Hi guys! I need some help with the UT Austin's most influential person essay. here's my first draft:
Essay Prompt: Write an essay in which you tell us about someone who has made an impact on your life and explain how and why this person is important to you.
I thought I had no other choice. With the BDC science fair only two days later, the most sensible thing to do appeared to be to quit and buy a working model of a wind turbine rather than construct my own. Although I did have 8 days to make my project I never really took it seriously, always putting it off and promising myself that I would start tomorrow. Science in general held no real practicality for me. Physics and chemistry were just mere subjects to be understood and not to be applied outside class. It was one of the lab assistants at school, Rehmat, who ended up changing my whole perspective on the purpose of science.
I knew Rehmat since the start of my GCSE A-LEVEL classes, but it was during the two days leading up to the BDC science fair that I actually got to know the man who I thought to be just a common member of the school staff. I was walking out the school gates, carrying with me my useless first attempt at a wind turbine (a plastic fan I disassembled from an old exhaust fan that was attached to a motor from an old video player), resigned to the belief that my only hope lay in purchasing my project from an electronics store, when I heard my name being called out behind me. It was Rehmat, sitting as he did every day after school, outside at the school gates chatting with the gatekeeper. A crease appeared on his forehead the moment he took a look at my model and he shook his head when he heard my idea of giving up on the assignment. With a frown on his face he asked, "What do you study for?"
Completely bewildered, I replied, "To get a good job and earn money, I suppose".
"Then why not go into accounting or some other higher paying field? Why do you study science?"
This question stumped me completely.
Smiling at my perplexed features, Rehmat said "Science is much more then an exam paper to score an A on. Science is all around you. You just have to observe the universe a bit more carefully to realize the true beauty of physics."
At that moment I thought I saw a side of Rehmat that I had never seen before. His usually expressionless eyes were filled with wonder and his dark features suddenly shone bright. He looked a man confident in his passion and beliefs.
Rehmat's ardor proved to be infectious, as we both sat together in the school lab fifteen minutes later and worked assiduously, well into the evening, attempting to improve my wind turbine. Although Rehmat knew little about wind turbines it did nothing to curb his exuberance in learning something new and experimenting. Surprisingly, I ended up having one of the greatest times of my life as Rehmat taught me just how pragmatic the laws of physics really were. I learned, for example, that Newton's third law did not only apply on a hammer on a nail but was also the reason why fans were bent.
Rehmat has influenced me in a way that no one else has as he helped unlock a dormant passion for science inside me. Although he might be a simple lab assistant, Rehmat is driven by his dedication to science which causes him to be contended with the life that he leads. A trait that is uncommon amongst most Pakistanis, be they rich or impoverished. His character made me discard my belief that riches are necessary to lead a prosperous life. What matters is that you find what completes you as a person, and pursue that interest to the fullest.
Essay Prompt: Write an essay in which you tell us about someone who has made an impact on your life and explain how and why this person is important to you.
I thought I had no other choice. With the BDC science fair only two days later, the most sensible thing to do appeared to be to quit and buy a working model of a wind turbine rather than construct my own. Although I did have 8 days to make my project I never really took it seriously, always putting it off and promising myself that I would start tomorrow. Science in general held no real practicality for me. Physics and chemistry were just mere subjects to be understood and not to be applied outside class. It was one of the lab assistants at school, Rehmat, who ended up changing my whole perspective on the purpose of science.
I knew Rehmat since the start of my GCSE A-LEVEL classes, but it was during the two days leading up to the BDC science fair that I actually got to know the man who I thought to be just a common member of the school staff. I was walking out the school gates, carrying with me my useless first attempt at a wind turbine (a plastic fan I disassembled from an old exhaust fan that was attached to a motor from an old video player), resigned to the belief that my only hope lay in purchasing my project from an electronics store, when I heard my name being called out behind me. It was Rehmat, sitting as he did every day after school, outside at the school gates chatting with the gatekeeper. A crease appeared on his forehead the moment he took a look at my model and he shook his head when he heard my idea of giving up on the assignment. With a frown on his face he asked, "What do you study for?"
Completely bewildered, I replied, "To get a good job and earn money, I suppose".
"Then why not go into accounting or some other higher paying field? Why do you study science?"
This question stumped me completely.
Smiling at my perplexed features, Rehmat said "Science is much more then an exam paper to score an A on. Science is all around you. You just have to observe the universe a bit more carefully to realize the true beauty of physics."
At that moment I thought I saw a side of Rehmat that I had never seen before. His usually expressionless eyes were filled with wonder and his dark features suddenly shone bright. He looked a man confident in his passion and beliefs.
Rehmat's ardor proved to be infectious, as we both sat together in the school lab fifteen minutes later and worked assiduously, well into the evening, attempting to improve my wind turbine. Although Rehmat knew little about wind turbines it did nothing to curb his exuberance in learning something new and experimenting. Surprisingly, I ended up having one of the greatest times of my life as Rehmat taught me just how pragmatic the laws of physics really were. I learned, for example, that Newton's third law did not only apply on a hammer on a nail but was also the reason why fans were bent.
Rehmat has influenced me in a way that no one else has as he helped unlock a dormant passion for science inside me. Although he might be a simple lab assistant, Rehmat is driven by his dedication to science which causes him to be contended with the life that he leads. A trait that is uncommon amongst most Pakistanis, be they rich or impoverished. His character made me discard my belief that riches are necessary to lead a prosperous life. What matters is that you find what completes you as a person, and pursue that interest to the fullest.