Undergraduate / Bike Rides and Life Lessons- Johns Hopkins/ Interests [8]

Tell us something about yourself or your interests that we wouldn't learn by looking at the rest of your application materials.

I learned how to ride a bike when I was eleven. It would not be as embarrassing of a statement if my friends had not already surpassed me in their two-wheeler skills by age eight (ouch). It wasn't that I was afraid of it, or that I did not have the time. Believe me, between completing spelling sheets and watching afternoon cartoons, I had time. The problem was, I did not want to fall.

Children commonly fear falling, but I was different. My fear of falling morphed into a fear of scraped limbs and torn jeans, which morphed into a fierce determination to be the first eleven year old in history ( or at least my street) that had learned to ride a bike without making sudden impact with the ground. So, one summer afternoon, I took my neglected bicycle out for a spin. Well, I tried taking it for a spin. What actually ensued were five glorious hours spent pedaling forward one foot and then stopping whenever the bike began to teeter. Despite the frustrated words from my parents who had gotten quite tired of the endless "stop and go," I was determined to get it right, and I did. I succeeded. When I think back on that day, the thought of falling isn't as horrible. I now wish I had fallen and learned early on that the point of life is not trying to stay steady, but learning how to get back up again when balance is lost.

Undergraduate / When I was young, I wanted to be an Egyptologist / Johns Hopkins; Pursue what & why? [8]

Johns Hopkins offers 50 majors across the schools of Arts and Sciences and Engineering. On this application, we ask you to identify one or two that you might like to pursue here. Why did you choose the way you did?

When I was young, I wanted to be an Egyptologist. I remember picking up my mother's book on the ancient civilization and falling in awe with the mummies. That's what started it all: a mummy. I could not understand how bodies could be preserved to withstand thousands of years of elemental antagonism, or how a people so far removed from modern technological and medicinal breakthroughs could have carried out such an incredible feat. In my young mind, it was magical.

Over the years, my desire to be an Egyptologist faded, though my fascination with human anatomy did not; it grew, fueled by my aging grandparents and their frequent hospital visits. At one point, I could have walked the halls of our local hospital blindfolded; I knew it that well. It was the hospital visits that drew me to science. I began to observe the staff work, as well as the patients they worked on, and began to wonder how it was possible, just as I had with the mummies. I was older then and understood some science, but it was not until I began to take true science courses that it all began to fit together in biology and chemistry. I loved these subjects immediately. They drew me in and refused to let me go (not that I would ever want them to). Through these majors, I want to learn of the How and Why of our bodies. Most importantly, like the ancient Egyptians, I want to help preserve life.