Four years ago, I was an enigma to myself. I was lost in the desires of what others wanted me to be. Since then, I have weathered three years of high school – three years in my small town – and I can tell that I am beginning to change. I do not know when this change occurred. All I know is that it did. Before high school, I had not known life outside my hometown of Hickory, North Carolina. I thought...

Message in a Bottle - UNC Chapel Hill If I were to put a message in a bottle, mine would be “Should we use our power of influence to influence the way others are influenced?” Influence is a word that defines a generation. I believe that there is something about the way that society defines this word that gives it a different meaning than what it actually means. It has become a word with a negative connotation, just as “feminism,” �...

Question Everything In an attempt to find simplicity in an intricate and complex world, humans seek answers. Whether exploring the enigma that engulfs the material world or the concept of a supreme being, they ultimately find that there is more to life than we can ever begin to understand. Scholars and scientists have always posed the question, “How much should we be able to understand about the universe?” But with more questions comes even more ideas to be questioned. In...

Write about a fictional character that inspired you. “Ya’ll smoke to enjoy it. I smoke to die,” says Alaska Young, the self-destructive, enigmatic protagonist of John Green’s Looking for Alaska. At her core, Alaska is the gorgeous, screwed-up, vanilla-and-cigarette scented girl next door. She is haunted by ghosts of her past while building barriers to prevent the feelings from surfacing. Her mother’s death causes Alaska to envelop the guilt and blame for the accident, causing her future...

Adjacent to the Influence - UVA Influence: a word that defines a generation. I believe that there is something about the way that society defines this word that gives it a different meaning than what it actually means. It has become a word with a negative connotation, just as “feminism,” “liberal,” and “homosexual.” However, as with those three words, there is a deeper meaning to the word. Teenagers are often told to live a life that is “above the influence.”...

Series you were obsessed with - UVA My obsession with Harry Potter began when I was merely 10 years old. After a decade of indulging in the magical world filled with friendship, compassion, quests, downfalls, and triumphs, the end was in sight. I grew up alongside JK Rowling’s characters, and they, secretly, became some of my closest friends. I would always grab a book and sit next to the fireplace whenever I needed an escape, because the story was so...

Where's Waldo? My name is Waldo. I am from a small town that was once a vast space full of trees, plants, and other vegetation. One day, someone had a grand idea. A person decided to cut down all the trees and rip up all the plants. Why would someone do this? The answer is simple, obviously. Someone wanted to build a city – a city that would thrive and do as well as those heard of in vivid tales. A...

My favorite course thus far in college has been Introduction to Jazz. I have never been a big fan of studying music, but...

I interviewed with representatives from both Duke and Georgetown. The interview process was very casual and comfortable. I met the Georgetown interviewer at a coffee shop and the Duke interviewer at a...

Open-minded, Ambitious,...

I ultimately chose to go to UNC because when I visited, I found the people I met on the campus...

Post-college, I am planning on pursuing a career in...