Short Takes

1) What would you do with a free afternoon tomorrow? I would go to the local Vienna Coffeehouse to read and stretch-out on my favorite leather couch next to the window overlooking the main road.

Yale: You have already told us about yourself in the Common Application, with its list of activities, Short Answer, and Personal Essay. In this required second essay, tell us something that you would like us to know about you that we might not get from the rest of your application - or something that you would like a chance to say more about. Please limit your essay to fewer than 500 words.

Harvard: Occasionally, students feel that college application forms do not provide sufficient opportunity to convey important information about themselves or their accomplishments. If there is something you would like us to know, please inform us below. If you wish to include an additional essay, you may do so. 

Possible Topics:
- Unusual circumstances in your life

Finding Faith

            My eyes listlessly bored into the gastrointestinal disease poster in front of me.  The constant ticking of my timekeeper was a distant sound.  As I shifted my position on the examination table, the strident noise of the cover paper pierced the tension, awakening me from my unconscious stare.  A quick survey of the room brought me back to reality.  My mom, my anchor, was holding my hand, trying to fight back her tears.  I noticed the doctor, still present with the ubiquitous chart, uncomfortably still clasped between his fingers.  After a minute, my newfound situation slowly began to sear through my veins like a poison:  Crohn’s disease.

When the doctor began to give the notorious spiel for a newly diagnosed patient, my mind was quickly recounting the journey:  fifteen pain pills daily, my first colonoscopy, swallowing a video capsule, and missing enumerable days of school.  As I was handed a Crohn’s disease pamphlet, the word ‘steroids’ caught my eyes.  To finally stop the pain, the procedures, and the never-ending absences, I simply had to take steroids; however, there was a catch.  These Crohn’s killers have caused sleepless nights, fatigue, rapid weight gain, and personality changes.  After all I had been through, there was still more to be done.  But, my patience had reached its maximum capacity.

I wanted to give up, just let the disease cause me to deteriorate from the inside out.  A bucket list had begun to form in the back of my mind where I soon pictured myself visiting the Eiffel Tower, gorging on famous Chicago pizza pies, and scuba diving among the corals of Cancun.  I planned to just enjoy life without a single care, but one of my cares rushed to the forefront of my mind.  All of my fantasies halted at the thought of my sister Faith.

This ten-year-old girl was my world, my light.  I needed Faith, but I had forgotten that she also needed me.  Above all, I had to set an example of perseverance, the ability to overcome any obstacle.  If I were seen as someone who relinquished hope, then my sister would succumb to the same path.  I no longer saw the steroids as an insurmountable feat, but as a drug that could elicit this poison from my body, as well as my character.  I eagerly accepted my doctor’s steroid suggestion.

Soon after I started the steroids, that elixir of life began to alleviate the aches from my body.  Gaining thirty pounds over a two-week period and sprouting a new round of acne was undoubtedly worth the trade-off of the disease.  Only my family and close friends knew why I had instantly gone up three pants sizes, but strangers seemed not to notice because of my reinvigorated confidence.  Some nights I never slept, while others my face never left my pillow.  Despite my difficulties, I refused to use my condition as an excuse for school.  I never would have had hope without Faith.

What in particular about Yale has influenced your decision to apply?

It has always been difficult for me to bind myself to only one particular social group. I have an array of interests, from debating which movie deserves an Oscar to cheering on the Wildcats to victory over the Chiefs. I wanted to find a college with a residential program that provides a diverse, close-knit group with eclectic interests; this is the attractive quality of Yale’s residential colleges, neither dominated by introverts or sport fanatics, but composed of many types of personalities.

A Few Details

Please tell us how you have spent the last two summers (or vacations between school years), including any jobs you have held, if not already detailed on the Common Application.

For the majority of my high school vacations, I have broadened my horizons by traveling throughout the United States.  Last summer, I expanded my small, select friend group and made new relationships in many different areas, namely Maryville, Tennessee, where I also experienced my first “puppy love.”  While in Sweetwater, I ran every day due to my persevering self-motivation and the promise of a nightly reward: a delicious Sonic ice-cream sundae.  In July of the summer of 2010, I attended Vanderbilt Summer Academy (VSA), where I took an engineering-focused class and met campers from San Francisco to Chicago.  In 2011, I commenced the summer by traveling to Tennessee Tech University for Boys’ State.  At this program, I learned about Tennessee government and became a fictitious city’s treasurer.  Shortly afterwards, my mom and I took a road trip to Chicago to explore the vast, urban city, where we sported shopping bags as we walked down Michigan Avenue. While in Chicago, we toured the campuses of University of Chicago and of Northwestern University.  In addition to these various adventures, I also experienced my first plane ride from Knoxville to Oklahoma City for an extremely enjoyable VSA mini-reunion.  Cutting the reunion short, I mustered up all my patience for an excruciatingly long, twelve-hour drive to Orlando, Florida.  Once there, I competed in a competition for “Business Calculations” at the “Future Business Leaders of America National Convention.”  Having enjoyed my experience at VSA so much the previous year, I returned the summer of 2011 for a general course in the medical field, called “Medicine 101.”  Towards the end of July, I headed to North Carolina to visit a friend and the unique campuses of Duke University and of Davidson College.  Upon returning home to Sweetwater, I signed up for the cross-country team, having been inspired by my results from the previous summer.  Finally, I concluded my final summer as a high school student by relaxing in the tacky, tourist-welcoming streets of Gatlinburg, Tennessee.

Tell us about a person who has influenced you in a significant way.

Becoming Mother Duck

            In sixth grade, I was one of the only students who had to take responsibility for a sibling.  Because my single mother worked in a factory for a minimum of sixty hours a week, I never had the opportunity to ride my Mongoose bicycle with the neighbors or to perform in Santa’s Holiday Hoedown; instead, I had to ride the bus home with my sister Faith and to perform the household duties of cleaning and cooking.  As much as I loved my mother, I resented her for what she made me give up for my sister.

            Each day by seven o’clock in the morning, my mother was gone, leaving us to wait for that loud, noisome bus.  Still our home was empty when we arrived at four in the evening after a long, dreary day of school.  The fridge-door always had a list of my chores that I had made for myself:  help Faith with her homework, clean living room and kitchen, cook my signature Ramen noodle dinner, do my own homework, and make sure Faith brushes her teeth.  Around ten o’clock, I would stretch out on the couch just as my mother rolled her 2004 Ford Freestar into the driveway.  I heard her heavy boots fall upon the porch steps long before the door opened.

My mother and I silently acknowledged one another as she plopped onto the couch, simultaneously turning on the television and opening up her laptop in order to check her crops on FarmVille.  After all I had done, the cleaning, the cooking, she sat down without appreciating the hard work I had slaved over all day.  Still brooding, I turned my gaze to the television.  We were watching what seemed to be the most unfitting program for our tired minds:  a documentary on ducks.

These webbed footed creatures listlessly wadded through the water as the cameras panned through different angles.  As interesting as it was to watch ducks swim, I only cared for the chief patron, the Mother Duck.  This strong, majestic creature had the will to sacrifice its entire life for its little ducklings.  She spent her days feeding and protecting her ducklings.  This was the Mother Duck’s role in her family, while the Father Duck was always absent.  Realization swept the anger from my body; I was my family’s Mother Duck.

My eyes inspected my mother, truly taking in her character:  a hard-working woman who sacrificed a simpler life for her ducklings.  Unlike my mother, I did not mask unhappiness and pain, for the benefit of the task at hand.  Finally seeing behind her placid façade, I gained a newfound understanding of this role became lucid.  I had to become the Mother Duck for my sister, just as my mother was for me.

and it just started.

I got dumped.

Being wait listed at schools I want to attend seems to be the only response I get.

Vandy-the school I wrote my CommonApp essay about, attend camp there twice-wait listed me as well.

I want someone just to say: wow, that sucks. Then distract me with partying and cramming my face with food.

Because that is all there is to it.

teachingliteracy:

siriuslysalvatore

Discuss your favorite place to get lost.

Small Town, Big Adventure

Despite its small size, Sweetwater has many undiscovered places and treasures to be found in every nook and crevice.  I drive down my town’s main roads or weave through the tangled mess of country roads.  Whether I am with a group of friends or alone, I love to get lost among the little town that I thought I always knew and understood.  The adventure typically begins at the center of the town and works its way towards the outskirts.

            Finding new things amongst the scenery almost becomes a game to uncover a site I have never seen.  In town there is the abandoned rock quarry that has the most spectacular view, the labyrinth within the old military academy, and the rundown cheese factory.  The factory’s exterior looks decrepit, a place that needs to be bulldozed; however, at the heart of the building lies a room where sunlight has preserved ferns and wild plants cascading from the hole in the ceiling.  As much as the downtown area contains, more exciting treasures can be found when one truly peruses its winding, hidden roads.

One fateful day while on the outskirts of my town, I became lost on my way to a friend’s house.  The road was twisting in an odd fashion, and soon it began to incline.  Once over a peak, I had to slam on my breaks before emerging from the other side.  I was on the top of a menacing hill, yet I was anything but terrified.  The breathtaking scenery captured the rolling hills with my little town snuggled at its center.  Luckily, I saw my friend’s house from the viewpoint, close to where I was standing.  Once again, my adventures had not failed me.

            Although Sweetwater is primarily known for its large indoor flea market and the largest underground lake in America, I know it for its hidden wonders in such a small, unique town.  Within its bounds, I have magnificent memories from my favorite place to get lost. 

What work of art, music, science, mathematics, or literature has surprised, unsettled, or challenged you, and in what way?

Concerning the Safety of America

After the tragic events that took place on September 11, 2001, Americans felt unsafe and were in a state of panic.  Her concerned citizens greatly wanted to prevent future terrorist attacks.  The government quickly rushed to install protection programs, resulting in the creation of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).  Once the news of this new security measure spread throughout the United States, a calm swept over the nation.   At the time, I was glad that something progressive and productive was to be done in order to capture other terrorists and threats to my safety.  During this catastrophic period, I was only seven years old, and I had never read Little Brother.

            In the fictional novel written by Cory Doctorow, the main character Marcus had just joined his friends for Harajuku Madness, an alternate reality game, when at this fateful moment, the largest attack of terrorism destroyed the San Francisco Bridge.  Members of the DHS detained Marcus and his friends, chained them to the wall, and harshly interrogated them for information concerning the attack.  Some punishments inflicted upon these innocent teenagers included being deprived of food and “waterboarding,” a drowning simulation.  After he was released, Marcus also discovered that his electronic devices were hacked.  The possibility of this type of event occurring in current society unsettled and disturbed me.

            When I was younger, I had only considered the safety of America, and not given any consideration to the treatment of its accused terrorists.  Whether or not America’s victims and “terrorists” were actual threats to the safety of our citizens, the torturing methods used by the DHS were still inhumane.  America was deemed to be “the home of the free,” but Little Brother showed me that it could be doomed to become “the land of the unwillingly detained and tortured.”