Undergraduate / Common App Essay- My Friend Alice (Topic 4) - place or environment [2]

Any help and criticism would be appreciated!

"Describe a place or environment where you are perfectly content. What do you do or experience there, and why is it meaningful to you?"

I have followed Alice down the rabbit hole many times before. The earliest instance was while I was in elementary school. I had grown tired of staying in my room, staring at the ceiling, so instead, I shrank myself down and walked through a large, rectangular portal. Appearing in a birch forest, I was temporarily disoriented by the monochrome scene. No one else was in the forest except for a girl called Alice. She too, had grown bored of sitting around and doing nothing and had chanced upon this forest. Alice and I instantly bonded over our thirst for knowledge and imagination, and we proceeded to go on numerous adventures together.

We encountered many breathtaking views and many people in our travels, the latter of which were always friendly and willing to tell their own fascinating story. A boy named Harry enraptured us with his tale of the struggle between good and evil and the power of love and sacrifice, while a girl named Wendy told us of a place where children never grew up and played all day. Alice and I decided that we didnít want to grow up either, that we would just stay the way we were exploring every place imaginable. Our quest for fairy dust brought us to a girl named Meggie and her father, Mo, who were both well known for the magic of their voices. However, even they could not help Alice and me find a way to Neverland.

As time passed, Alice and I abandoned the idea of never growing up since we realized that staying young had one important drawback. Our understanding of the world was only superficial, revolving around what our eyes could see. We wanted to look past the scenic vistas and examine the intricate links of life. Therefore, we became more focused on conversing with the inhabitants of the worlds, learning about their culture and beliefs. Through the charming love story of Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy, Alice and I were introduced to the idea of prejudice, an erroneous judgment of character. However, we didnít truly understand the implications of it until we heard the story that a girl, Scout, told us of a man named Tom Robinson. The injustice in this tale was so striking, it changed our worldviews forever. We realized that the world was not as perfect as we thought, not as pristine as it seems.

By this time, Alice and I had matured into our teens. The portals we walked through now brought us to worlds very similar to the one where I came from. These worlds taught Alice and me to see the shades of grey in between the black and white. Gone were the clear lines that separated right from wrong. In their place lays a gradient, a gentle slope that is so shallow that one can barely notice the shift. The birch forest that I had first entered as a child now had touches of shadows, creating imaginary creatures that lurked behind my back.

Now, as my childhood draws to an end, I see less and less of Alice. I donít think that it is necessarily a bad thing; we had to go our separate ways some day. However, even when I grow up, I want to remember how to shrink myself down and find that rectangular portal that will take me back to the warm embrace of my friend Alice, among the black and white trees.

Undergraduate / 'My obsession for ankle length socks' Mount Holyoke Supplement - Never Change/ Fear [4]

Hi, please give me some constructive criticism as I'm not entirely sure I'm hitting the right mark. Thanks in advance!
The expression "never fear / change" can be interpreted many ways. How might it apply to your life? (250-400 words)

My obsession for ankle length socks began in grade 6. It was time for PE and everyone had just finished changing into their gym clothes, which consisted of a shirt, shorts, socks, and running shoes. Unfortunately, on that fateful day, I had just ran out of clean standard white gym socks and therefore had to improvise and dig out a pair of blue socks that reached mid calf from my dresser.

Standing in line, waiting for our teacher to lead us to the gym, I stood behind a girl who wore white, ankle length socks. She gazed around the classroom, bored from the wait, and caught sight of my socks. She stared incredulously at them for a few seconds before muttering "sexy" in a sarcastic tone. Then she turned around and followed the teacher who had started to lead everyone out of the room.

I gazed down at my socks, feeling conflicted; should I try to make them look shorter, or should I just leave them be? Glancing at the retreating backs of my classmates, I crouched down, rolled the offending socks down around my ankles, and ran to the gym. I didn't realize that they created an unsightly bulge around my ankles until after PE class, when we were changing back into our normal clothes.

After that day, I never forgot to pack ankle length socks into my gym bag. I also never forgot the shame that I had felt when I crouched down to roll down my socks. I was afraid of what the girl would say to her friends during recess and what my classmates would whisper behind my back. I changed myself because of an irrational fear of rejection and as I look back now on the incident, I realize how ridiculous my reaction was.

"Never fear/change" to me means to never fear the opinions of others and to never change yourself as a result of what others think. It means to ignore the comments about your socks, your clothing, your goals, your actions and to be confident in yourself.