My College Admission - Admission/Application Essay Example

My college admission essay I have lived my life through mirrors. Often, rather than playing games outside with other four-year-olds, I stayed in my room and watched cartoons or TV shows and dressed up and imitated the actors. I had spent countless hours looking at myself in the mirror, tirelessly and all alone. Although this might sound introverted, I view this as being more professional. Among my most vivid memory was pulling out a stereotyped Pepto-Bismol colored bodice from a dust-laden corner inside my mother’s wardrobe. I draped the weirdly woven blue and white fabric around my tiny frame, pinned on gigantic, cartoon-like bowknot brooch and hurried to compare my costume with that of Sailor Moon, the most popular Japanese anime at that time. A perfectionist, I calculated the whole figure and proceeded with adorning it with head lace, over-sized gloves, and sparkling earrings. It seems strange that I should recollect this so fondly and accurately. Of course, I had no idea what ‘narcissism’ is at that time. However, I was more or less, ashamed of my so-called ‘interest.’ Mindful of the repercussions, I kept this piece of information a secret, deeply embedded in my mind as I indulge from day to day. When I was 15, I almost became an expert. Not only did I purely concentrate on costumes, ornaments or scenarios in books or movies but I also began to be keen on talking to myself through a “camera,” an inconspicuous mirror adorned with scratches as if I were engaged in a talk show. When I was the focus on my every single facial expression and diction, there would always be a tempo, which slowly and from all directions dribble out and made me believe the world was existing in a different way it had never done before. I could clearly hear myself, in which there was also a faint voice echoing with the outside world. No friends interrupting me with the shrill ring of the telephone, no parents nagging me about entrance exams to senior high school, no housekeeper barging unannounced into my room. I expect I must have experienced soul-stirring feelings as I spent that much time doing this “daily ritual.” Yet, I have not the slightest recollection of any singular emotion, just the placid process. Maybe to indulge in something just means to be engrossed in my life; it is nothing to do with any attachment or enthusiasm, just a regular part of life. That my existence revolves around the creation. Not what had been created but the process of reaching through that pivotal moment that determines, as the mirror has, the reflection of one’s self not for seeing but for creating the image that it holds. The logic of this world, which I understood long after, is such an enigma that when you are really addicted to something, the inside cosmos and subconscious mind would coruscate certain energies. This would let all the related information and opportunities, step by step, loom and haunt and approach and eventually come before you are face to face. I kept peeping at my true nature through mirrors, exploring what I really want, and getting brand-new perspective and horizon at every single time I floated up from my addiction as another brand-new version of myself. I have changed day by day but had no idea what would happen because of this. However, the positive energy inside my cosmos began to be visible. I step out into the interview room as one of the 200 freshmen candidates who would be elected to give the speech on orientation day. When I introduced myself and was asked to read a poem and a piece of news, something magical happened. It began as an aching, beautiful tenderness in the pit of my stomach, gradually bubbling into my chest, filling me with warmth and radiance, melting away all the tension I had suffered while waiting outdoors. Slowly, it effervesced into my mouth, onto my tongue, and into my words. As I spoke to the three teachers of my personality and experience, words of such silky texture poured out from my soul with unparalleled candor and cadence, and they were infused with a mysterious power able to activate my neurons. Suddenly, it had not all been futile after all. Incredibly, I found the voice that issued from my lips was just as rich as, as deep as, as strong as I had ever produced every single time I talked to myself and imitated the actors all these years. It was as though an inner self, a core essence, had broken free from my deepest secret and taken control of the real me. Severed from the reality, I floated through my inside fascinating world on that remarkable day. The mirror is now staring back with watchful eyes. But they are more than a pair; they are more than my own. The impression was something so indelible that the recollection of it is now blatant. It was no surprise that I was selected to be the only one who could give the speech on the first day of my senior high school life. Gradually, all kinds of serendipity followed after. Not to mention opportunities of tons of extracurricular activities came flood after the speech. It was exciting for me to realize that I could thoroughly remember all kinds of classic or subtle lines in movies and books or just some inspiration I got when I was talking alone. Therefore, I easily loaded them into my compositions. My Chinese literary teacher would be amazed if she ever discovered how many of my compositions and presentations originated in talking to myself! "You can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backward. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something - your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever.” This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life. I stood before the mirror; my desk was transformed into Stanford Commencement Address rostrum as Steve Jobs, world-renowned CEO, delivered his heart out into a pencil microphone. At that time, I knew I’ve already lost myself. I know that my chosen field is the path I have to take. They may be poles apart in contemplation but my personality speaks to them in different ways. The fields of literature and business both require creativity. In this, I rest assured that I have the capabilities to prosper. As Aristotle is famously quoted for, "Art imitates life." If there is one thing that I have learned in the hours I have spent on mirrors it would be contemplating. It was not self-admiration that led me to seek my own reflection but vision. A mirror is a portal that lets us see beyond what it reflects if we allow it to. Because what stares back in this piece of reflective glass is the truth, nothing more and nothing less. Contemplation led me to believe that I will prosper in my chosen field as soon as I am able to cross through the mirror. Read More