College Essay # 235

235. What is something that used to worry you but no longer does?

1.     Whether I’ll be able to catch up with my blogs for this month.

2.     Whether I’ll get into the college of my choice.

3.     Whether I’ll get into college.

4.     Whether I have the capacity to become a doctor.

5.     Whether the world will end in 2012. (this is joke by the way.)

6.     Whether I’ll be able to find a JSB dress or not.

7.     Whether Charles and Keith has my shoe size for those shoes I like.

8.     Whether I’ll get sick during the holidays again.

9.     Whether I’ll be able to read at least 5 books during this holiday.

10.   Whether I’ll pass the SAT or not. Or whether I’ll get a really good score.

11.   Whether my nail polish will be smudged while writing this blog.

12.   Whether my parents will get me the birthday gift I want.

13.   Whether I’ll die of exhaustion during the first basketball practice of the season.

14.   Whether I’ll pass my playing check for band as I haven’t practiced at all.

15.   Whether the AP Chemistry exam is going to eat me up alive.

16.   Whether the construction going on in the other house is ever going to end.

17.   Whether my grandmother is ever going to stop lying so that she can eat food.

18.   Whether my relatives (besides) my parents attend my graduation.

19.   Whether I’m going to be in touch with my best friends after graduation.

20.   Whether I’ll be able to adjust to college and the people there.

21.   Whether teachers will write me a good recommendation.

22.   Whether the winter is going to be really bad in Mussoorie.

23.   Whether I have enough warm clothes for the winter.

24.   Whether this blog sounds really boring.

25.   Whether I’m going to get chicken pox when I’m older.

26.   Whether I drink enough milk.

27.   Whether my nose will ever stop running.

28.   Whether my room will be warm when I return to school.

29.   Whether I’ll be able to bear some of the girls when I go back to school.

30.   Whether the word whether has started to sound weird. 

College Essay # 86 - Bates College

86. How would you describe yourself as a human being? What quality do you like best in yourself and what do you like least? What quality would you most like to see flourish and which would you like to see wither?" (Bates College)

Scientifically, a human being is an organism of the highest intelligence in the world that we know today. Human beings evolved from cave men and are known also as Homo sapiens. Human beings are mammals and can either be herbivores or omnivores; although, there are some who are just carnivores and eat no such thing as vegetables. Human beings have created buildings, roads, money, law, taxes and so on. But human beings are also filled with compassion, anger, hatred, jealousy, friendliness, vengeance, and love. So, if I were to describe myself as a human being, I would describe myself as just that … human.

I feel compassion towards others, I feel jealous when my sister gets better grades than me, I love my family and friends, I get annoyed at my grandmother when she asks too many questions, I have new ideas and new perspectives, I am determined, I dream a lot, and think about what’s in front of me, and so on. We all have traits and characteristics that we identify with more than another, but at the end of the day, we’re all in one way or another the same thing … and in this case, we’re all human. But with all these characteristics, I think that the quality I like in myself the best is my willingness to see the best in others. I can trust people easily, but when someone crosses my bad side, it is difficult to trust them again. But nevertheless, there hasn’t been many occasions where my trust has been broken, therefore I can safely say that I like that I see the better side in others before anything else. This allows me to befriend strangers and get to know them better and have a long lasting friendship. The quality, however, that pesters me at times is that when I get mad at someone for something they do, then I seem to hold a grudge for a very long time. It takes a lot of time for people to convince me that they will not do certain things gain. The quality that I would like to see flourish in myself is the trait of determination. I know I’m determined, but I know that if I try a bit harder then I will go farther than where I’ve already reached. But the characteristic that I think I want withered away forever at the least is the characteristic of anger. I am quite short tempered, and I want to be able to keep my cool with others around me. 

College Essay # 70 - Rampo College

70.  React to a crisis or critical moment in your life at which time thinking as usual was no longer possible. Such a situation may have occurred after the death of a loved one, a drastic move from one part of the country to another, or during a public catastrophe. Do not feel limited by these examples. Describe the event and tell us how it changed your thought process. (Ramapo College)

Towards the end of my sophomore year, one of my closest friends entered my room and fell on the floor crying hysterically. I was working on my English project deep in thought when I saw her collapse on the floor. I quickly rushed to the other end of my room and asked her what was wrong. For around 10 minutes she wouldn’t talk. I asked her multiple times what was wrong and she wouldn’t say anything. I hugged her and she buried her face deep in my hair and continued to cry. I asked her one last time and she answered, “I tried to kill myself.” I looked at her astonished and I asker her why and what reason she had to do that. She said nothing and continued to cry. I didn’t know what to do. I had never been in such a situation before and I was helpless. I saw my friend, a strong, bubbly happy-go-lucky girl crying on my floor after a suicide attempt. Even if I wanted to do something, I couldn’t, I didn’t know how to help her. I called my roommate and my other close friend and we tried to talk to her. She wouldn’t say anything. We asked her how she tried to kill herself, and she explained. I looked around at my other two friends and they looked as helpless as I was. We didn’t know what to do. We talked to her and she wouldn’t say anything. I was like talking to a wall. But I understood her pain. She was ashamed, and she was helpless, she didn’t know what to say and what do to. While my friend and I tried to talk to her, my roommate called one of the dorm parents on duty and explained everything to her. She was astonished as I was and we rushed her to the hospital. The dorm parent wouldn’t allow us to go, but we told her that we would be there for her.

When we reached back to dorms, many of the girls in our grade approached us and asked us what was wrong. Some just wanted to know the latest gossip, while others were deeply concerned. The three of us didn’t know what to say and what to do and we just waved it off as not a big deal and carried on our way back to discuss a few things. We felt it was inevitable that people would find out what the actual reason she went to the hospital was, but we knew that it was our duty to tell everyone that nothing was wrong. This is when we had to think differently than usual. We knew we couldn’t just tell everyone that nothing was wrong; people weren’t that gullible, they would soon catch on. Instead, we had to tell people another story. Everyone would ask, and everyone would wonder. It was our duty to protect her.

The next day is school, the teachers had announced that something was wrong with our friend and she was taken to the hospital late last night. Though my friends and I felt that explaining our friend’s situation to our grade was not necessary, it was something that was already done. We had to face the storm now. We had to tell people when they asked what was wrong. But this story didn’t last for long, sooner or later people found out what had happened. She was back to school by then but was put into the Health Center. We had to talk to her now. We had to approach her differently, or so we thought. We thought we needed to be gentle and kind but we soon saw that she was our old friend again. She knew that what she had done was stupid and that she couldn’t take it back, but she was okay. She was strong again and she knew that people would talk. She knew that she had to face them some time.

This experience, but especially my friend, taught me that sometimes you need to change your thinking and the way you react to things to those that hold less meaning to you than those that you care about. But the ones that you love and care about and know well enough, you can be the same around them, no matter what the situation is. The phrase “thinking as usual” is put for those that you know inside out … and most people don’t change the usual because you don’t need to with those that love you. 

College Essay # 56

56. Discuss how your travel experiences have affected you as a student and a citizen of the world.

When I was little, my family and I would take my holidays to different places. My father would try to give us the best holiday we could imagine, and every time he would try to out do himself. He was telling us a story of when we went to Malaysia. My sister and I were very little; I was six and she was four. But my dad decided that we should still stay in a very good hotel. So, we went and we stayed at Shangri-la in Malaysia. It was a beautiful resort with palm trees and sandy beaches. Our room was right on the beach and we had a hammock where my other would stay the whole day. He told us that my sister and I would play on the beach and make sandcastles and go in the ocean and were pushed around by the waves. He told us that we enjoyed everything except the food. There would always be a huge buffet set for breakfast with all kinds of things from scallops to chicken to cakes to ice cream …for breakfast. He told us that the only thing that my sister and I would eat was Chocos, chocolate cereal. Thinking about that just makes me laugh. We went to a five star hotel near the beach and the only thing we ate was cereal. That was the most pathetic thing I’ve heard in my life. I wish I could do that again, and not be such a loser. But you have to cut us some slack, we were 6 and 4, what do you expect. 

After this experience though, we started to eat different things, and look around and take in the culture of the different places we went to. I got out of my comfort zone, and started accepting things the way they were. I started to realize that everything wasn’t the way that I was used to. I started to understand that the best way to enjoy things is by showing people that you accept them and by getting to know them. The best way is to understand what other people are made of and then learn to befriend them and the culture and tradition that comes along with them.

These travel experiences allow me to adjust to different cultures without having a problem. I know different places and the way people act. The traditions and cultures they come from allow me to understand how to behave with certain groups of people. I’ve learned that you can’t treat everyone the same way because everyone is different with every group of people. My travel experiences have also showed me that you can learn a lot from different people. Having always studied in an international school, I’ve been able to adapt to different situations with different people from different places. Studying in many different places all over the world has also allowed me to open up to differences in environment and I’ve been able to help all communities I’ve been part of in ways appropriate to the setting. 

College Essay # 21 - Middle East Technical University

21. If you had the gift of telepathy, the ability to read other people’s minds, would you use this gift or not? Explain. (Middle East Technical University/93)

The idea of reading people’s mind seems intriguing but I wouldn’t say that I would use the gift. I wouldn’t want anyone to read my mind and my thoughts because there are a lot of private thoughts that go on up there that we share with no one. Being vulnerable to that, means we feel afraid of sharing our thoughts and thinking things because we’re afraid someone will hear them. We’re afraid that someone will hear it and tell someone else, who will tell someone else. And then we’re all exposed. I wouldn’t want anyone to read my mind, while I’m sleeping, during a game, when I brush my teeth or anything.

I don’t think the gift of telepathy does more good than bad. Yes, we may be able to save a person from being killed because we can read the killer’s mind, yes we may be able to stop someone from killing themselves, but how far doe this power go till? Is it only the people that you know, is it only within a certain distance, is it only used for good? There are so many things that people think about ALL the time, your head would always be filled with someone’s thoughts. It’s the same thing as when Bruce from Bruce Almighty becomes God. All those emails he got, he couldn’t handle them and he can everything everyone wanted. It seems cool having a gift like that, but after a while, it becomes too overwhelming for anyone to handle, and you would just get sick of it.

It would also not be right for people to invade the privacy of others thoughts. There are many things that make you curious and intrigue you but you should not know about. Others’ thoughts are one of them.

College Essay # 45 - Carleton College

45. Ask and answer the one important question which you wish we had asked. (Carleton College)

How important are parents?

They say that as children grow older and start maturing, they start putting more importance to their peers and friends than to their own parents. I don’t believe that such a thing is true in my life, but I do believe that it’s true to many. Take my sister for example; she’s completely different than I am. She seems to value and give importance to friends more than her own parents, whereas I feel like I do the opposite. Yes, it’s undeniable that I’ve not listened to my parents on many occasions, I’ve disobeyed them and sometimes even did things purposefully just because they told me not to do it. But that’s just the thing. That’s just the part about growing up. You become a rebel for a while, but even in those times, I have never given more importance to my friends than my parents.

When my parents come home from work, I always get really excited. Call me a kid, but I don’t get to see them in school and I don’t get to see them at home during the day because they are at work. When my parents come home I always run upstairs ready to ask them how their day was and start talking about the most random things. My sister on the other hand, she walks up the stairs slowly, sits and stairs at us for sometime and then goes on facebook on her phone and starts chatting with her friends. My parents keep thinking that she’s playing games on her phone, but actually she’s not listening to anything anyone is saying except her friends. But I don’t blame her either, that’s just the way she is when she’s growing up. She’s giving more importance to those that can relate to her more, but I don’t think that she’s really forgotten to value her parents.

Many people, even within my own friend circle forget to value their parents from time to time. I do that as well being a child whose trying to experience life without someone telling her his or her experiences. But even then, I know how important my parents are. I know how much they spend to send us to school. But they never complain once, they always support us no matter what we do (right or wrong), they teach us to be the best people we can be, they come and wake us up in the morning just for us to tell them to go away, they fulfill our every demand, they yell when we’re wrong, they hug us when we do the right thing, and most of all they were the ones who brought us into this earth. Without them, we’re nothing.  

College Essay # 36 - New College Of University of South Florida

36. Select any issue that is of importance to you and discuss your views. (New College of University of South Florida)

I recently discovered the picture of Libyan leader Gadaffi when he was killed. Though I knew of his death, I did not know the state in which he was killed. I hadn’t read the news, instead just heard from my fellow peers that he was killed. But when I saw the picture of Gaddafi helpless on the ground, it got me thinking. How important is revenge, and how can be discriminate revenge with justice?

Gaddafi was a man who was brutal to his whole nation. He primarily pledged by taking on the role of a leader to protect his people and to protect his country from harm. He was meant to lead his nation to flourish and bring prosperity and peace among all. Instead, he went against his vows and did the unthinkable. He started harming his nation and his own people.  People protested against him after the Middle East witnessed the rebellion in Egypt, but that didn’t stop Gaddafi, nor did it seem to scare him. He continued on his twisted way of killing his own people. He didn’t blink and eye and he didn’t care about anyone and anything but his own vision. He could easily be one of the candidates for the 21^st century Adolf Hitler. He may not win, but he definitely is part of the pageant. But then, the French and the British and the United Nations stepped in. But why, was it to do justice to those people that Gaddafi had killed or was it revenge?

I don’t think that it was exactly revenge in this case, but more doing justice, but what about the things that go on in common human lives daily? Many claim to be doing justice to someone by harming others but where do you draw the fine line between revenge and justice? Though they are different concepts as a whole, I believe that they go hand in hand. For many, getting someone back for something they did brings joy into others’ lives. That’s a twisted thought. Yes, we’re all human and I’m not saying that I haven’t tried to take revenge on anyone. That’s a different case, but what about when someone claims to be doing justice and instead has a motive only filled with the words revenge? How can we discriminate between the two? How can we tell someone who is planning to do “justice” to stop because the only thing filled in their minds is revenge? Do bad people get to be harmed? Do good people get to harm the bad? Don’t the good just stoop to their level? There are so many things that can be said and not said, but this is one thing that I feel very unclearly about. I can’t seem to draw the line … maybe it’s strange to some, but I just can’t find the difference sometimes. Can you?