Undergraduate / AP classes, UIL events, Academic Decathlon - these activities helped me achieve goals - Essay C [5]

What can I do to make it not bad...? Is it too long?

Considering your lifetime goals, discuss how your current and future academic and extra-curricular activities might help you achieve your goals.

Since I can long remember I've always been possessed by the desire of wanting to be as smart as possible, to gain as much knowledge as I can, and to be able to use it. I guess it can be attributed in part to my mother's insistence on education, since she was a chemistry teacher, and I'd like to imagine it is because of her that I've always had an affinity for the sciences and a wonder for the unknown. As a child, I craved knowledge; I wanted to know WHY things worked the way they did, I wanted to understand HOW things worked the way they did, and I wanted to see if I can make them better. Back then I had no idea what I wanted in life, or how to spend it. Even now, as an eighteen year old on the cusp of adulthood, I still don't have a firm idea, and I continue balk in awe when discovering something new. But what I do know is that I want to learn; to learn what makes up my hands, and pencils that those hands will hold to write notes on the paper that will help me to understand exactly what lays the foundations of our universe and the principles that govern it. So, with these ideals in mind I deliberately put myself into the activities that would best produce such results, and by entering into everything I decided to pursue with the same amount of passion for enlightenment- be it AP classes, or UIL events, or most importantly Academic Decathlon - by putting forth my best effort in each I was able to develop the skills need that would and will help me in my quest.

My goals now are the same as they have always been: to continue gaining information, to continue seeking knowledge in and outside of the classroom, and to find some way to know the "unknown unknowns" in order to better understand myself and the world around me.

Growing up on a small ranch in the middle of los montes brush country of South Texas, I was able to see nature up close, and observe the beauty hidden behind it's natural processes and cycles by experiencing it happen before me. Watching the sagebrush bloom, and beholding how green the land becomes in the spring, then watching it turn to cold barren earth in the rainy winter season taught me that there is order to the seeming chaos. Raising steers and lambs for our local National FFA Organization chapter and showing as an exhibitor since I was in the fifth grade gave me the capacity to uphold responsibility, not just for the animals in my care but also towards my scholarly studies as a student.

It wasn't until I had decided to join the Academic Pentathlon program as a seventh grader that my horizons were expanded. Before all I'd ever known lie solely in the many science fiction novels I poured over and whatever was dumped upon me in class. But there, in that classroom during the late afternoons of group study I was introduced into the cultures of other countries, the histories of past times, and the philosophies of people long before me. I grew intellectually and continued to benefit from what I learned outside of my normal classes. As a feeder program for later Decathlon, it would not be as encompassing, but nonetheless excitingly rigorous and equally the challenge I desired. However, come my freshman year I had no idea what I was getting into with Decathlon. Suddenly, besides mere history and literature and science- subjects I believed myself strong in- we were thrown art and music, and the very thought of having to speak formally in front of a panel of judges sent shivers down my spine. Little did I know then just how helpful and worthwhile it'd all be for the long term in preparing me for college.

In the Essay event, writing over topics I learned about based on the annual theme taught me to formulate an argument and put it into coherent sentences. Speech and Interview rid me of my timidity and allowed me to speak in front of another human being without shaking myself from nervousness. I learned higher math, acquired an appreciation for art, and found that music is more than just sound. The way I began to think was permanently altered for the better, and my intellectual understanding of the human experience on Earth in the various contexts of different cultures was broadened. But most importantly, Academic Decathlon taught me how to teach myself; I learned how to learn, to study, that results equal the amount of time you spend and the effort you give. Time management is another key skill I was bestowed. In order to know the vast tract of information I needed to compete at a state level, I had to learn how to prepare a plan and put it into action. Through this I was able to develop the scholarly skills applicable not just to Decathlon and UIL Social Studies (a more specific form of historical study), but also my classes, and I began to find balancing curricular with extra curricular a lot simpler. My passion for acquiring knowledge was reflected in class, and my AP scores are evidence. After high school, in college and in life beyond, I know that this devotional thirst for removing the fog about the unknown will help me to succeed and triumph in all of my future pursuits.

Ultimately, I find no greater goal in life than to sit down at a desk, with a pen in my hand and paper before me, and to write down all of that which I have learned so far, and to combine all of my then presently collected experiences and knowledge into something for the hopes that it might later save a life; or save time, work, energy; or make simpler the daily burdens for all people. By learning more about the world around me, and understanding the fundamental laws that create it, I might better contribute to society with the vision of a world where scientific advancements will end rampant poverty, end world hunger, solve the impending energy crisis, and stop global warming as caused by increased fossil fuel usage. Though it is uncertain, I see potential in the endless possibilities of the future. Mary Shelley once said, "Invention, it must be humbly admitted, does not consist in creating out of void but out of chaos." and that is exactly what I intend to do: to bring order to the seeming chaos. What I do now weighs heavily upon my future, and so my actions today are but a mirror to what the future will behold.