Undergraduate / Random Order Reading - UVA Quirks [3]

Please help me with constructive criticism for my UVA sup. essay! Prompt: "Describe one of your quirks and why it is a part of who you are"

I annotate the page with the quick, erratic scribbles of a cheap ballpoint pen, furrowing my brow quizzically at the spread of words that line the translucent yellowed paper with a laser-like precision. My exterior is that of a poised and collected prep, but it is in my novels that the rapid-fire ricochet within my mind is revealed. It is my triumph, my family's amusement, and my teacher's frustration: I always read novels in random order. I have no definite pattern, but I tend to read the first few pages, then flip hurriedly to the last page before sporadically reading chapters in between. My eyes eagerly drink in the words, question after question popping into my head as I try to piece the warped puzzle together. With the commonplace safety net of chronological order removed from my experience, every page becomes tinged with mystery and anticipation, be it from Pedro Páramo or Emma. My quirk is driven by an insatiable inquisitiveness and a perspective unlike any other. While some argue that this practice detracts from the literary beauty and cohesiveness of the book, I say to hell with beauty and cohesiveness. I blaze through the book on a path that has yet to be forged, finding meaning in the unorthodox, the untested, and the inexplicable. By rejecting the obvious, refusing to settle, and enduring the status quo, I am able to apply this singular quirk to all aspects of my life, both inside and outside the classroom. In my brief but eventful 17 years of life, I have yet to encounter another person who partakes in this habit. I am solitary in my quirk, my way of life, but I wouldn't have it any other way.

Undergraduate / Sassy afro'd women-UVA sup. essay [2]

Please give constructive criticism! Also it is 8 words over limit so please tell me what doesn't fit/should be cut out to fit the word limit! Prompt: "What work of art, music, science, mathematics, or literature has surprised, unsettled, or challenged you, and in what way?"

Massive, glitzy shards of enamel and rhinestone seemed to leap off the wall at me, assaulting my eyes in a visage of bold color and fierce attitude. I was at the North Carolina Museum of Art, standing there tiny and plain under the empowering gaze of the three African-American women that towered above me. All around me were the expected works, the plain, pretentious sculptures and the dry still-life pieces, but this unapologetic caricature of the modern woman had stolen my gaze. I stood there for a half-hour, taken aback by something that looked more at place in a Harlem cafe than a renowned art museum, snapping a quick picture before scuttling away to rejoin my class. This picture of Three Graces by Mickalene Thomas would remain my phone background for over a year, never failing to elicit bemused comments from friends. I tried to convey with wild gestures and zooms of the camera the emboldening power of the piece, but always fell short. The painting that had seemed so overwhelmingly audacious when I stood before it looked so lifeless when reduced to that tiny, one-dimensional picture. I became preoccupied with the inescapable struggle: conveying the power of a moment through the filmy medium of the secondhand. And here I am, tackling it yet again. How can I show you, the reader, the piece that I found so shockingly beautiful when reduced to the medium of the written word? I like to think that I am like the Three Graces, bold and complex, refusing to be made one-dimensional by a flat canvas that does not do me justice. I too have my jutting rhinestones, my broken colors, and my bold personality that does not always fit perfectly into the still room around me. All I can do is describe my picture, and hope you see as I do.