Echoes: College Admission Essay Sample

I may seem to be a little bit unexpected, a tad too brash because I'm frequently rushing from one place to another, one meeting to the next, one errand to a physics lab: a windmill of both activity and laugher. However, if it seems slightly perplexing to my peers that my energy is miraculously replenished every morning, it is because such exaggerated myths are all but true; there is energy and excitement in my life not only because I wake up to a room painted in an inspiriting hue of yellow, but because I believe it is essential to enjoy what one does to do it well, with all the possible effort and passion and with little mediocrity. The human condition may need quantitative and qualitative analysis, charts of joyful days, graphs of heartbreaks, and bell curves of daily complexity, but I insist that the true power of measurement is our daily and constant effort what we bring to life.

Of relatively long auburn hair, average height, a love of running, a candid and talkative nature, and a well-known penchant for both cheese and chocolate- not particularly exceptional attributes- I would like to represent myself as an individual rather than as a look into the life of a busy teenager. Realistically though, there is no room now for a comprehensive list of my interests and likings, so I will talk about only some of them. For one, I have an eclectic music taste, one that my father has helped mold by motivating me to look into music that is somewhat atypical for my age bracket. A trip through my CD case might lead to unexpected, yet somehow coexistent, findings: Etta James, John Lee Hooker, Billie Holiday, Ray Charles, some Omara Portuondo, Celia Cruz, Ruben Gonzalez, accompanied by a flavor of Diana Krall, Norah Jones, Karrin Allyson, and topped off by a hint of Dave Matthews, Maroon 5, Barenaked Ladies, Santana, Jason Mraz, Sade, and Alicia Keys.

I also enjoy viewing and learning about art, mostly paintings whose masters are the French Impressionists, the Pre-Raphaelites, and later painters such as Kahlo, Dali, Picasso, and Miro. Not much of an artist myself however (I can manage to sketch female faces with charcoal and not much else), I've always sought expression in writing. Seemingly apropos therefore is my continued enjoyment of reading- from Borges to Cather, Bunin to Irving- as well as my thirst for traveling to the furthest reaches of the world: Spain, Greece, China. Presently however, I wake up to a daily-replenished schedule, to the same hustle and bustle of many of my peers, but as excited about each dawn as one could possibly be. And so I guess it's through our creative lenses that we can really own a personal version of the world's treasures and gather the only wealth that can truly be defined as human an acceptance of the ineffable interdependence between hope, hardship, joy, pain, and survival.