Different-an "other" which revealed to you your sense of self and your relationship to humanity

EMERSON COLLEGE HONORS PROGRAM

Please respond to the following in 400-600 words: Wallace Bacon, a recipient of an honorary doctorate from Emerson College in 1975, wrote that the liberal arts, or humanities, "are concerned with the question of what makes life worth living. And that question concerns not simply oneself but others. The humanities must help us learn who we are; they must help us learn the otherness of others."

In this light, describe an encounter with someone or something different-an "other" which revealed to you your sense of self and your relationship to humanity. This encounter may involve a person, place, culture, or text (book, speech, film, play, etc.).

Really need help to review it.
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Last semester I went abroad to study in France. I live with 51 Mexicans, and only a few of them I could call my friends. During this semester my life had multiple shifts, break downs and many lessons which help me to become who I am today. I learned what matters in life, and what absolutely does not.

In this program we had vacations in which we could go anywhere and do anything we wanted. At the age of sixteen this was heaven for us. Most of my classmates liked to use those vacations for the only purpose of getting drunk. While I thought that if we went to another city or country, we at least should get to know it. If not... What was the whole purpose of going?

In one of these breaks, I went with eighteen persons which I thought at least were my mates, and some of them my friends. During this week multiple events happened, and all of them leave me something, but the one of them impact me the most. We were in Budapest, and we had only one day to visit the city. Apart from me, there were only two persons which wanted to visit it. The rest, well, they were too drunk to even go out of the apartment. My two "friends" and I bought the Hop-on Hop-off ticket, but we had the surprise that the buses were all filled and it was a pretty bad experience. I still wanted to visit the city, because I believe that every time we visit a new place, that we get to know a new city, our souls nourishes and our minds get filled with the knowledge that we acquire -only- from letting our eyes get filled with the images of a new setting. My two companions didn't´t want to continue walking through the streets of Budapest, and they decided to take a cap to the hotel. I almost did the same, but I hesitated for a moment, and with a boost of bravery I chose to walk the city by myself. A little scared, but also with a lot of confidence, I started to walk below the rain. At first I just wanted to go to the Parlament, but once I got there my soul was hungry for more. I went to the highlight places of the city, and even get to see the city from the Buda Castle which is in a little hill outside of the downtown area.

While I was alone for almost four hours, appreciating the beauty of the buildings, the spectacular new setting and the Hungarian culture, I thought of many things. One of them was that at the age of only sixteen I went all over the city alone, I had the courage to say: "I do not want to do this" and to pursue what I cared about. I learned that if something matters to you, even if to the others it doesn't´t, you need to go after it. That nothing should keep you from achieving your goals and dreams. I also thought about what life is about, after living the two scenes, one in which the best that you can do is get drunk, and the other in which life is about the simplicity of appreciating a city, a book, music, arts and of the continuous desire of achieving our dreams; I realized that at least for me the second scene is the one that fits my life, and the one which I wish to live on to.

Claudia, you have too many things going on in this essay. I realize that this trip left an impact upon you and helped you to learn more about yourself and your relationship to humanity but the discussion of that theme is lost in this essay. What you need to do is focus more on the events that happened to you during your time walking the streets alone. The reason I want you to do that is because the relevant information doesn't come in till that part of the essay. The inclusion of your travel companions and their attitudes did not really cause a relevant learning lesson on your part and yet, it manages to take up more than half the essay. It is important that you choose the focus of your discussion and center your essay around that theme. By doing so, you will be able to totally relate your experience to the instructions of the prompt and also, keep the reviewer interested in what you have to say. It is not enough to deliver the maximum word count if it causes a confusing and little relevant essay to be presented. You can present a relevant essay in 400 words. 600 is the maximum but not the goal here. The goal is to make sure that you are understood by the reader in as little words as possible. So if you can revise the essay to cover 500 words instead, you should be well within range and delivering a more focused response as well.