It's 10:00 PM at night. All I hear is the noise of incessant typing and occasional mouse clicks. I'm scouring Wikipedia like I normally do, rather than submitting to the tediousness of homework or the sweet allure of sleep. The thought of writing my college statements passes through my mind. How am I supposed to convince colleges that I am unique in less than 500 words? Obviously not through my grades or extracurriculars, everyone has those. I’m honestly not sure, but I do know that Al Capone's business card stated he was a used furniture dealer, and that Coca-Cola was originally green. I did not learn this in school. No, I learned it in my living room, through the man-made wonder of Wikipedia. I have spent many nights trading sleep for knowledge. Random knowledge but knowledge nonetheless. Put simply, I learn to live and I live to learn.
I suppose what I’m trying to say is that one of the qualities that I find most endearing about myself is my curiosity. Whether it is religion, race, gender, or age, I never fail to find something worth learning and absorbing. Attempting to find out why people think the way they do is my primary motive. I’m the type of person to ask, "Why?" any chance that I get. The world is very complicated, and I try to learn more about it one day at a time. How does my curiosity make me unique from the countless applicants competing for a spot in the class of 2013? Well for one, it’s intense, it’s a passion, and it’s a driving force in my life. Curiosity to me is not some passing thought, it drives me to learn without being told to learn, and it guarantees that I will learn for the sake of learning, not for some letters on a transcript.
Saturday, November 29, 2008
Monday, November 24, 2008
I love the smell of napalm in the morning...
My world. My life. My life is my world. My world is my life. How do I describe the world that I come from in less than 600 words? Well I live with my mom, in the old “Lemon Capital of the World”, turned modern suburbia, turned city as more and more people moved to escape the smog that enveloped much of greater Los Angeles county and that was creeping into Orange County. My mom works 6, sometimes 7 days a week, to pay for mortgage, food, and such comforts as DSL internet, hot water, and electricity.
I drive to school Monday through Friday. And although I am a little lazy, I haven’t succumbed to the delightful temptation known as “senioritis”. I am by no means a bookworm, I’m sure my grades reflect that. A’s and B’s dot my transcript, but my English teacher always stressed one thing in his class, “Grades don’t reflect how much you’ve learned, you reflect what you’ve learned.” Now am I justifying my B’s? Of course not. I’m just saying, grades might not be highest on my list of priorities, but that doesn’t mean school isn’t. Okay I get that people might say that once you’ve learned something, all you have to do is apply it. Well in my opinion, homework, is mostly busy work, I rush through it, with the promise of sheep and sleep at the end. I don’t learn from homework and I lack motivation to do it. I might do well on tests, and not do homework, and where does that leave me at? B grades in classes that I do understand and enjoy. Where am I going with this? Well, in the most basic sense, don’t judge a book by its cover, and don’t judge me solely through my grades.
I have my own definition of what does matter and what doesn’t. I suppose you could say I have principles in some twisted sense of the word. Of course I realize that my perspective only fits for me, and that’s why I don’t force it on anyone. Homework? Pointless, for me. Wikipedia? Delightful, for me. The invention of the StumbleUpon plug in for Firefox? Pure, 100%, genius. Actually, if you think about it, the fact that Wikipedia is one of my most favorite pastimes (other than the extracurriculars that I’ve already listed in my application) just shows my principles at work. I mean come on, I’m reading and learning countless facts and figures all for the sake of pure, unequaled enjoyment. Now wouldn’t that be the ideal world if everyone did that? I’d say so.
I drive to school Monday through Friday. And although I am a little lazy, I haven’t succumbed to the delightful temptation known as “senioritis”. I am by no means a bookworm, I’m sure my grades reflect that. A’s and B’s dot my transcript, but my English teacher always stressed one thing in his class, “Grades don’t reflect how much you’ve learned, you reflect what you’ve learned.” Now am I justifying my B’s? Of course not. I’m just saying, grades might not be highest on my list of priorities, but that doesn’t mean school isn’t. Okay I get that people might say that once you’ve learned something, all you have to do is apply it. Well in my opinion, homework, is mostly busy work, I rush through it, with the promise of sheep and sleep at the end. I don’t learn from homework and I lack motivation to do it. I might do well on tests, and not do homework, and where does that leave me at? B grades in classes that I do understand and enjoy. Where am I going with this? Well, in the most basic sense, don’t judge a book by its cover, and don’t judge me solely through my grades.
I have my own definition of what does matter and what doesn’t. I suppose you could say I have principles in some twisted sense of the word. Of course I realize that my perspective only fits for me, and that’s why I don’t force it on anyone. Homework? Pointless, for me. Wikipedia? Delightful, for me. The invention of the StumbleUpon plug in for Firefox? Pure, 100%, genius. Actually, if you think about it, the fact that Wikipedia is one of my most favorite pastimes (other than the extracurriculars that I’ve already listed in my application) just shows my principles at work. I mean come on, I’m reading and learning countless facts and figures all for the sake of pure, unequaled enjoyment. Now wouldn’t that be the ideal world if everyone did that? I’d say so.
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