richieard
Dec 27, 2014
Undergraduate / "How I spent $1000 making a fire starter" Common APP essay [7]
Hey guys, thanks for helping me!
I spent the last few days revising the essay, I changed a lot!
However one problem is that I am 6 words above the limit, and I cant seem to get rid of any!
Once again, thanks for reading
I closed the side panel to the computer tower and pressed the power button. Lights flicked on and the sound of fans resonated throughout the tower. The machine grunted and creaked for two long seconds before all of the lights went out and everything came to a halt with an unenthusiastic whine. I crossed my fingers and pressed the button a second time and began counting slowly. "One, two, three ... nine, ten," I felt a bit of relief and continued counting "fourteen, fifte-" Suddenly, the machine gave out a long screech. Before I could disconnect the power, a flash illuminated the room that casted brief shadows of everything around it and formed a trail of smoke.
That was my first attempt to build a computer and I was in eighth grade during the time. Why was I building computers in eighth grade you ask? Well here is why... by seventh grade, our archaic Dell computer had withered to a slow crawl and eventually stopped working altogether the next year. While my parents went head over heels trying to figure out how they were going to afford a new computer, I humored myself with the idea that I could build a replacement. I revealed my ambitious plans to my parents and so I began my innocent journey with tutorials on YouTube and lengthy forum pots. One link directed to another and I found myself up at 2 o'clock in the morning staring at 25 tabs opened on my browser. Two weeks later, computers became nothing more than a high tech Lego contraption to me.
I had always been able to meet success through self-motivated preparation; I never needed any help from others. Thus, I was quite surprised when the computer failed. Did I not take every precaution? I began questioning and replaying the build process in my head over and over again like a broken record. However, no matter how hard I tried, I could not find where I messed up. "It was just a high tech Lego contraption," I kept telling myself while twisting and tossing around in bed. My frustration grew exponentially over the course of the next few days as midterm testing began.
Needless to say, my academics plunged and so I finally made the decision to swallow my pride and sought professional help from a local computer repair shop. Apparently, the flash and smoke came from a defective power supply and had nothing to do with how the computer was assembled. The shop owner was able to diagnose the problem within minutes! He offered us a replacement and would not even accept a labor fee for the diagnosis. I could not believe it, I was frustrated over nothing! My face must have been rose red at the time because I was asked by the shop owner if I had a fever while I paid for the power supply.
I smiled on my way back home as I recapped the whole incident and became conscious of my hubris. Throughout the whole ordeal I was obsessed with myself and believed that only my actions mattered. I was trapped by my own closed-mindedness (no pun intended) and unable to account for other factors that could affect the functionality of the computer. Ironically, I did nothing wrong in the assembling process, I was blinded by my perfectionist ideals and could not let my go. Additionally, I also learned that the world is not just about me, there are people who I can rely on for help. Had I sought help from the shop earlier, I would have gotten better scores on the midterms. Although the scores did not affect me in the long run, the dip in test scores would continue to haunt me mentally to this day.
I arrived home and carefully replaced the power supply. I closed the side panel to the computer tower, pressed the power button and started counting "one, two, three..."
Hey guys, thanks for helping me!
I spent the last few days revising the essay, I changed a lot!
However one problem is that I am 6 words above the limit, and I cant seem to get rid of any!
Once again, thanks for reading
I closed the side panel to the computer tower and pressed the power button. Lights flicked on and the sound of fans resonated throughout the tower. The machine grunted and creaked for two long seconds before all of the lights went out and everything came to a halt with an unenthusiastic whine. I crossed my fingers and pressed the button a second time and began counting slowly. "One, two, three ... nine, ten," I felt a bit of relief and continued counting "fourteen, fifte-" Suddenly, the machine gave out a long screech. Before I could disconnect the power, a flash illuminated the room that casted brief shadows of everything around it and formed a trail of smoke.
That was my first attempt to build a computer and I was in eighth grade during the time. Why was I building computers in eighth grade you ask? Well here is why... by seventh grade, our archaic Dell computer had withered to a slow crawl and eventually stopped working altogether the next year. While my parents went head over heels trying to figure out how they were going to afford a new computer, I humored myself with the idea that I could build a replacement. I revealed my ambitious plans to my parents and so I began my innocent journey with tutorials on YouTube and lengthy forum pots. One link directed to another and I found myself up at 2 o'clock in the morning staring at 25 tabs opened on my browser. Two weeks later, computers became nothing more than a high tech Lego contraption to me.
I had always been able to meet success through self-motivated preparation; I never needed any help from others. Thus, I was quite surprised when the computer failed. Did I not take every precaution? I began questioning and replaying the build process in my head over and over again like a broken record. However, no matter how hard I tried, I could not find where I messed up. "It was just a high tech Lego contraption," I kept telling myself while twisting and tossing around in bed. My frustration grew exponentially over the course of the next few days as midterm testing began.
Needless to say, my academics plunged and so I finally made the decision to swallow my pride and sought professional help from a local computer repair shop. Apparently, the flash and smoke came from a defective power supply and had nothing to do with how the computer was assembled. The shop owner was able to diagnose the problem within minutes! He offered us a replacement and would not even accept a labor fee for the diagnosis. I could not believe it, I was frustrated over nothing! My face must have been rose red at the time because I was asked by the shop owner if I had a fever while I paid for the power supply.
I smiled on my way back home as I recapped the whole incident and became conscious of my hubris. Throughout the whole ordeal I was obsessed with myself and believed that only my actions mattered. I was trapped by my own closed-mindedness (no pun intended) and unable to account for other factors that could affect the functionality of the computer. Ironically, I did nothing wrong in the assembling process, I was blinded by my perfectionist ideals and could not let my go. Additionally, I also learned that the world is not just about me, there are people who I can rely on for help. Had I sought help from the shop earlier, I would have gotten better scores on the midterms. Although the scores did not affect me in the long run, the dip in test scores would continue to haunt me mentally to this day.
I arrived home and carefully replaced the power supply. I closed the side panel to the computer tower, pressed the power button and started counting "one, two, three..."
