Undergraduate / 'a jigsaw puzzle' - Common Application - first question choice [3]

Prompt: Some students have a background, identity, interest, or talent that is so meaningful they believe their application would be incomplete without it. If this sounds like you, then please share your story.

If you have any title suggestion, please feel free to comment it.

A few months ago I was completing a jigsaw puzzle with my mother. She said, pointing at a piece with four tabs, "Look, this one's easy to place in the puzzle. It's a very usual piece." Her comment baffled me. I told her "I don't think it will be easier. I think the weird-looking pieces are the ones that stick out from the pile, making them easier to find and place in their appropriate places." She giggled and said "Of course you do. You're my unique piece. You're right, that makes more sense." I smiled as I realized with utter clarity, probably for the first time, the purpose of my innate weirdness.

I have been called weird my entire life. When I was younger, I would consider being weird a negative quality, but I have learned that I cannot change that part of myself, so I might as well embrace it. I am the type of person that carries a Rubik's cube everywhere-even to parties-, that wears "I heart Elephant" socks to school, and says random fun facts and puns. I also carry a plush elephant key chain that I have named Effie the ephalent (yes, ephalent, not elephant) and I have memorized almost every line to the movie Frozen. By eighth grade I had already learned bone and organ anatomy as well as symptoms, treatments, and causes of some diseases (in eighth grade, I was actually able to provide two correct diagnoses to a friend). My friends would tease me because I had more medical apps than entertainment apps on my phone.

Until only recently, my friends would roll their eyes at me as I told them that "a bolt of lightning is five times hotter than the surface of the Sun". Now they come to me for fun facts and additional information about the topic and material of their projects, homework, exams, and curiosities. Actually, a few days ago, after hearing about the Paris terrorist attack, a friend came to me to ask me about ISIS and its history. I told her a summary about what I knew about ISIS and suggested a short explanatory video that I had seen a few days prior. We also researched together a bit more on the topic. My friends still roll their eyes at me occasionally and say the usual "Gosh Dani, you're so strange" to which I respond with the usual laugh and "Don't be boorish. I take up space and have mass. I matter."

Being weird is an essential part of who I am and I do not carry this quality with its commonly negative connotation; I rather carry it with pride. I am one of the strangely looking pieces of the pile of jigsaw pieces and am aware that there are other strangely looking pieces that a take part in the puzzle. I have now come to understand that even the weirdest piece has its own place in the puzzle, that I have my own place and purpose in this world. But now I'm just getting too sentimental and blah so I'll end with this somewhat unrelated quote said by the energetic, awkward and optimistic Princess Anna of Arendelle: "Do you want to build a snowman?"

Also, it would be very helpful if you could include your opinion of the type of person you can get out of this essay.
Thank you!!

Undergraduate / GTown Acitvities Essay- Summer Shadowing [2]

In the space available discuss the significance to you of the school or summer activity in which you have been most involved. 500 words.

When I entered an operation room for the first time two summers ago, I saw the fireworks you hear about in movies when soul mates have their first kiss. My heartbeat raised to a point of a questionable heart attack. Every single neuron in my body experienced an explosion of adrenaline and dopamine that originated at my spine and rushed towards my extremities. My smile showed every single tooth in my mouth, but, thankfully, I had a light blue face mask that concealed my creepy smile so as to not scare the other doctors and nurses away. It was that day that I was able to enter the world of a surgeon and that precise moment that I knew that I belong in an operation room. (how can I fix this last sentence, it seems awkward but I don't know how to fix it)

I prepared myself mentally and through research for the first operation I had ever seen: a face-off brow lift. It was performed by Dr. Sandy González, a plastic surgeon whom I admire for his meticulous and awe-inspiring art work in the operation room. His surgeries are not merely for aesthetic purposes; they have, in my opinion, the most emotionally impactful results out of any other type of surgery (I also watched surgeries in other specialties and plastic surgery is the one with the most emotional impact on its patients).

With Dr. Gonzalez I observed a few more than forty surgeries. I have also observed clinical work and assisted in some minor procedures. Despite the length of the surgeries, whether it be forty five minutes or ten hours, I would stand in the operation room excited to observe every step Dr. Gonzalez took and answer the "quiz" questions he would ask me.

I not only watched the surgeries, but I also got the opportunity to interact with the patients at Dr. Gonzalez's practice before and after their surgeries. One breast cancer survivor who had undergone a mastectomy (the surgical removal of a breast) and breast reconstruction two years ago narrated with joyful tears in her eyes about how, despite going through all the "bad parts" and losing *a lot* physically, emotionally, and abstractly (i.e. healthy time), thanks to Dr. Gonzalez she can now have the self-confidence she thought she would never gain back.

It is because of experiences like the ones each patient told me and because of admirable surgeons like Dr. Gonzalez that I wish to become an exceptional surgeon and allow more people to feel the satisfaction and happiness Dr. Gonzalez's patients feel.

Undergraduate / The Socks and Uniform - VA Quirks Essay [5]

My school's uniform consists of a white (light blue if you're a senior) short-sleeve oxford shirt, a dark cerulean blue jumper with my school's insignia on the left side about four fingers below the clavicle, black school shoes, and white crew socks. My version of my school uniform, however, consists of the oxford shirt, the blue jumper, the black school shoes, and the most awesome, colorful, design-filled crew socks.

This summer I entered a heavenly sock store, where I bought three pairs of socks that changed how I would live thereon after. Okay, maybe not "live", but at the very least, they would alter how I would dress. One pair has a white background and differently sized brown and gray elephants placed randomly around them. The best part: on the foot's arc area you can find facts about elephants. Another pair is black with multiple Albert Einstein faces placed around the socks. Albert Einstein's hair varies between yellow, purple, and green. The third pair has palm trees, rainforest plants and a red psittacidae parrot.

The socks I wear with my uniform help me gain an identity, and confidence, within the boundaries of my school's regulations, which is why I have suggested to my principal to extend wearing quirky accessories once a month to the rest of the student body. I show my interests and personality through the socks I wear. I am obsessed with elephants and love science. As for the third pair, well, the parrot seemed pretty cool.