I am an artist (COMMON APP) - CENTRAL TO IDENTITY

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

My parents were never one to send their children to any kind of classes. While other children my age went to ballet classes, started to play the piano or even go to art classes at centres, I was at home with only the television as my source of entertainment. Eventually I grew bored and decided to make a hobby out of what was available to me-I picked up a pencil and I started to draw. Before I knew it, I had become obsessed. Every flat surface was a victim to my endless doodles. Gradually, a small spark of passion for art in me started to burn.

Art was all the rage in middle school and it was extremely competitive. My friends and I had constant competitions, rivalries and secretly, each of us wanted to be known as the best. However, to many of them it was just a phase that each gradually moved on from. Yet, I kept going. My sister had once said that I was 'lucky' because for many children, childish infatuations remained infatuations-temporary. Mine bloomed into a growing passion.

My drawings at the time were hardly taken seriously. For people my age, it was awed upon. For adults, they were 'childish' and 'stupid'. Encouragement was rare to come upon; my art was mostly scoffed at. Even my parents sometimes called it pointless. I felt smaller than I could ever had but those feelings only catalysed my strive to get better, to one day prove that all the time I spent one my work was not worthless.

As I grew up and moved on to high school, I put my all into my art. I progressed from one style-manga-to another-realism-and solidified the shaky fundamentals with whatever resources I could find. I played with the restrictions of watercolour, marvelled at the easy flow of acrylic and enjoyed experimenting with different surfaces as I strayed away from plain paper. I became obsessed with perfectionism; every single detail that didn't look right made me scrap whatever I had done. My painstaking effort paid off as my skills became more significant; the once trivial hobby became an asset that made my name become synonymous with arts in school. I found myself landing leadership positions with my skills and at times, I would be called on to do some graphic design work for an official school event. I finally gained the acknowledgement that I had once sought. Even so, I still felt that my art skills were far from polished. Eventually, I made the decision to work towards an art-career, envisioning myself-rather foolishly-to one day set up an easel in the streets of Paris.

In retrospect, it was an idealistic dream. It was a dream that was stopped cold in its tracks as I slaved on the twenty-something piece of art, any passion for it burnt out by the lack of meaning that I once had when I wasn't simply mass producing art work for school or other people.

"Do I really WANT to do this for the rest of my life?"

Those were the questions that signified a turning point in my life. I had to start seeking out for a new goal, a new challenge to master. It was a long and arduous time of indecisiveness before I finally fixed upon engineering with enough deliberation. It was a new field to me but it wasn't completely alien.

No matter which path I take next, arts will always remain a passion, still burning brightly in my heart. I will never regret those years of investment into art; it taught me more than I could ever learn elsewhere: dedication, hard-work, and to just keep on going no matter what happens. It is an identity that I will hold closely to me no matter what I am externally.

I will always be an artist.

(647 words)

I felt so identified with everything you said, perhaps because I also have a passion for drawing and painting. I think your essays says much about you. Regarding the format, I think it is well organised and is effective in getting the message across. Hope this helps!

Thanks for the feedback!

I revised that version because I felt that it had a slightly 'detached' feeling to it.

It was 3 am in the morning. My physics reference book laid open before me, the thickness of the pages still untouched an unsettling detail. My eyes felt burned, my body fatigued, and my mind still buzzed from the last cup coffee I downed. This was the slow torture of looming national examinations.

The clock was still ticking away; the sound echoing in my mind as if reminding me that time-a lot of time-was being wasted.

But my hands were not flipping pages; my eyes were not reading the book. I was, as out of place as it seemed, painting feverishly.

At times like, art was my only therapy.

Art had gone through many stages in my life. At first, it was a childish infatuation that refused to burn out. Then, it became a genuine passion that I strived for even if the odds were against me. As I grew up, I experimented with art-playing with different mediums and straying from plain paper-and thus, my once lacklustre skills became an asset, a talent, that pushed me forward into position and ranks that could not have been reach without it; my name had become synonymous to art itself.

But there even a time, when art became a hindrance. I became too deeply entangled in it that made people often refuse to see beyond my label as an artist. Even as I externally appreciated their acknowledgement of my skills, deeply inside, I wanted them to see me not only as Atiqah, the girl who did arts, but as Atiqah, the girl with an eccentric streak and a penchant for math and computers, the girl who sometimes would rather let herself be pulled into a science project than paint all the time.

My decision to major in engineering was a fact that a lot of people questioned. They would so often ask: why not art? They find it hard to see that, sometimes, something you are best at is not necessarily something that you want to do for the rest of your life.

Nevertheless, art is already too much a part of my life. It has taught me many things: dedication, hard-work, passion, and resilience. Even if I embark on a completely different path, a new challenge, I know that I can never stray away from art.

No matter what, where or who I am, I always was-always will be-an artist.

I wanted them to see as not just the artist Atiqah, but Atiquh who is with an eccentric streak and a penchant for math and computers and may sometimes would rather let herself be pulled into a science project than paint all the time.


My decision to major in engineering was something that had lots of people raising their eye browse.
You have a very creative piece of writing here. Can feel your artistic talents through this :D

Thank you! I have a feeling that I can make it better though.