College Essay # 23 - Stanford

23.  If you were to write a book, on what theme or subject matter would it be based, and why? (Stanford/93)

There are two types of people in the world: those who are happy and those who aren’t. There are those who are rich and those who are poor. But I’ve noticed that usually those who have less money are the ones who are more content with their lives. Yes, you may be thinking that my statement is nothing more than a cliché, but I truly believe so. Therefore, if I had to write a book on anything that I wanted, I would definitely try to write about a day in the life of a poor and happy person. Writing that sentence, right now sounds weird even to me, but I want to show people that we take things for granted and we should try and learn from these types of people, not those that you see on television.

I would live like the people I am going to write about. I would live in a very minimal way, I would allow myself to access only the amount of money that a certain family earns and try to live like them. I would go and live where they live, I would eat what they eat, clothe myself the way they do, and act the way they do. Just because people are poor doesn’t mean they don’t have a life. Yes, their social gatherings may be minimal compared to the elites in Manhattan, but they too meet and greet their friends and family and neighbors. I feel that it is important to learn things from different people; it shapes you into a good and well-rounded human being. I feel that being a well-rounded individual is about learning about things and experiencing things that different groups of people do rather than being good at sports and music and studies. Those things seem so materialistic in comparison to what you can learn from others. And what better way to do that than to live life like those you’re have encounters with, let it be daily or occasional. It is important to learn from others and learn what you have and what you don’t compared to those around you. They don’t just say “When in Rome, live like the Romans” for no reason you know.

I feel that it is important to write a book about how you can gain happiness with minimal materialistic things. In this day and age, we focus too much on our own lives and too little on what we impact. We feel that the only way that we can be happy is through money. We feel that the only reason we work is to gain money and become wealthy, while in fact, the reason why you should be going to work is to expand your knowledge by taking what you learn and applying it to the real world. If you look at the world and everything around you, money has little space in the circle of important. You don’t need money to make you happy; you just need money to fulfill your wants. Anyone can be happy without tons of money, but no one sees that these days.