Undergraduate / 'The summer on My Space' - Uni of Texas personal essay [2]

The Following Essay addresses Prompt B for the University of Texas ( Choose an issue of importance to youïthe issue could be personal, school related, local, political, or international in scopeïand write an essay in which you explain the significance of that issue to yourself, your family, your community, or your generation.)

The lively girl I met over the summer on MySpace was not at all what I imagined in person. We had been chatting online for almost two months when we met for the first time at school. It was the first day of my senior year and I spotted her sitting dismissively in the corner of the physics classroom trying desperately not to make eye contact with anyone. When I finally succeeded in making contact with my supposed friend, Alyssa, she turned her head immediately and stared off into the distance. It was as if we had never met. All the pictures on her vibrantly decorated MySpace page of a girl with sunshine eyes and a permanent smile seemed now as a skillfully crafted myth, a lie. How could this be the same girl? At the moment, I felt embarrassed and bewildered. But now, what alarms me the most is that I am a member of a generation that has been socially hindered by online programs like MySpace.

My generation has always been easily susceptible to any new trend that crosses our path. As growing youth, our personalities are still taking shape and online social networking programs have affected this molding process. The latest craze, MySpace, has come with the most destructive effects. With MySpace, we can hide behind the comfort of a computer screen and portray ourselves in any way we please. The problem with this is that in real life, we don't know how to speak freely, negotiate ideas and simply be comfortable interacting in person. We have slowed down the process of learning how to communicate with each other merely because we are not practicing it as much as we used to. On a smaller scale, like my high school, many teenagers have already grown dependent on social networking systems because they overwhelmingly prefer meeting someone for the first time on the internet before breaking the ice in person. Yes, that's right. Alyssa wasn't the only one that had a false identity on MySpace. There were many heartbreaking instances of young adults like Alyssa, who still have not developed the confidence and social skills to handle a real conversation. When and how is Alyssa going to break out of the shell of MySpace and go to back to the basics? Though MySpace allows people from all walks of life and from all over the world to interact under one website, it is hampering the social growth of younger generations and puts them at a disadvantage in the future. Meeting a new person in real life has a thrilling aspect to it because one doesn't know, at first, what to expect. You can only be yourself and hope for the best. My generation has lost the passion for that thrill because it can easily be substituted by a simple friend request online. So I ask, what about the qualities of a face to face conversation like emotions and expressions? An avid MySpacer will plainly reply that a colon followed by a dash and an open or closed parenthesis will do the trick; closed if your happy and open if your sad. But there is more to a conversation than showing you are happy or sad with a typed smiley. You can't feel tension through a monitor and you can't type up the emotion given off by a passionate gaze or even condescending stare. I decided that the best thing to do now is just delete my MySpace. I know one deleted MySpace is not going to reverse the decline of my generation's social skills, but it's worth a try. As for meeting new people, I still find a way in real life and a solid hand shake has proved to be much more appealing than a picture comment.

Undergraduate / Prompt A for UT at Austin: write about someone that has impacted you [4]

I will never forget my first day as a freshman at Pflugerville High School. I vividly remember every detail of nervously venturing through the intimidating halls in search for my locker. I soon came to the conclusion that everything here was bigger, bolder, and faster. With my quiet voice, lean stature of five and a half feet and weight of about one hundred twenty five pounds, I felt that clearly, I was not ready for this. I recall that before my dad had nudged me out of the minivan, he said, "Son, it is important that you embrace this place and make it your home away from home because if you don't, the next four years are going to fly by and you are going to regret missing out on some of the best years of your life." At the moment, I just nodded and smiled merely out of habitual respect. The thought of running after the car and pleading with my dad to take me home flooded into my head as he pulled out of the drop-off lane, but the mere thought of embarrassing, let alone attracting any attention to myself, kept me paralyzed. It didn't happen in the first day, and probably not on the second or third, but eventually, I found a new outlook on life because of my father's simple words.

My father didn't take these words from a parenting book or a movie. All of his lessons came purely from experience that began at an early age. As he told it, his childhood was like a race to maturity and adulthood. Though he had speed, I don't really think he knew exactly where he was heading. When he wasn't at school, he was working for the family. When he wasn't working for his own father in the fields, he was working as a delivery boy for his mom's cosmetics business. His high school graduation came and went and there wasn't much thought given to it, just another stepping stone to "the real world." Thanks to his past, I had been given the blessing of hour-long daily talks on the value of life itself. Though I would typically tune out and set my blank gaze on him, the repetition of his lessons forced some of it to stick with me.

Things for me were a little different. I cannot say that I immediately opened up to new things when I entered high school. The truth is that it took a while to become accustomed to the role of an active high school student, but over time I came to love it all. Ok, you got me. I didn't love the unnecessary homework or the overly strict dress code, but everyday I would focus on not shying away from any new challenge or opportunity I was faced with. For example, I had always loved basketball and even though physically the odds where against me, I gathered up the courage to try out for the team and by my senior year I was on the varsity squad. I even took a shot at being in one of the school's plays but my successes in that endeavor didn't turn out so well. The point is that my father's lesson kept me in check with the realization that precious life will come and go with out waiting on anyone. I wasn't going to let myself miss out.

I have come along way from the shy, dismissive freshman I was four years ago. My father taught me so much throughout my high school career about taking chances and learning to appreciate every opportunity within the subtle brevity of life. I will have the mindset of living out my college experience to the fullest. I may not join every club or go to every NCAA game, but I plan to become fully integrated into the college life just the way my father had urged me to do in high school. I yearn for the feeling of familiarity in a world of cultural diversity and academic achievement. There is no doubt in my mind that when I graduate from the University of Texas, I will have no regrets. And I know for a fact that when my dad drops me off, my head will not flood with thoughts of running back to the minivan to go home because I will have a new hom