As Defined by UMD:

How have your background and life experiences, including cultural, geographical, financial, educational or other opportunities or challenges, motivated your decision to pursue a graduate degree at the University of Michigan?

For example, if you grew up in a community where educational, cultural, or other opportunities were either especially plentiful or especially lacking, you might discuss the impact this had on your development and interests. This should be a discussion of the journey that has led to your decision to seek a graduate degree.
Please do not repeat your Academic Statement of Purpose.

My Statement:

Throughout my life I have had a very strong relationship with my father.  My father did a great job building and maintaining our relationship as we bonded over the business of life.  

My dad grew up in a household where no one went to college. His three brothers all followed in my grandfathers footsteps launching great careers in skilled trades within the orbit of Ford Motor Company.  My dad received his associates degree from Henry Ford Community College and set off in a slightly different direction.  

At the age of nine, my dad began taking me to work with him on the weekends.  The company he worked for maintained a bin of old electronics.  While my dad performed his duties as a technician, I played with the electronics and built my first robot.  The robot did nothing, and was really just a collection of disparate parts clumsily taped or glued together, but in the eyes of a nine year old they could not have been cooler.  

As my dad progressed in his career I followed - almost every Saturday.  He eventually accepted a position as a General Manager at another company.  This new company was slightly larger and had programmers on staff.  When I was in the sixth grade my dad forced me on one of these coders after I had exhausted his patience.  In turn, I was given a SAM’S Teach Yourself Visual Basic in 24 Hours book with a whopping one thousand plus pages.  I read it all, and came back with questions every weekend.

As I continued to follow my dad to work, I learned many things that I am only now coming to appreciate.  I watched as my dad grew from General Manager to Vice President with global responsibilities and was able to sit in on many of his meetings receiving introductions to all of his staff and clients.  I observed as my dad struggled to overcome his limitations as he sat in meetings alongside people with multiple degrees.  I was also able to see the opportunity those degrees bought his peers, opportunities that my dad worked so hard to earn himself.  

It is these experiences that inspire me to pursue a higher education.  It is how hard I worked at sixteen, mowing the lawns of all the companies on the same street my dad worked on, just to pay for my first 300 Mhz computer; how hard my dad worked every Saturday that I shared with him as he strived to afford my private education and help my mom through nursing school; and the standard that my father set by both his example and his frequent reminders of what kind of education was required to do the kinds of things I found exciting.  These are the life experiences that have made me decide to pursue graduate studies, so that I can one day provide for and educate my children as my father has done for me.