Sometimes it’s Hard to Understand Yourself
This weekend I heard a dean of admissions say, "the best tool in the college search process is simply a mirror," and I'd have to agree. The admissions process can totally be stressful because we admissions officers always tell you to “understand yourself.” However, remember that we are asking you to think about your life and ideas, but not to have all the answers. If life is about the journey, sometimes understanding yourself is realizing that the concept of self is ever evolving. Without further ado, I'd like to introduce the interwebs to Fury [Lahna] Sheron from Irvine, California. Here is her response to last year’s supplement question 3...and because she's so cool, a comic strip to illustrate her thoughts!
"Ever since I was a kid, I've noticed how other people exist. The way they speak, the way they carry themselves... I always thought it was my inner animator taking apart everyone's frames, every deliberate decision to move. But I was still unprepared to learn about the Chameleon Effect [Where you subconsciously adopt the idiosyncrasies of other people]. I realized that everything I did was someone else's at one time or another. Once, I held an Irish accent for a week without noticing. It was weird.
As I grew up, I absorbed more and more people's mannerisms, fictional or otherwise. In ninth grade someone told me "you really seem to know who you are." This perplexed me to the utmost degree. I thought about the chameleon effect and realized how I, in fact, had NO IDEA who I was. In that moment, I felt like a patchwork quilt made up of everyone else. Three years later I still feel the same way, but I've come to terms with it. The closest thing to knowing the truth about myself is to understand that my state is always in flux; that I'll never be able to definitely state who I am. I can attempt to understand myself moment to moment, but ultimately, my self is ephemeral, but then so must be the selves of other people. To attempt to understand others, I have to recognize they're ephemeral too... affected by environments and people they encounter, including me." (...245 words)
Check it out...
