What Do I Love: College Admission Essay Sample

I love laughing. Laughing loudly, a little smile, or just a silly grin, I love them all. A laugh everyday can release my stress from school. When I am sad, I take a big breath and 'ha!' A silly laugh makes me laugh at myself, and soon I find myself feeling a bit better. A smile on my face makes others smile as well. It is not very hard to laugh and smile and make others feel better every day.

I love it when I am with my friends. Everyday when I come back from school, I will knock on my friends' doors and tell them what happened today. Gossiping, making fun of each other, simply sharing our happiness makes us laugh loudly in our rooms. Even when I am down I will share my feelings with my friends. They cure my pain from sadness. Sometimes I cry when I am sad, and they make me feel better by sharing their opinions with me, or just give me a very warm hug, and then we laugh together because we know that we are always willing to stand by each other, giving support to each other.

I love walking alone on the street with my music. That may seem very lonely but I enjoy it. Wandering around with my favorite music, going into interesting shops, looking around, taking pictures of unusual places or of just myself, or just bringing a book or buying a monthly magazine and bumping into a coffee shop with my music, I love them all. It is not lonely because I am just alone. I feel that my life is full because I am surrounded by my favorite things. Although the music from my Mini Disc player can only be heard by me, I feel the music fill up the world. My pace becomes lighter when it comes to a joyful or a sweetie love song and it slows down when it comes across a sad song; sometimes people will look at me weirdly when I imagine myself being the conductor of a choral song that I am listening to. It seems that I can communicate better with the music when I am alone, surrounded by many people that I do not know. Music makes me think, not only about the music itself, but about my life as well.

I love it when I am dancing. When I was in Hong Kong, I always attended dancing lessons every weekend, or sometimes even once every other day when we were practicing for a dance. Although I was very busy with my school work, the lessons were not a source of pressure. Stretching exercises were no longer painful; they helped me to relax myself and ease my tensed up muscles. It was hard to follow a dance routine in the beginning but when I concentrated, I could see myself improving every time. Finally I mastered the whole thing and I shouted 'yohoo!' because I was happy, and you would have noticed it. Even though I am not able now to attend dancing classes in Italy, I still keep practicing three times a week. Although I am alone, practicing in front of the mirror, it is still the most relaxing time for me. I can move freely in a world with no boundaries and limits. I am the teacher, the dancer and the audience; I imagine all of them leaving the dance room with a big smile.

I love it when I am indulging myself with performing arts. Not only dancing, but also singing, acting, or just discovering a new book about performing in the library, it makes me smile. My parents are sure to ask me why I'm not studying History or Mathematics, or why I don't find an English novel to read in the library. The answer is simple: I love being a performer. Through dancing I can express my anger or joy; I can communicate a playwright's ideas in a drama and present the ideas to the audience. I am not merely acting another's part, but using my own language and interpretation to express a new idea to the audience, and perhaps even understand it better myself. The range of emotions I draw upon when acting comes from a deeper intuitive level than just "pretending". Of course, applause makes me happy after I have finished a performance, but the most important thing is I enjoy the process of practicing. Practices are long and hard, but they are not dull. I make them different every time. Feelings are not the same each time I perform the same part. I make it progressively better and finally I present it to the audience. I see the process, and I see the smiles from the audience, proving my hard works have not been wasted; this is the most rewarding present from everyone.

I love it when I am meeting new people and seeing new places. After finishing secondary school in Hong Kong, I was fortunate to receive a full scholarship granted by the United World Colleges and gain an invaluable chance to study in Italy for two years. The college is a melting point for many different cultures; being able to study here has changed my perceptions of life and broadened my exposure. I met a lot of brilliant people in the college. I have learned from them, which has also enabled me to understand myself from another angle. For example, when I am working with other students in the college shows, their ideas alway amaze me! The cultural diversity truly contributes to creativity and I believe I have benefited a lot from that. Apart from working with them, their life experience taught me a lot. By comparing myself to them, I sometimes feel small. I used to take life for granted and didn't realise that many people have to fight hard for theirs. One of my friends from Kosovo told me that in order to survive, he had to learn how to shoot for self-defence. I had watched the war on TV, but I had never had a friend who had actually experienced wars and it made a strong impression.

I love it when I am working with children, their smiles make me laugh. This year my social service in the college is 'multi-cultural social service', and I have to go to kindergarten and elementary schools to work with children, telling them stories about my culture, teaching them some simple songs and just listening to them speaking in Italian, or sometimes even in Slovene. It is a very challenging experience as my audience is young and sometimes it is difficult to explain some Chinese terms; I have to filter the information that I have and make it easier for the children to understand. I also have a chance to learn my first words in Slovene! This experience makes me become more and more interested in working in the field of theatre education in the future: trying to use performing arts to communicate with children, to bring ideas to youngsters, and bring theatre arts to a wider public level in my home - Hong Kong.

I love it when I am working hard for my dream. I know that if I want to make my dream come true, which is to become a successful and professional performer, I must overcome all the challenges I encounter as they are paths to my future. So I have to be determined. This is my life and I am the only one who can work it out. Saying that I am very passionate about performing arts would be futile if I were to give up and escape from the difficulties. I am happy when I see that I can balance my academic performance and my interests. I love to run to the practice room and start practising after I finish school at 1:15 pm. My dream and my passion for performing arts is the only thing I have held onto through all the years, both before I came to Italy and while I am here, and I believe that they will be with me throughout my life, helping me to achieve my goals.

I love it when I am happy. I know that my life is a meaningful one because I have all these things to make me happy and laugh.