Undergraduate / Common App Essay - Piano [15]

It's a bit long so I don't know if that could make the reader lose interest. Any suggestions/corrections/etc. are appreciated!

I was probably first exposed to Bach while in the womb. My father - a huge advocate of classical music - only felt it appropriate that his two daughters learn to play the piano. At the mere age of five, I would not hear of it. Rather than playing with friends, it was expected that I practice for two hours everyday. I screamed and cried and threw my fists in the air but all of it amounted to nothing.

The moment I walked past my front door after school, I was overcome with anger. There, adjacent to the brick-red walls of the living room, was a giant, mahogany oak structure - a piano. Its presence taunted me. One tear silently traveled down my face and found a happy landing spot on my left clavicle. I brushed it off and ran to my room. With a slam of my door all of the anger that resided in my chest released and I sobbed. I just couldn't understand why my parents would do this to me! While all of the other children were hop-scotching down the sidewalks or creating scenarios with their Malibu Barbie's, I would be at home, sitting on a hard bench, repeating the same silly songs until I perfected them. I was in a prison of F Flats and C Majors.

A week later, a knock on the door echoed through the house. On the opposite side was a woman in a tacky blue outfit. Her name was Mrs. Mayock and she was a 60 year old woman with scarce yellow hair covering her very pale scalp. She would be my piano teacher for many years. I sat on the couch with a smirk on my face as I witnessed my sister struggle through her first lesson. The time came and it was my turn. My feet dragged on the tile floor and I sat on the bench. My back remained slumped despite the number of times Mrs. Mayock told me to straighten up. I tried to make this lesson so difficult she would never want to come back again. Looking prim and proper, she sat down, and began the lesson. I watched as her hands gracefully flew along the keys as she told me of all the scales and chords.

"Okay Christine," she said encouragingly, "I want you to repeat what I just did." I smiled, placed my finger on what I would later learn to be C Major, and pushed down.

The minute my finger pushed the key down a lush sound enriched my ears. Every time the tip of my finger toughed those ivory keys, a shock went through me. A spark deep inside my soul was finally ignited. I struggled, but that only motivated me to improve. That lesson I learned my first song - "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star." I practiced religiously.

The next few months I learned more songs, all of which were childish and simple. Because my sister, Sally, was six years older than I, she was learning at a much faster pace. She was already moving on to classical composers like Beethoven, Mozart, and Debussy. Meanwhile, I kept learning from the same book with the child caricatures playing the piano. Envy burned within and I had a strong desire to learn more challenging songs. I would look at the sheets of music Sally played from and craved to understand the notes on them. A passion burned inside to play Mozart's "Alla Turca" and Chopin's "Nocturne in E Minor." Mrs. Mayock was our instructor for about five years, until we moved.

After Mrs. Mayock left, I decided to cheat on the piano. I experimented with other instruments like the flute and guitar, but none satisfied me like the piano did. My heart tore a little each time I passed the piano. Finally, my sophomore year of high school, I had enough. I sat down on the bench, opened a book, and began to teach myself "Fur Elise". I already knew how to read notes and soon I was able to play the entire song flawlessly. I felt whole again. It became my goal to learn a new song by the end of every month. By the end of my junior year, I had mastered a variety of songs ranging from Brahms' "Hungarian Dance" to Chopin's "Fantasie Impromptu".

Music is often called a universal language. Every listener hears a different story in a song, whether it be of love, life, or turmoil. Piano has increased my knowledge of culture and tested me in ways I had never anticipated. When feeling "out of tune", a simple song or even a scale allows me to channel my emotions and think more clearly. Just like a piano, the outcome of my life all depends on how I play it.

Undergraduate / BU Supplement (I have many connections with Boston) [8]

The prompt is about who/what influenced me to apply to BU. The limit is 2000 characters and right now I'm a little over so if you could help me cut down anything that I don't really need, I'd appreciate that. I just finished but I feel that it reads a bit choppy. Any suggestions, critiques, grammatical corrections, etc are appreciated.

When I was 12 years old, my family and I flew to Boston to hold my First Communion. Since my sister was a senior in high school at the time, she figured it wouldn't hurt to look into Boston University. Bundled up, we left the house we were staying at and drove up. As my eyes looked to the sky, I fell in love. There was the campus that Martin Luther King, Jr. himself studied at. While my family and I walked through the campus all I could do was fantasize about a time when I would be graduating high school and going to college. Each scenario that I created, Boston University served as the setting. Unfortunately, our long-distance relationship failed and the dreams created soon faded into nothing. I returned to Florida uninterested in adulthood and college and preoccupied myself with petty pre-teen problems.

I suppose true love never dies, for when the time came for me to look into my own schools this year, the flame between Boston University and I reignited. The campus tour and information session my family and I took only added fuel to the fire of my burning love for this school. The more I learned, the more I realized that Boston University presents me with all of the opportunities necessary to succeed.

Located in the heart of Boston, I will be swimming in a pool of diversity. There are hundreds of people to meet and the city itself is enveloped in museums and historical landmarks. All of this will present me with many cultural opportunities and a chance to become more socially aware.

Since I am currently undecided in regard to what I wish to major in, the variety of classes offered by the College of Arts and Sciences will help guide me. I was reading a pamphlet and became particularly interested in Ha Jin, the Professor of Creative Writing. I would be honored to take a class with such a respected man. The fact that he has won the PEN/Faulkner Award twice and has even written and received an award for a novel shows that he has tremendous passion in the subject and I can only imagine the information I will take from his class.

I crave to abandon my suburban roots and live in a city. Although there are hundreds of other schools I could go to in Boston, BU is the only one that has such an active student community and great clubs to get involved with. There are clubs ranging from athletics to religious and through these clubs, I can perhaps discover my true passion in life. I am especially interested in the Alternative Spring Break trip and the Hug Don't Hate Club.

Despite the intimidating size of Boston University, I feel that I will not be a lost fish in a sea of others. It seems that the school goes to amazing lengths to accommodate every student and create their home away from home.