Last year a big challenge came along that put my determination to the test. Going into the band room at school one morning I saw a lot of shocked faces and heard excited whispers. I was quick to jump up and ask what all the commotion was about. Just then, my friend ran up to me with a huge smile and said the band was going to London to march in their New Year’s Day Parade! Unlike most, my immediate reaction wasn’t a smile...
“Marco”. . . . No reply.
And that was the genesis of a true life lesson. A game of Marco Polo that gave me a new vantage point on life.
Summer 2012, sixteen years old, long overdue on learning how to swim. In the words of Lao Tzu that “A journey of a thousand miles begins with one step” so too did my journey begin with one step. A step backwards as I tried to escape from Omar shouting “Marco.”..
It was surreal. The fact that anyone who could possibly do that was astounding! My uncle then proceeded to sit down and explain to me how it was done.
In the summer of 2000, my family and I took a vacation to India. While there, I got a chance to meet my uncle for the very first time. In the midst of our vacation, my uncle came up to me, and asked, “Do you want to see something incredible?”..
I froze like a deer caught in headlights. I could feel hundreds of eyes on me, waiting. My mind raced. My heart pounded as I wiped my sweaty palms on my jeans. What should I say? I cleared my throat nervously, stepping up to the microphone and frantically trying to think logically. I began: Graphaspasm.G-R-A-P-H-A-S-P-A-S-M. Graphaspasm?..
I never thought I would attend the prom.
Prom was stupid. Girls spent money they had saved for months in order to look like Barbie for one night spent with boys they probably never liked. After all, it was always the boy who asked the girl to prom. The inner-Mulan in me resented the inner-Cinderella of the others...
{How does the University of Chicago, as you know it now, satisfy your desire for a particular kind of learning, community, and future? Please address with some specificity your own wishes and how they relate to UChicago.}
In the IB program, I was obligated to study an unfamiliar subject called Theory of Knowledge (TOK). This subject seemed elusive to my young mind at first; however, over the last year I have grown to love it. I see the enjoyment of a subject that questions what knowledge is, how we as humans acquire it and how true the sources of knowledge are, as signs of maturity and retrospection...
{SO WHERE IS WALDO, REALLY?}
Last week I opened the 3 feet by 1-foot wooden cupboard, as I do every day, only to find Waldo sitting there with a smug smile on his face. He seemed absolutely satisfied with the devastation that he had caused in that single compartment, opposite the desk on which my books and laptop sat...
Benjamin Franklin once said that life’s tragedy is that we get old too soon and wise too late. I believe that he properly understood how static and rigid man was in accepting change. Living in a constantly adapting environment, time plays a crucial role in endorsing the three roles that Franklin prescribes man to play.I personally interpret myself as being movable, unlike my rigid past self and yet distant from the innovator that I hope to be...
The summer of 2012 left an indelible mark on me as I took part in the Leadership in the Business World (LBW) course at the Wharton School. It allowed me work amidst a fascinating, international cohort, which resulted in the establishment of a charity called “World Youth Initiative”. This initiative, a direct consequence of my studies in the course, confirmed my view of Wharton being an incubator of incredible potential...
Last year, I got an opportunity to dress like a turtle and walk alongside the sea-walk in Bandra, Mumbai. This was no fancy dress competition. Instead, it was a pledge to create a difference. As the famous Mahatma Gandhi once said, “be the change you want to see in the world”. This was our collective effort, as Greenpeace volunteers to spread awareness about the endangered Olive Ridley turtles, whose nesting habitat was threated by the construction of the Tata Dharma Port in Orissa, East India...
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