To me, the biggest failure in this life is to live a passive, accepting existence. What is success without determined action and hard work? What is achievement without first breaking norms, escaping the crowd, being different? You don’t know me. You don’t know my story, and you don’t know what happened in the past for me to get where I am at this moment (sitting shirtless with a fan 6 inches from my face, typing this paper and sipping orange soda). Sweetened carbonated beverages aside, why should some shmuck like me be allowed to attend one of our country’s fine centers for higher academic learning? Well, because I belong there.
Learning is my love. Nothing slates my thirst for knowledge better than a superbly answered question that has been gnawing at my strong sense of curiosity for the better half of an Anatomy lesson. I ravage through literature like a masked figure in a girls-only summer camp, eating up pages and chapters, and a well-executed literary trick or a clever bit of irony gives me a satisfying sense of fulfillment like no other. Any subject tickles my fancy: from learning of the tactical formations of the ancient Athenian armies to the kick-ass feeling of nailing an especially quarrelsome algebra equation.
I want my name to be remembered by at least one person as someone who greatly impacted their life for the better, and I believe the experience of college will get me on the right track. I have seen enough people who are merely content to passively float on by, wallowing in drug use or sports or their social lives, but I do not want to spend my life that way. I want to rise above, to prove myself, to brighten people’s lives. I am an academic. I am a goon. I am a friend, a comedian, and a musician. I am the kid who sits at the front of every class, one moment contributing to class and the next proclaiming racy jokes. Take it or leave it.
Would love to discuss this in greater depth. My first impression... if I were an admissions officer I would think, this kid can write; has a strong sense of self and isn't your typical smart kid. I would get more specific about how you've affected another human beings life already, and what you see yourself doing with all of this talent and confidence in your ability to change the world.
ReplyDelete