could finally

understand.

Before college, I don’t think I've ever had any academic success. My life has been

turbulent and ever-changing. I was born of two very mentally ill drug addicts.

My father was a small Slavic American man whose drug of choice was heroin. My mother was the child of a Native American man and a Mormon housewife. She left

home at fifteen and struggled with addiction until I was born. My too-young mother raised me

alone as a stripper and artist. My father was paranoid with hallucinations and violence, and

because of that, my mother fled from him with me.

My first eleven years were spent traveling. We never stayed in one place for more than a

year. By the time of my 12th birthday I had already lived in over seven states, sometimes

homeless, sometimes within collectivist communities. My family grew through the people we

met and resided with from hippies to anarchists to strippers and circus performers, these people

became a base for my personality to grow. As difficult as this was, I am grateful for the different

perspectives I grew up with. It has given me the ability to think beyond black and white and

examine the shades of gray.

However as one might expect from such a wild start, my education was severely lacking.

I could not read until I was ten years of age. I finally learned because I was on my possible

deathbed due to mold poisoning while living in the smoky mountains of North Carolina. It was

Calvin and Hobbs who finally unlocked my literary mind.

By the time I finished high school, I had already been to over ten different education institutions

within multiple states and I didn’t thrive academically within any single one of them.

This was devastating even as a child. I loved to learn but I just couldn't. For years of my

life, I tried to reach my “potential”, to reach what I knew I was capable of.

Unfortunately, there are only so many times you can fail before you give up and I almost did. I

came close to dropping out of high school during the COVID-19 pandemic. However, I

persevered and finally graduated.

At twenty I was diagnosed with Combined Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder

A.D.H.D. and given medications for the first time. My whole world changed again which tends

to be a common theme within my life but that's not here or there.

The medications changed everything, I could finally think without a million thoughts running

through my head. I could consistently remember and process ideas. I could finally learn.

Learning has become my new lease on life, a flame of hope. It has become as important

as drinking water. It’s what drives me to become more than anybody ever thought of me, of what

I thought of myself. This drive to learn has become something almost obsessive at times but I

know it could be salvation. I know whatever I pursue in the future will be affected by my actions

now. That is why I am committed to my education in all forms that it might take. I am

determined to use everything I am to become more. This is my reason for seeking the

opportunity to travel abroad

I would be forever grateful for any support to help me succeed in my goals!

Thank you from the bottom of my soul!