Undergraduate / BOOKS: Discuss your favorite place to get lost: UVA Supplement [5]

I'd appreciate it if you all could take a look at this and tell me if it's any good.

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There is a place I know that is full of the impossible, the beautiful, the wonderful. It holds many secrets tucked away in the corners, stories to be unburied, unspoken truths. It is a place where I can play during times of boredom or in sleepless nights without worry of discovery or danger. The best part? I need go no further than my own mind.

The first (intentional) escapades in my mind began as I started reading. I constantly rewrote the stories I had read or heard, eventually taking the basic mold and shaping it into a playroom for my own amusement. I could spend hours leading friends through the worlds I had grown, frolicking in the yard with only the limits of my imagination holding me back.

As I grew up, I saw my friends begin to shun our pretend worlds and turn towards other games, but I chose to let my game grow. Years passed and I started writing stories from scratch-all in my head-and, when I had a dull moment, continued to explore them, bringing them to life as they filled with detail until I could get lost and simply wander for ages, questing about for something new to add until everything was in place.

Although many people my age refuse to encourage their imaginations-believing that such behavior is childish-television or movies to entertain them, I have learned that the imagination gives one the chance to test the limits of his endurance.

Undergraduate / The public library (contemporary issue/problem) Richmond Scholar Semifinalist essay [2]

"Identify a contemporary issue or problem that has concerned you to the point of getting involved. What has been the nature of your involvement to date? Why is this issue or problem important to you? Please limit your response to a single page."

My paper is 3/4 of a page. I can't seem to get a good essay out of this prompt, but here is my most recent attempt. Any help is greatly appreciated.

The public library is, perhaps, one of the most understated locales in many cities and towns around the country; many people tend to consider it a free bookstore at best or a soul-sucking tomb of boredom at worst. In reality, that one building provides internet access and computers-necessities for many students and adults, regardless of their available funds-as well as seminars designed to help people learn how to utilize the equipment available in a technological-driven world, and programs for children to introduce them to their peers and many new experiences. And that does not even include the books, audiobooks, music, and movies available to patrons.

With all that the library does for the community, one would think that it would be secure in its funding. Unfortunately, local and state governments throughout the country have cut funding to public library systems despite the rise in attendance that many have seen. The opposing trends of funding and demand typically result in an overworked staff that lacks the ability to hire additional assistance, leaving patrons with less material and slower aid, and libraries with cut hours and programming.

All my life, I have been an avid library attendee; whether it meant going to school a few minutes early to visit its library, or convincing my family to take me to the local library, I was eager to go. I have participated in the libraries' story-hours, used their computers, borrowed their books, gone to their educational programs and activities. I have even been in the staff rooms with my librarian mother, and it was there in ninth grade that I first realized how hard-pressed the employees were. There were stacks of books waiting to be checked into the system, filling three carts almost to the bursting point, and another three waiting to be shelved where patrons could view them.

It seemed wrong that all those books were locked away in a back room, that the patrons could not borrow them, and I knew that I needed to help somehow. The Summer Reading Program had just begun and there were plenty of volunteer spaces to fill, so I filled out the right forms and landed myself a job. At first, I could only sit at the registration desk, sign up participants, and clean books-and that was certainly a bizarre assignment-but, eventually, the backlog of waiting books grew too high and I was trained in shelving. I took to the task quickly, thanks to years of roaming up and down the stacks, and was left to work on my own.

Between the limits caused by my age and the time spent at the registration desk, I was only able to volunteer as a page and shelve books once or twice a week, but with the help of a few other volunteers and the actual pages, the buildup of books began to decrease. Instead of five or six carts in the back room, there were two or three, the displays did not stay empty for nearly as long, and I imagined the shelves were fuller.

I have volunteered at the library every summer between activities and family trips since moving to this new town, and have worked to bring in other volunteers. In this time, I helped form the Teen Advisory Board which, as the name suggests, consists of teens trying the make the library more appealing to our peers. I have manned stations at children events and I sang with my schools smaller choir to provide free entertainment for Santa Claus's visits.

It may not be traveling to third world countries to fight diseases or hunger, but easing the load on the local libraries has helped enable a better educated community which may have long-lasting effects.