College Admissions Essays - A Photograph -- College Admissions Essays

College Admissions Essays - A Photograph Attach a small photograph (3.5 x 5 inches or smaller) of something important to you and explain its significance. At an age when my friends’ floors were strewn with toys, dirty clothes, or video-game cartridges, mine was smothered in paper of all sorts — books, magazines, reams of white and college-ruled, paper bags, paper airplanes. This pattern has survived, and it is representative of the way I live. The house of my life is built on a foundation of paper. Certainly this element is crucial in all our lives. From money to facial tissues to news to playing cards, paper is a vital organ of the body politic. And I, as a student, laden with schoolwork (and college application forms), should naturally expect to be particularly prone. But, for me, paper goes even beyond this role: Virtually all of my favorite activities are paper-based. I compose music, poetry, and prose. I do mathematics, with massive scratchwork as a by-product. I solve cryptic crosswords. Last year, I was involved in CX debate, which may be cynically but not inaccurately said to consist essentially of reading prepared pieces of paper in a strategically determined order. To me, paper is the natural medium for connecting the mind — whether in its imaginative, mechanical, or emotive capacity — with the physical world. Small wonder, than, that I find I express myself more effectively in writing than in speech, or that, on my habitual multiple-hour w alks, I often carry blank paper and pens to jot down any arbitrary thoughts that might seem worthy of retention. Even beyond this, my intimate relationship with paper extends to some unorthodox functions. I have developed a rudimentary sile... ...ell-checkers. And my dependence on paper embodies not only resourcefulness but thrift. I rarely buy new clothes; I use public transit (or walk), which appears especially frugal in light of today’s gasoline prices. Paper, being plentiful and inexpensive, fits into this scheme. Recently, I took this trait to a new height: whereas I previously sent paper to the recycle bin after depleting one side, I now make a conscious effort to use both sides of every sheet, thus saving on future purchases. Paper is the staple of my existence (no pun intended). From when I was six and spent my days filling pads with fantastical designs for houses, zoos, and factories, to the present, when I surround myself with sheets bearing drafts of essays on one side and systems of equations on the other, my life has been ruled by this ruled substance — simple, utile, and ubiquitous.