Undergraduate / "Convey to the Reader a Sense of Who You Are" - Columbia and Common App Essay [3]

This is an essay I might use for Columbia and Common App, the prompt for Columbia is: 'write an essay which conveys to the reader a sense of who you are.' For Common App, it's 'choose a topic of your choice.' (500 word limit) History is my intended major.

The majority of life is lived in the moments, those small things, barely noticeable, which hold the greatest meaning. The sharp definition of the cloud formations off Lake Erie, or the soft words of thanks from a homeless man at the soup kitchen will stop me in my tracks. I have made it my aim to look for these, whether they be in persons, places, or things.

Whenever the chance arises, I sit down and play the piano. Whether playing Bach or Bartok, there is a connection I feel to the music, to the composer who put his or her life into the work. It is visceral, consuming my attention as I look to understand the development, the sweet dissonances and resolutions. The ability to play an instrument, for me, is perhaps the most freeing of any ability. I love the chance every Friday to drive out to Victoria's house, where I have my piano lessons. She is one of the kindest people I know. One day out of the blue, she gave me a book on classical composers, wrapped in sheet music with a handwritten letter noting my progress on top. When I talk with her about the range of music and its history, its eras and composers, there is always more to learn. We talk about composers' societies, their struggles and the sweeping force of history acting upon them.

Before music theory starts each day, I have the chance to play on the piano in the middle of the choir room, where I find solace before delving in to four part voice writing and harmonic dictations. The other day, I was malcontent that Mr. Nogowski's lecture on European History had come to an end, but playing brought everything back together for me. These two loves of mine, music and history, always transition into each other seamlessly. I feel the same connection to historical figures as I do to composers, as though I can imagine myself there.

When I learned about King Gustav Adolf's fateful cavalry charge into gunsmoke and fog on November 16, 1632, I was intrigued. He was the fulcrum on which rested the outcome of the Thirty Years' War, and with it the fate of Sweden and Central Europe. To think that this King of Sweden could have changed the entire course of history, but yet he was found dead with his body stripped just hours after the charge, seemed absurd. That such potential should be snuffed out so abruptly made me want to know more about his story and that of the Swedish empire; to study the multitude of small, local narratives, such as those of the soldiers and people of Germany and Sweden, alongside the grand narrative of the King himself. This is what history and music inevitably become for me: the little stories, with all of their inherent details. Each piece more that I know changes me and the way that I perceive all of world history, and I cherish it.

Undergraduate / "A book that changed the way you see the world" - Les Misérables Macaulay Honors [4]

Tell us about a book, artwork, or lab experiment that changed the way you see the world. What was it about the work that affected you? How did your world become different?

The limit is 500 words, but I currently have 515. Any advice on how to whittle it down, or improve it in general?

Here is the draft:

There are certain works that extend beyond their time, written far enough in the past to seem of another world, yet that remain relevant to modern times; Les Misérables, by Victor Hugo, retains this relevance. In the preface, Hugo wrote: "So long as there shall exist... a social condemnation, which in the face of civilization, artificially creates hells on earth... so long as ignorance and misery remain on earth, books like this cannot be useless." Since I read Les Misérables, I have realized that the best of us are often hidden behind layers of upbringing and circumstance. I feel more aware of the world, more able to see the plights of its people; it is like looking through a new lens. What you knew was there before you can now see with clarity.

Les Misérables is translated variously as The Miserable Ones, The Wretched Poor, The Victims. The book's reason and emotion for me is in these wretched ones, students, prostitutes, convicts and factory workers, and their stories of redemption, revolution, purity and corruption. They are considered riffraff or vagabonds by the upright majority, but are capable of more morality and humanity than those who dismiss them.

Jean Valjean is central to this idea, in his journey from convict to honest mayor of Montreuil-sur-Mer. When he reveals his true identity to save another former convict from false accusations, the people denounce him and see only the trappings of his past circumstances. Too easily we condemn those who have wronged, and leave them to rot. I can now see that those at the floor of our society, or beneath it, can be wrongly placed in those hells on earth by societal blindness.

It has always seemed that those who have enough power over people to throw them to that floor, are by the nature of that power terribly corruptible. Les Misérables has shown me that there are exceptions. The book begins with the Bishop Myriel, based on an actual bishop of Digne. They are both admiral figures who defy the corruption bishops possessed during the time period.

After his ordination, Bishop Myriel moved out of his episcopal palace and converted it into a hospital, keeping only a tenth of his income - but his final act was his greatest kindness. He took Valjean in for a night and discovered that his precious silver was stolen - not knowing that during the night Valjean had also come within inches of cleaving the bishop's skull. Valjean is brought before the bishop by gendarmes, and the bishop tells them that he gave the silver to Valjean. The shock to Valjean's system was visceral to me as I read, with an indescribable power. This act of forgiveness changed Jean Valjean forever, and led him on toward redemption.

There are points in our lives that are cruxes for the rest, as that was for Valjean, which can be altered by only a few words. Les Miserables has shown the dangers and redemption possible in these formative moments, and has both cautioned and spurred me on to face these with fervor.