College Application Essay: October 2002
EXCERPTS
Freshman To Senior

Think back to what you were like as a student and as a person in your first year of high school. Consider yourself now. Tell us how you have changed, and why. We are more interested in learning about how you have changed or grown as a result of an experience rather than details of the experience itself.

I vividly recall my first day of high school. I walked inside the school, found my homeroom, entered the empty classroom, and leaned against a desk. It slipped out from underneath my body and fell to the ground, creating a commotion that resulted in my new teacher rushing into the room and screaming.

Thankfully, my first minutes as a student at Damascus High School did not set the tone for the coming years. I entered ninth grade as an introverted, shy student with several close friends and less-than-stellar grades -- a typical, run-of-the-mill student. Now, as I experience grade twelve, I am an outgoing, extroverted, involved young adult, passionate and optimistic.

I attribute this change to my experiences at DHS. During my first year at Damascus, I was another face in the crowd. I formed no real relationships with staff members, participated only tangentially in student government, and rode home on my bus at 2:10pm. By senior year, my high school is a family. Familiar faces, friendly smiles, greetings from friends and faculty.

In my first two years at Damascus, I was more active outside of school. As a Senior Editor of a popular video game news web site, I enjoyed conducting interviews and sharing information with multitudes of fans -- usually without my interviewees or sources realizing my young age. I ended up spending much more time writing about games than actually playing them. I attended the Electronic Entertainment Expo in Los Angeles, California and a "Silicon Summit" in New York City. These real-world experiences strengthened my ambitions to become a journalist.

My fatherŐs death was a significant transition point during my high school career. The day following first semester final exams in tenth grade, my father collapsed into cardiac arrest and lapsed into a coma. Two weeks later, he passed away. My omnipresent goal, to always realize and act on the fact that life is incredibly precious, is a result of this agonizing experience. Indirectly, I became more involved in school activities. In retrospect, I was reaching out to close friends and groups of people who could fill a void of loneliness I experienced. I also suspect that being recommended for two leadership conferences was a result of school staff membersŐ attempts to reach out to me and draw me into school.

Whether or not this was their motivation, it worked. I returned to school my junior year energized and enthusiastic. I finally had the opportunity to take Newspaper, Web Design, and other classes I had looked forward to. I became the News Editor of the ŇObserverÓ and attended SGA meetings more often than the class president. My grades improved, too -- a direct result, I believe, of my participation in school. But my true transformation did not take place until the end of the first semester of my junior year.

My ability to drive, coupled with the SGA presidentŐs efforts to get me involved with student government and my ever-increasing enjoyment of Newspaper allowed me to develop a unique niche inside the school environment. Meeting with the principal, participating in conversations about the future of programs, expressing a studentŐs viewpoint to a room of administrators, informing the student body of important facts they may not know -- what a wonderful opportunity to have. Becoming an officer with the county SGA organization taught me how students can create positive change, rather than just plan events.

My decision to steer clear of the distractions that many other teenagers face was a conscious and intelligent decision. I enjoy spending time with friends, but if the topic turns to alcohol or drug use, my opinion usually becomes crystal clear. I believe that my ambitions and dreams are a compelling reason not to commit crime and damage my own body. Had I been directly confronted with these so-called opportunities in ninth grade, I might have made the wrong decision. But thanks to my maturity as a person, by the time I had to seriously consider whether or not to participate, the decision was easy.

My ambitions have grown by leaps and bounds during my high school career. Since 9th grade, I have more clearly focused my dream of becoming a journalist. While I am more passionate about the field now than ever before, my dream has also become more broad. At first, I had assumed I wanted to become a broadcast journalist. Now I have broadened my horizons to newspapers and the Internet.

While I may still be shy in certain situations, I am no longer the wallflower I was in ninth and tenth grade. My transformation has been readily evident to my family and friends. While I was assisted and nurtured by many people, in the end it was my initiative, passion, and ambition that created the person I am proud to be today.