Undergraduate / 'a place of discovery and exploration' - Why Reed? essay [3]

My first encounter with "a place called Reed" was in a letter. Over a year ago, I received a few parcels from colleges the summer after I'd taken my first AP exam. Among the stack was a letter with an elegant griffin in red that piqued my interest immediately. It gave me a minimal impression of what I would come to know as the school of my dreams. In a post script, the note, "You can thank the College Board for this look inside a place called Reed,"-I then scoffed at the arrogance-was present. I couldn't feel more differently today. Indeed, if I could thank the College Board for whisking my information to Reed College, I certainly would. Because of that letter, that Pandora's Box, I've allowed myself a taste of Heaven, and anything less is settling. You see, in my eyes, Reed is a place where I can be me-or the "me" I want to be. The notions of happiness, adventure, the phrase "what doesn't kill you makes you stronger," spontaneity, intellect, fresh and crispness, and "bright future" all rouse inspiring thoughts of my potential stay at Reed, driving this humble plea for entrance at the gates to the rest of my life.

Throughout my stay here on Earth, I've been one of the best without having to try so hard. Schoolwork is easy; writing is easy; critical thinking comes naturally. It's because of this that I am not sure what a challenge is anymore. Deadlines are challenging, but intellectual stimulation is severely lacking in most of my endeavors, and certainly in the everyday rut. I long to be invigorated and enriched by my curriculum, and it's because of this and Reed's outspoken tendency for mind-bending rigor that I believe Reed is the place for me.

Reed has presented itself to me as a place of discovery and exploration, all by the self motivation to attain understanding, and drinking fun from it. The Reed student loves knowledge for its own merit, as opposed to learning for the sake of passing a course, or what have you. The Reed student has fun the same ways I am rarely able to-by spending nights in "the Hauser Fun Dome," by celebrating all but completely ignored Nitrogen in our atmosphere (there's much less Oxygen, but it gets all the appreciation), not going to football games, and by enjoying the beauty of a tree now and then.

The essence of Reed is like defining morality, maybe a little more impossible. Reed is so many things, that it's futile to decide what to love most. The total essence of what Reed means to me lies in everything that I-both as a student, and a human-love about your superb institution.

I love Reed for its size: I don't wish to compete with ten thousand other students for the attention of my professors; I don't wish to compete with the whole of a student body for a dorm, or to get into a class. I am a student who doesn't wish to be a number, and blend in a homogenous solution. I'm also a student who loves to question, but my schools and peers have trained me not to. My chief desire is to be among students who ask as many questions as I do, and long to hear the answers to my questions, as I do theirs. The small size of Reed lends itself to a much more vibrant and inclusive community, and because of the students Reed fosters, a community that makes an event of senior theses and has an entire week of joyous Paideia.

I love Reed for its breadth of academia. There is neither a word nor phrase in the English language strong or exact enough to liken the saying, "like a kid in a candy store" to "like a scholar at Reed." How could one ever decide what to do? What courses to take? I want to take them all! I want to do everything, I want to taste every kind of candy, I want to be a renaissance man. What's more than just doing everything, Reed does what it does with a reputation that utterly precedes itself. Reed is for serious students, but those who know what it is to live laugh and love. This is me.

I'm not entirely sure if it's done yet, in terms of length and breadth of topics. I think this thread will help me decide. For another thing, my impression of my essay is that it is disjointed and unfocused, do you find this to be the case? Comments, suggestions? They're all appreciated, thank you.