Undergraduate / "the most inexpensive happiness" - commonapp essay [4]

What is the most inexpensive happiness you have ever paid for? Can you imagine that I recover from suffering, pull myself back to track, make clear of my future direction, and feel truly happy living just by RMB 0.4, 0.06 in US dollar? It is all true. In the world I come from, $0.06 is the charge of a steamed bun, the price of a fine meal for fancy carps in a nearby lake, also the cost of a simple ceremony that to me, means a lot and priceless.

The first time I stopped by the lake and got enchanted by the beauty of fancy carps was one year ago, a soft bright day in spring. The lack of inspiration to compose a new post for the school magazine kept bothering me. I began to blame the world for it showed little beauty by placing me in a tiny and dull school where everybody only thought of grades and exams, by abandoning me in a huge and cold city where aloofness spread like disease. Then I walked to this lake, which I would pass by every day after school. There was an old woman who was dropping breadcrumbs into the water. The scene that dozens of carps were waggling, breaking water and snatching food indeed shocked me, and their dances, the colors on their scales enamored me. I never realized that there were so many little fairies living in this dark water. The old lady told me, they would never let you see them unless you gave a little "snacks." This whole thing struck me: I can never blame the world for not providing me beauty or inspiration. In fact, beauty never jumps out to hug me. It appears only when I do something to find it, and it lays everywhere, most of the places I think it impossible to find its figure. Since then I understood more about inspiration, and of course, I did well in that article for magazine. What is more significant, I began to examine myself rather than to shift the blame to anything else when facing failures or brittle moments.

Soon I was the one who regularly fed the carps, and I made friends with them, even giving names to special ones that I could recognize, for I really enjoyed the time I spent by the lake - the only educational happiness I found, and it was so beautiful. The last time I visited my little friends, they helped me set up a life-goal, a dream that I shall devote at least four years to. It is no surprise that a senior student would declare a major for college years and think of a career, but here came my problem. Everybody expected me to study finance and be a banker for I was good at math. However, I could not shake off the dream that had rooted in my heart for 6 years - a filmmaker. "Which path is exactly the right track for me?" I stood by the lake and kept asking myself. Watching my friends struggling to reach food gave me the answer. Fighting each other for food is the nature of carps, and nature is something that even humans can never avoid. You can turn your face off your nature, your passion and your dream, but they never leave. I might do well as a banker, dealing with figures and functions years and years over, earning high salary, but the word "filmmaker" would always echo in my head, distracting happiness from my whole life. Do I have to live a so-called successful life in others' eyes by denying where my nature truly lays? I must say no. I felt strength aroused in my body and I wished I could kiss my naïve friends, who were still raising themselves out of water for the delicious bread.

Life is like this. We understand the word "happiness" by feeding carps with a $0.06 bun, rather than by earning $60,000 a month as a banker. We see what is significant from what seems ordinary. I now believe that only having a unique experience cannot shape a person special, but what he learns from everything that has occurred. However, it needs action to realize all of my understandings. Now you see this essay, and it tells everything I have already done to chase my dream. Yes, my parents support my idea and promise to finance my education; teachers wish me good luck on the road I chose though they must feel regrettable. The most important point is, I find the happiness of my own, and will do anything to make it happen.

Undergraduate / "Art is not a thing; it is a way." - Elbert Hubbard - FSU Admission Essay. [5]

Prompt:
For almost one hundred years, the Latin words, "Vires, Artes, Mores" have been the guiding philosophy behind Florida State University. Vires signifies strength of all kinds - moral, physical, and intellectual; Artes alludes to the beauty of intellectual pursuits as exemplified in skill, craft, or art; and Mores refers to character, custom, or tradition. Describe how one or more of the values embodied in these concepts are reflected in your life.

My Verison:

"Art is not a thing; it is a way." - Elbert Hubbard

I'm not an artist, at least not yet.

Art has always been a part of my life, however at first it was not a pleasing one. At the age of 4, I received the most expensive present from my parents - a piano. Though my piano teacher who would strike my little fingers with a steel spoon when she found mistakes scared me away from a pianist, music entered and soon spread all over my world.

Since then I began to own an exquisite collection of music. When still in primary years I'd found myself never able to part from beautiful melodies. This bound shapes me a fabulous singer, a pioneer music critic and a living iTunes in high school years. Post-rock, Indie, Brit-pop, Shoegaze, Electronic, Bossa Nova, Tango, Opera...my collection contains music of all genres and from all areas. I greatly enjoy the life expanding my land in musical world, sharing analyses and comments in magazines, recommending albums and singles to my friends.

But I'm aware of one fact that hinders me to be a true artist; that is, I never "create". I only sing but never write songs; I only lead a musical radio program but never lead a real band. It is so discouraging to face myself, fluent in appreciating beauty but unable to create. I used to consider I have no talents for an artist, a life where lies my true passion.

"You're wrong. You did create something beautiful. Doesn't this radio station significant?" a schoolmate working in the school broadcasting department once told me. With his words I had updated my views of art and artists.

Art is a reminder that you have a soul, that the world is beautiful. Through art I learn, explore, sense, experience and finally believe. It is more like a guiding light that helps you form who you are and find out who you want to be, rather than simply a statue or a CD. And artists have to understand beauty first then to create, for without a philosophy of beauty and life, one may never feel crummy to express. Therefore all my album reviews, my broadcasting playlists, my tears and laughter for those songs, are great training courses of identifying and understanding beauty from what we seem to see.

"Artes alludes to the beauty of intellectual pursuits as exemplified in art." The story of me and art may never end, and I now learn pursuing art itself has beauty to appreciate even when I haven't had a distinguished portfolio. And I'm so young that I should not be afraid to try, to create. I believe in myself and follow my passion to be an artist, no matter what others judge me or expect me. Art is a way to live my life as mine.

I might not have been an artist yet, but I will be.