Hi! I just wrote what came to me, but now I'm not really sure if I responded properly? Like.. it's definitely related, but I'm not sure if it's too off-topic.
Instructions (abridged):
Amherst requires a second essay of no more than 300 words. Your essays provide you with an opportunity to speak to us. Please keep this in mind when responding to one of the following quotations. It is not necessary to research, read, or refer to the text from which these quotations are taken; we are looking for original, personal responses to these short excerpts. Remember that your essay should be personal in nature and not simply an argumentative essay.
Quote:
"Rigorous reasoning is crucial in mathematics, and insight plays an important secondary role these days. In the natural sciences, I would say that the order of these two virtues is reversed. Rigor is, of course, very important. But the most important value is insight--insight into the workings of the world. It may be because there is another guarantor of correctness in the sciences, namely, the empirical evidence from observation and experiments."
Kannan Jagannathan, Professor of Physics, Amherst College
In the communal Great Wait, I'm doing my part by standing still in line and shuffling myself forwards in the longitudinal wave of people as it hits me. I'm chatting with my friends. We're talking and moving up at the same time. 99% of the time I take for granted the impeccably clean floors at Disney World, but 1% of the time - this time, in my peripherals I spot an abandoned juice bottle.
I'm walking away, still eyeing the bottle; it has me feeling guilty for the janitor who has to pick it up. I imagine being that person faced with all sorts of gum and sticky soda spills, and know that I could mitigate the load if only by one degree by picking up the trash. Plucking up some courage, I plunge into the awkward; I break off the conversation and barrel into the mass of oncoming people traffic to sweep up the juice bottle. Holding it between my thumb and index finger, I toss it into the trash. My friends praise me and I feel like I've defeated the boss of trash ignorers.
While trash ignoring isn't a felony, it is a crime that should be approached more seriously. Cognizance of the janitor's situation has changed me. A chance moment had me fully engaged with the abandoned bottle, without which I would not have gained the insight I then experienced.
This is just an opinion, but my gut instinct is telling me that while slightly related, it doesn't truly elaborate on the quote which, from my perspective, is based on the importance of insight and the workings of the world.
I agree with debater514. There should be more of a direct relationship to the quote. What exactly is the insight into the world?
I see - I was trying to have the insight be about how there really are other people picking up after someone else's mess, but how about this:
In hindsight, I realize that people usually don't act unless something is directly affecting them. No one is purposely making a mess, or fully cognizant that they are giving janitors more work. Accidents happen; soda gets spilled, and beverages in their containers are forgotten on arbitrary ledges. Without this insight, I would only be blindly advertising ideals: don't make trash, don't make trash. Instead, with this understanding I will say "let's pick up trash."
I feel like this essay would actually fit the Williams prompt(I'm assuming that if you apply to Amherst, there's a pretty decent chance you'll apply to Williams as well)
All in all, a decent essay.
