Undergraduate / I always questioned everything, I am a very curious boy - Penn State Personal Statement [13]

Please tell us something about yourself, your experiences, or activities that you believe would reflect positively on your ability to succeed at Penn State. This is your opportunity to tell us something about yourself that is not already reflected in your application or academic records. We suggest a limit of 500 words or fewer.

Being the son of a businessman and the brother of a girl with a major in international business, my fascination with science was unique to my family. My teacher in primary school would always show the class various videos about the different fields of science. I learnt about the polar properties of water and how atoms make up everything around us when I was in grade six. Math was always my favorite subject, it was the only thing that I was good at in primary, and my love for the subject grew with time.

I always questioned everything, I am a very curious boy, but sometimes my curiosity would reveal things that hurt, hence they say "curiosity killed the cat." It's true, one's curiosity can get the better of oneself and this can have disastrous consequences. I know this personally, but the most important thing is to learn and move on.

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Undergraduate / 'Whenever you plan, you should always start early, since anything can happen'; CommonApp essay [3]

Recount an incident or time when you experienced failure. How did it affect you, and what lessons did you learn?

The annual talent show is held at school about halfway through every academic year. In my second year of high school, my friends and I decided to form a band and participate by performing a famous rock song. We decided to meet up about two weeks before the actual event to decide on a song and have our first practice. As time passed, we got better and started to sound better, but our lead singer decided to drop out since he felt afraid. Our attempts to persuade him into going through with this were all in vain. We quickly made last minute plans with somebody else who was willing to sing, but his voice did not match the tone of the song, so we were forced to change songs about a week before the talent show. It was a simple song and everybody quickly learned how to play it and the day before the talent show, we felt as if we were ready to perform.

The day of the talent show came around and we walked on stage with nervousness written over our faces. The performance started off well and the crowd was singing along and cheering for us, and as we neared the end of the song, it was time for my solo, my time to dazzle the crowd with my guitar. Engrossed in the rhythm of our song and the crowds chanting, I didn't realize that I was supposed to be playing. My band members kept playing as if nothing was wrong, but the lead singer was frantically signaling to me to start playing my solo. I realized what was happening and started playing. My solo didn't sound very good since it was both out of rhythm and out of tune since I kept playing the wrong notes. Fear took over and I realized that the crowd went silent and they all heard my horrible solo. I felt like crying on stage, but fortunately for me, I kept my emotions intact. I had failed and walked off the stage in shame along with the rest of my band. The rest of that day, I refused to talk about my performance with anyone, and kept my failure hidden from my family.

I had failed at what I thought I was good at, and after that incident, I did not touch my guitar for almost three months. It sat in my closet, gathering dust. I did not want to look at it since it reminded me about my embarrassment on stage in front of eight hundred people. I swore to myself that I would never play my guitar in front of another crowd again in fear that I would make a fool of myself again. Even though we weren't intending on winning the competition, I still felt as if I had let my team down and made us lose our shot at first place.

Looking back today, I've realized that whenever you plan for an event, whether formal or not, you should always start early since anything can happen. Furthermore, you should have a backup and always be prepared for the worst case scenario, no matter how unlikely it seems at the time. Today, I can play my guitar with confidence in front of my family or a small group of friends, but I don't think I'm going to get up on a stage in front of eight hundred people anytime soon. I rushed into it and I think that you should always take small steps before diving into the deep end of things. The most important lesson that I learned from this incident was to never succumb under pressure since it causes unnecessary stress and can have major consequences. I think the failure was worth it, because in the end, it really helped me to become a better person and learn a few new things.

Feedback/thoughts on how I could improve it would be greatly appreciated, thanks :)