This is for the Common App prompt 1.
Feedback. And maybe a score on the ten point scale.
Education has always been a bit of a delicate matter in the Aziz household; a topic to be broached at your own risk. Not surprising since it's a novel idea: I'll be the first person from my family to go to college.
Like most people with an agricultural background in Afghanistan, I was groomed to take over the family lands since the very beginning. A life of growing potatoes beckoned and that meant being drilled in agrarian nomenclature, being taught to share the characteristic dread of the farmer towards inclement weather and knowing the difference between a John Deere 9630T and the Massey Ferguson MF8290 (don't even ask). All of this before I learnt algebra.
I had always been expected to choose the assurance of a respectable trade and the security of a guaranteed income in a turbulent economy, destined for the pastoral life in the idyll of the country and a tradition that stretched along generations. That was how as a child I grew up in a house where higher education was frowned upon as a plebeian pursuit.
Things were different in school however. Everyone else was planning for the future and their plans didn't involve suddenly coming into a few hundred acres of farmland. I, however, continued to grow more and more flustered when people asked me about my plans after school. By junior year of high school I realized that while my peers were beginning to strike out on their own I was about to chose the path of least resistance and was on the way to becoming just another custodian of the status quo.
Having to try very hard to reconcile my aspirations with what my family insisted I must do and dealing with the sense of alienation that arose at times like these was the hardest part. However there were times when I felt vindicated like when I saw for the first time how elegant a document the Constitution was in Law class or how microfinance initiatives like Grameen Bank meant that there was hope yet for the great many people who still live in privation in this part of the world.
Moments like these helped me to finally come out with my convictions at the end of my senior year. You can imagine how it went down at home with my parents.
"You want to do what! And half a world away no less".
In a way I could understand their reaction.It was sacrilege.A long tradition was going to end just because one person thought it was not quite 'his thing'? It seemed touch and go for a little while but in the end it was clear to them that this was the right thing. Their blessing was very important for me.
Now, as I think about the future I realize just how close I was to having given in to empty tradition and fatalism. Having broken the mould, I now aspire towards more of the same and hope to further discover myself in the process.
Feedback. And maybe a score on the ten point scale.
Education has always been a bit of a delicate matter in the Aziz household; a topic to be broached at your own risk. Not surprising since it's a novel idea: I'll be the first person from my family to go to college.
Like most people with an agricultural background in Afghanistan, I was groomed to take over the family lands since the very beginning. A life of growing potatoes beckoned and that meant being drilled in agrarian nomenclature, being taught to share the characteristic dread of the farmer towards inclement weather and knowing the difference between a John Deere 9630T and the Massey Ferguson MF8290 (don't even ask). All of this before I learnt algebra.
I had always been expected to choose the assurance of a respectable trade and the security of a guaranteed income in a turbulent economy, destined for the pastoral life in the idyll of the country and a tradition that stretched along generations. That was how as a child I grew up in a house where higher education was frowned upon as a plebeian pursuit.
Things were different in school however. Everyone else was planning for the future and their plans didn't involve suddenly coming into a few hundred acres of farmland. I, however, continued to grow more and more flustered when people asked me about my plans after school. By junior year of high school I realized that while my peers were beginning to strike out on their own I was about to chose the path of least resistance and was on the way to becoming just another custodian of the status quo.
Having to try very hard to reconcile my aspirations with what my family insisted I must do and dealing with the sense of alienation that arose at times like these was the hardest part. However there were times when I felt vindicated like when I saw for the first time how elegant a document the Constitution was in Law class or how microfinance initiatives like Grameen Bank meant that there was hope yet for the great many people who still live in privation in this part of the world.
Moments like these helped me to finally come out with my convictions at the end of my senior year. You can imagine how it went down at home with my parents.
"You want to do what! And half a world away no less".
In a way I could understand their reaction.It was sacrilege.A long tradition was going to end just because one person thought it was not quite 'his thing'? It seemed touch and go for a little while but in the end it was clear to them that this was the right thing. Their blessing was very important for me.
Now, as I think about the future I realize just how close I was to having given in to empty tradition and fatalism. Having broken the mould, I now aspire towards more of the same and hope to further discover myself in the process.
