Undergraduate / The creative minds - BARNARD COLLEGE SUPPLEMENT [3]

D. Community - educational, geographic, religious, political, ethnic, or other - can define an individual's experience and influence her journey. How has your community, as you identify it, shaped your perspective? (250 word limit) make shorter

I have lived all my life in a small town. I used to think and I guess like most people my age felt that my town was the saddest boring place to exist. One thing I can say is that what helped me survive if I can say so was living next to bordering Mexican city. If I wanted to get some real authentic tacos I had the luxury to be living near a city that has just that. Living next to a bordering city I got to see different t parts of life that I was not accustomed to. Still Yes although I lived next to a large city I still was too young to drive and even if I could walk to cross the border my parents would not allow me to go all the time. Living near a large city was great, but what do you do when you are stuck in your life sucking dull of at town. No! I wanted nothing to do with my hometown we had no nice stores, only one restaurant, and a small movie theatre that didn't even screen movies I considered adequate and interesting. So what does one do? Well I did what one has to do to escape certain grim aspects of not being totally enamored with your hometown. I slowly but soon enough started to develop my own unique tastes. When I mean unique taste what i am trying to articulate is becoming interested in things because you actually like them. What happens when living in a big city is that by having so many subcultures it can become a bit weary and difficult to actually not be heavily influenced by others and actually still know what you actually like. Now don't get me wrong living in the city is great, a place like New York is where I have always wanted to live in. But the point is if I would not have grown up in a small Town most likely I would be overwhelmed by the heavy influence a city with so many subcultures can have/ has. Now I clearly see that I would not have wanted to grow up anywhere else. Living in a small town has led me to isolation but that has led me to creativeness. Living in small town has let me create my own voice without having others voices hovering over me. Just think about that guy Lou Reed he came from a small town in New Jersey. So having not much to do he became interested in books and music which led him to create some of the most inspiring and beautiful music. From isolation come the most creative minds.

Undergraduate / Meliora motto - R.I.T. ( ROCHESTER ) - Describe what's leading you to apply. [2]

The University of Rochester offers many rare advantages, building from our "Meliora" ("ever-better") motto that has inspired generations of scholars, professionals, and artists. Describe what's leading you to apply, and what

kind of "Meliora" experiences you want to have here at Rochester and beyond.

Like Rochester's motto "Meliora" I want to become something better than I am. My aspirations are to stretch my skills and understanding of my environment, the world in which I take up space. Rochester provides programs in which students are allowed to explore realms they never thought they would e possible to go into. This is a school where one is not put into one category of what they can do but given the freedom to explore so many elements of their flourishing education. It's an ideal environment where a student is looked at as a human being, one that is multi-faceted. My greatest wish is that I will be able to enjoy the journey of exploring the many layers that make me, well me. That it will be a place that won't crush my sense of wonder but be the mover to it. Rochester provides many opportunities, such as having a dual degree. This is something I aspire to have. Rochester offers just the ideal size class, where professor can better interacts with their students and students with their professors. Rochester is the school for me because it is there where I will be pushed to follow my interests. They offer a community where no matter what field one is in, they teach you how one field is linked to another. This gives rare opportunities to be involved in projects and activities where people from different fields come together to better each other in their own field. What attracted me the most about Rochester is that it is a school that does not offers leftovers of what students before have left behind from their education. Rochester is a school that works towards taking those leftovers and making them into something new and valuable to their future generations of undergraduates.

Undergraduate / shows like Lizzie McGuire - BOSTON COLLEGE SUPPLEMENT [2]

In his novel, Let the Great World Spin, Colum McCann writes: "We seldom know what we're hearing when we hear something for the first time, but one thing is certain: we hear it as we will never hear it again. We return to the moment to experience it, I suppose, but we can never really find it, only its memory, the faintest imprint of what it really was, what it meant." Tell us about something you heard or experienced for the first time and how the years since have affected your perception of that moment.

Forever. The word forever hits a trigger in me. When I hear the word forever it reminds me of when I was 10 and I would be laying on my bed thinking to myself that I wish my forever would be to never grow up and stay a teenager forever . Yet nothing lasts forever, but nothing resonates as well as forever with teenagers. Why? Well, because one cannot imagine, being this person, that it will not last forever. One can definitely see this being evident in our present day society. Everything from young literature novels to the internet. Where it feels as though nothing changes, because nothing that occurs there happens in real life where time is present. So whenever I hear the word forever be it in a song or in a book it takes me back. I am ten years old just wishing for the day I become a teenager comes. My mind goes straight to tv shows like Lizzie McGuire which centers around three teenagers going through daily adventures that a teenager experiences in life. I waited my whole life for this moment. Moments like when I would go with my dad's high school students on road trips or when I would be dropped of at his office. Distinctly, do I remember how I saw everything rose-colored .I'd see them wearing clothes I would die to wear or how they seem to have much more interesting things to do after school than myself or most people. When that moment actually came for me it did not disappoint me. Even though, not everything was as rose-colored as I made it out to be, within it lies a certain magic about it that makes it so wonderful to experience. My forever which I felt would be being a teenager, does not mean that is the best time in one's life but certainly a time that feels very peculiar. Now that I come closer to the end of this chapter of my life I have certainly enjoyed exploring why this phase in my life feels so remarkably peculiar and why I will miss it so much.