Man's Search For Meaning - Admission/Application Essay Example

Although we may have expressed playful desires to become firefighters, doctors or even astronauts while we were kids, the reality is even more sobering and scary. In each of the stories that follow, we find that the protagonists or writers are on a quest for meaning. They want to make something of their lives before it is too late. From the poetic diction of Matthew Dickman’s ‘All American Poem’, to Kenneth Lonergan’s play ‘This is Our Youth’, Ann Patchett’s ‘What Now?’ to David Foster Wallace’s ‘This is Water’, and ‘How Tracy Austin Broke My Heart’- we see comparative instances of adolescents all in a quest for their place in society.

Discussion Birth, life and the drudgery of daily existence- that’s what pervades most of our lives most of the time. We all strive to do the best we can under our present circumstances, playing the cards life has dealt us or creating our own futures so that we can settle down to a lifestyle of some degree of fulfillment. It’s a rat race and a competitive world out there, and one must be wary and watchful of the machinations and devices of others. If we are not careful in managing our careers, no one else will do it for us.

We are our own best friends and own worst critics. But this sense of maturity is not just a function of our ages. We need to go out in the real world and lay a line. Will someone be interested in us and our skills? It depends a lot on what we have to offer and also on the state of the competition and the market in general. It’s up to us to make the first move and the first impression. Experience is the name we will give to our mistakes. Looking back, it would seem so funny and so amusing in about twenty years time-but for now it is all that matters.

Let’s start with David Foster Wallace’s 2005 speech entitled ‘This is Water’ (Wallace, 2009, 1). In this speech given to Kenyon University’s graduating class of 2005, Wallace tries to tell them about what is important in life and what isn’t. He reminds them that the only value of a good education is how it makes you think and prepare for real life and how to react to what it throws in your path. You can take a lemon and make lemonade, open up a shell and find a diamond- it’s all up to you.

But the important part is never to give up, rather you need to make concerted and continued efforts until you are successful and have identified your niche or profession- and then make a name for yourself in it. The struggle is as important as the triumph. The other truth is that we all see life through our own rose colored glasses- what experience we get out of events are certainly personal and individual and not everyone is affected in the same way. Looking at what he has written about his favorite tennis player Tracy Austin in ‘How Tracy Austin Broke My Heart’ and how he was disappointed on reading her autobiography ‘Beyond Center Court: My Story’, he laments that the people we consider as gods or heroes sadly dominate in only one area of life- and that is the game they excel in.

He seems appalled that Austin is very complacent and non-committal as she beats Chris Evert to tie the first game of the US Open in 1979. She just sees it as another victory. It is as if champions of the game have been transformed into machines that hit ace after ace and win game after game. Never mind what one thinks of Pete Sampras, Tracy Austin and the rest- they can be shallow when they are not talking about the