Common Application Essay #1

Evaluate a significant experience, achievement, risk you have taken, or ethical dilemma you have faced and its impact on you.

 

I am not the future. My peers and I are the present. For most of our lives, we have been bombarded by images of our predecessors, pushed to exhaustion to accomplish more, to drastically change the way the world thinks, solve global hunger, bring about peace – all before third period. In all actuality, are these goals accomplishable? Of course, one or two will be seen in our lifetime, but is it plausible to pin 4 billion years of dreams on a group of students more worried about becoming an admission statistic and acing the SAT than the onslaught of current events which smother every inch of childhood innocence?

The real question, therefore, is not what will we have done in twenty years, but what are we doing now? Unknown to many adults, the social and academic climate of education is changing. Ambition, competition, and cutthroat tactics rule the classroom rather than the schoolyard. The days of cheerfully collaborating to solve a problem are amiable yet distant memories.

    Our perspective – juxtaposed to our parents’ generation - we are young, optimistic and naïve. Yes, we are ruthless in pursuit of the coveted title “valedictorian”, but we still maintain a youth-like virtue. Time and bitter experiences will mold our soft minds into steely interiors, accustomed to the dangers of the global society. Certainly, this question must eventually arise: what influences Generation X? What experiences have begun to shape these young men and women?

People have natural inclinations for certain activities. The star athletes, capable leaders and superb musicians generally have a biological switch in their brain that triggers an innate skill. Academics come naturally to me in every class except AP Physics.

I entered the class thinking that since I aced Algebra I and II, I should excel in an algebra-based physics course. My first test grade validated this notion and I felt confident in my abilities. Then, the next test burst my complacent bubble with the imposing D- scrawled across the margin of the test in bright red characters.

Soon, I began to doubt my credentials, wondering if I was even capable of taking a high caliber class. It didn't help that not only was I experiencing such internal chaos, but the people I trusted began to suggest my failings as well.

The swirling thoughts and insecurities dampened my sight – until I walked into the counselor’s office to drop into regular Physics. Then, I saw an advertisement for a tutoring service on the bulletin board. I’ve never asked for help in this class, I thought to myself, pausing to look at the phone number. Promptly, I copied the information and turned around, resigned to earn the highest grade in the class.

    I began working with a tutor every week for two hours and I studied for several hours a day, practicing problem after problem until even pre-writes for English resembled a free body diagram. Soon, I not only raised my grade, but surpassed most of the class in terms of understanding. Although proud of my accomplishments, I was humbled by the thought that I was once one of the students who struggled with the class.

    In retrospect, I learned much more in AP Physics about life than I did about actual physics. From having to check my ego by failing a test, I learned that weakness is not having to struggle to learn a subject, but failing to ask for help and abandoning one’s self to ruin. There can be no shame in admitting one’s faults, only ignominy in masking them with smiles and false hopes. Furthermore, I finally understood what it was like to see a few people grasping difficult concepts while floundering with the great majority. It was overwhelming to be at the bottom of the academic barrel, but the experience, although somewhat nerve-racking, built character. People, I realized, are fallible and one day, we will all meet our Waterloo. Will we do whatever it takes to accomplish our goals or will we fret at the outcome while doing nothing to change its course? More importantly, in the exceedingly competitive high school world, there is no room for pity or self-doubt. All I have is my brain, a willingness to learn and a motivation to stop at nothing to earn an “A”, which faltered for a few days in my grade-purgatory. This experience made me a stronger competitor, an empathetic peer and a more determined individual.

    Armed with this new understanding, I changed my ways, thoroughly explaining math problems to my peers when they asked me questions, instead of giving haphazard answers and hermitically hunching over my own work.

    While many of my peers will face much more arduous tasks and some may never feel the sting of impending defeat, I remain confident that these tribulations will provide the necessary components for a fruitful and rewarding present of discovery, exploration, and imagination. The future is not ours to define; we are living entities of the present, and therefore must accept our challenges as life continues, instead of postponing “judgment day” for the future.