Undergraduate / 'Living with mystery' Emerson Supplement: A moment in your life you had a realization [6]

I leapt. The illusion of safety enveloped me. The instructor gave the thumbs up and the parachute ballooned over my head. My screaming ceased. I saw the earth like never before.

Here I was, floating like a tiny feather in the sky, my mortality surrounding me, and I realized how incredibly small I am. The panoramic view below me gave me perspective.

My world often consists of the two-foot radius around me. It seems so easy to get lost in the human day-to-day experience. Everything in the world of the 21st century seduces us into a forgetful stupor. There is so much pressure to fulfill plans, pay bills, and become someone important. As I leapt off that airplane into the limitless sky, none of that mattered.

I peeked beyond the veil of my little world. Life happens in ways beyond my understanding. When I get glimpses of the mystery of it all, I often do not even know what to do with myself.

I think that is why it is easier to forget most of the time. Living with mystery constantly challenges everything we think we know. I am okay with that challenge. I'm ready.

Undergraduate / 'a slow, agonizing deat' - My personal statement [NEW]

Comfortable complacency has always seemed like a slow, agonizing death. I never want to become so stuck in the formalities of being human that I lose sight of my power to choose the direction of my life. I am scared of living in fear, so I do things I am afraid of. It was my fear of never finding the light that brought me to the light. It was my fear of not having the strength to live my dreams that challenged me to become the strength I needed. Fear is my greatest teacher. Instead of running away from it, I chose to see it as wisdom in disguise. It is an opportunity to grow.

I joined a new thought community when I was thirteen. New thought taught me about the power of intention and the wisdom of stillness. My journey became one of recognizing my inherent self-worth. I learned that everything in the universe is interconnected. I realized the only true power is love. It became okay to be imperfect and that didn't mean I deserved any less love. In fact, I was told to love all the parts of who I am no matter what they looked like. I committed to living a conscious life. Socrates said "The unexamined life is not worth living." It became clear that my only choice was to wake up.

Waking up is not always a pleasant process. You smash your alarm off. Your bed suddenly seems more comfortable than before. All you want is another minute of dreaming. Life seems like a harsh place in comparison to the sweetness of sleeping.

Prior to spiritually waking up, it was the same way. I wanted to ignore every "opportunity to grow". My comfort zone looked like heaven. All I wanted was to close my eyes to the truth and be blissfully ignorant. Yet, I do not want to sleepwalk through my life that way. I would rather actively participate in my evolution as a human being.

We are essentially made of nothing; our bodies are mostly empty atoms vibrating at varying frequencies. From that nothingness, we create ourselves. To me that is the point. We are supposed to make something out of nothing and enjoy it. We are supposed to dance with the emptiness. We are supposed to live for the sake of living and squeeze the juice out of everyday.

When I look up at the sky, sometimes I see the greatest masterpiece ever created. The moon speaks to me of ancient paradoxes. The ocean whispers tales of what infinity feels like. The forest reminds me what it feels like to grow. Life is full of mysteries. Chasing answers is as pointless as counting the amount of hairs on my head. It proves nothing. Therefore, with every breath, I plunge into the unknown. With every breath, I dare to live.

Writing Feedback / Something for my Creative Writing Portfolio. "Meet me there." [NEW]

The soil is richer there. It hasn't been touched by the invisible hands of coorperations. The sneering greed of the faces of buyers haven't placed their investing vision over this land. It's untouched. It's rich. It's authentic.

There is a heartbeat there that beats in rhythm with the earth. The heartbeat there is strong, thriving, and loud. The heartbeat there reminds us of our own beating heart, our own aliveness.

Yet, we deafen ourselves with blaring advertisements, we blind ourselves with billboards, we've been brainwashed to desire fluorescent lights and bigger cars. The earth may be hurting from this, but we're hurting more.

Our own authentic heartbeat has gotten washed out by the white noise. We forgot our aliveness. There is a certain emptiness that we are all familiar with. It sneaks in under the door when we are sleeping. It whispers in our ear in quiet moments of daydreaming. It shows up blaringly in the midst of romantic relationships.

We are all running from that same emptiness. Maybe we just need to take our pulse. Maybe if we stuck our feet in the ground and wiggled our toes in the soil, we'd remember our human nature. We'd remember the authenticity that comes with breathing in the sky.

Our breath circulates throughout the heavens and we get to taste it at any moment we want too. We have unlimited access to this universe. Our minds are only used at 1% most of the time. With this much pure potentiality, we must live as it.

We do not have to go out an attain it, it's right here. Beating in our heart, begging us to hear it.

"Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing,
there is a field. I'll meet you there.

When the soul lies down in that grass,
the world is too full to talk about.
Ideas, language, even the phrase "each other" doesn't make any sense."

-Rumi

Meet me there.

Undergraduate / Emerson: Why Not? A Story About The Best Excuse For Doing Anything [2]

We understand that the college application process often feels stressful, when instead it should be an opportunity for self-reflection. Stop worrying for a minute and have fun with this response. Much of the work that students do at Emerson College is a form of storytelling. If you were to write the story of your life until now, what would you title it and why? Please be brief (100-200 words).

Why Not? A Story About The Best Excuse For Doing Anything

Behind every movement is a person with an idea. I think anyone can be a Gandhi. He was a person, with a philosophy that he believed in enough to become it. We all have that capacity. In order to do that, we must challenge ourselves to shift our paradigm of what we think is possible. Changing the world begins within. I choose to see myself as a being made of infinite potential, thus, that is the way I see the world. People used to tell me, "Just wait until you find out unicorns do not exist." They still do. My reasoning may seem ludicrous, yet every leap forward society made up until now, once was considered impossible. All things exist in the quantum realm of potentiality. It is how we perceive them that make it real. Perspective is a choice. Therefore, we are in choice whether something is real or not. Impossible is just an opinion someone made once. To most, it seems idealistic to seek a world that works for everyone. It is up to idealists who refuse nothing less than to prove impossible wrong. I believe in change, and that is something I intend to see through. Why not be the person with the idea behind the movement? Why not?

I am 23 words over 200. So if you see words I can use that make the sentence smaller, sentences I can shave off, or any way I can lose a word here or there that would be appreciated as well. Thanks!

Writing Feedback / Facebook: A double-edged sword - a current scientific or social controversy [3]

Tell us what you think about a current scientific or social controversy. (in 500 words)- Mine is exactly 500.

Social networking could be seen as our society's downfall. However, considering the potential to use it positively, it may prove to be one of the greatest inventions of the modern world.

I believe that as children it is mandatory to make mud pies, build forts, dare each other to eat bugs, play dress up, fear cooties, and believe in magic.

My eight-year-old sister just created a Facebook. I found myself devastated. I did not want to see her get sucked in. When I brought up my feelings, she retorted the way only eight-year-olds can, "But you have one!" I had no response. I am a hypocrite.

Facebook enables quasi-connection. Profiles allow people to be as fascinating as the archetypes they wish they were. It is the ultimate time waster whilst time is our most precious currency. Before online social networking, the only way to know someone was to actually know someone. Now, people know everything about you without knowing you at all. Pavlov's theory of conditioning proves positive feedback creates permanent behavior. Facebook gives it through notifications. Our intrinsic desire for approval becomes satisfied externally, creating a crutch for what we can do ourselves. This allows one's self-confidence to be dependent on others. This encourages my sister to reach outside herself for approval. To be empowered individuals, I have learned strength must come from within.

Then again, what would Gandhi post as his Facebook statuses today? How many people could he influence in a matter of seconds? This power is at the end of our fingertips. I could stand on a sidewalk, read my poetry aloud and maybe a handful of people would stop, listen, and feel. Yet, I could post it, and with the benefit of instant communication, I would reach thousands. As recent events in Egypt showed, Facebook can be the downfall of governments that are not working. Through the forum of widespread communication, one can collaborate, network, and enlist what it takes to make movements happen.

Facebook is a double-edge sword. It can be a tool to evolve as a society. It can dehumanize authentic connection. It can create movements, inspire, and spread ideas. It can stop kids from a true childhood experience by making them grow up too quickly. It can be a mode of powerful communication. It can fill spiritual emptiness. Humanity is inherently interconnected. The internet is shallow manifestation of that. Yet we have the choice to deepen it.

It is about the intention behind it. It is possible to change the world if we intend to utilize it based on Gandhi's principles. We have no context for what happens next. It is pointless to hang onto what we know. Social networking sites are an entity unto themselves with infinite potential. The future is in the hands of my generation to make the choice to be the responsible co-creators of a new world.