U of Chicago Supplement.
Its very long. I know. But I did not want to cut it any short. I've already submitted it. let me know how it is.
Prompt:
Find X.
Response:
After a tedious quest to find the oh-so-great X, from my room to my kitchen, to the community temple, in my cousin's closet, and by the cemetery; here's a list of things I believe could be X:
1) The things we cannot classify: This one's a little obvious. Let me present to you a situation: I was in my room. My mom has a weird tendency to clean everything compulsively, and as usual my room looked like it was struck by a tornado (or whatever you may want to call it; the result was the same). My mom wishes orders me to clean my room. I begin by stacking everything in their correct order. Each thing could be placed in some category. My socks would obviously go in the socks pile. My shoes would go in the shoe closet; shirts in one pile and trousers and jeans in another. Books became another stack. What if I had something that did not fall into any humanly category; not even a higher category of anything? How would it be to not be able to identify the 'it'? Would I go near it or dare touch it? The small what's-it is enough to generate huge amounts of fears. So the question is what would one do? Here we have two types of people: those who wish to categorize X and those who chose to be different and think that X is cryptic. I believe I belong to the latter. Most people perceive things according to classifications. It makes life simpler. Try it; the day you cannot classify, your mind will be at unrest.
I choose to see a world beyond classifications.
2) The 'ingredient' factor: My mother is an expert at the chemistry of food. She knows all about ingredients that go into food making, the quantities and the spices used. But so does my friend's mother. Does that mean both can cook the same dish having indistinguishable taste with the same ingredients? To find the answer, I slyly arranged for my mother and my friend's mother to have a cook-a-thon (saying its part of my science project). Both of them had to make them same dish with same ingredients in a time limit. Seems, a little Masterchef isn't it? Anyway, the results were two identical dishes. However, each had a different taste and flavor to it. Could it be possible that using the same ingredients and technique we could achieve different goal? Perhaps my little experiment proved it.
One may perceive of it this way too. In dance class, when my friend and I dance to the same tune using the same technique and the routine taught, we do it differently in spite of the perfect timing. People call it the X-factor; I would call it the 'ingredient' factor.
3) The 'someone' on the other side on the phone call: Now I was at the temple, praying to God. But has anyone seen him? I wouldn't deny his existence (and be ostracized by my relatives). Has religion in any way then helped us to see God? Of course it makes us aware of the omnipresent divine being; but does it rationally prove his existence? Religion is like making a phone call to the divine being. We can dial the number, hear the ring; we know someone's there on the other line, but there's no answer. Mankind has attempted a thousand ways to make this phone call to God. Yet, we do not precisely know who's on the other line.
Isn't the Large Hadron Collider near Geneva all about making another call
4) Temptation: It would be blasphemous of me to say this immediately after my speculations about the Divine. I happened to be probing my cousin's closet. During my hunt for a pair of socks, I incidentally found volumes of explicit content books. It is interesting to note that the humans are narcissists after all. The attempt to idolize the human body, especially the feminine half is intriguing. From the time of Adam and Eve, the human temptation has been highlighted. What makes us such enticed fools and perverts? Was it the apple as The Book of Genesis states? Or is 'apple' another alias to classify X? We know we get tempted; but can we express by a physical or rational method? Why we get tempted, we do not know; all we can speculate is that it's our nature and biology.
Thus, temptation is human nature. The moment we do rid ourselves of it, I think any of us would want to find X.
5) Life after the Cemetery: None of us know what happens after Death. Do we just dissolve into the nature like our earthly body? It is fact that energy dissipates the environment after we die. So where does our conscience go? Does it dissolve too? Or is it elevated to another plane or dimension of higher existence as claimed? These are few questions that vex me like anybody else.
So why do we fear death so much? Why all the attempts to halt and reverse aging? Why the Botox? We all have to die someday. Again, it probably is the fear of not knowing what lies after death. X always manages to stay a step ahead of us.
After the whole journey, I believe that Finding X has been nothing but futile. X shall always remain as long as we do. It is like an entity which can be felt; its presence sensed, but not expressed. It is an abstract concept that takes form of many different things. X could be anything from a person's passion, to the unconditional essence of love in mother's food, to the 'X' factor. X shall always take form of what we do not know, even if there's a lot we know.
I accept defeat, X, for now. I cannot find you. You are a master of disguises. The moment I feel I have found you, you seem to have taken another meaning, and another form. However, I am not going to stop trying. Let's hope I find you after another Four years.
You managed to reach the end! :D Bravo! :P ;) Thank you so much for your time.
Please leave a comment.
I love your approach to the essay.. When all of us picked one topic, you picked 5. Bravo for the creativity.
I like the ending, quite amusing.
Thank You Miray! :)
I word really hard on this one.
The ending was an 11th hour change. :P
Really appreciate your comment :)
Really creative and you show your personality in 5 different ways. I enjoyed it very much, you come across as an insightful, strong person. You should have no problem!
Good work. A very unique style of expressing yourself.
Thank you So much everyone! =)
Please comment on my other essay if you have some time. :)
The epitome of creativity and uniqueness. This was a true pleasure to read
Thank You ezziebestie.. :)
Wow. That was really unique, and despite its length, you kept me hooked till the end. Good job!
Thank You ukkuma. :)
Please read my Amherst supplement response if you could. :)
My mom wishes orders me to clean my room.
Little typo here.
You can't improve on stuff like this. Well, you probably can, but I can't. This is inspired writing.
It's strange to capitalize Cemetery but not Someone.
Even stranger that you capitalized Four at the end!
I accept defeat, X, for now. I cannot find you. --Another sentence I like a lot.
You know, I was talking to someone about politics, and he feels very certain of his opinions, but I don't. I told him it's important to remember that you probably have only about 50% of the info the president or other leaders are working with, so you cannot have a firm conclusion. When you are not working with all the necessary info, it is like an algebra expression with a variable. To solve for the variable, as in 4 x X = 20, you need to try one thing, then another, then another, until you find one that has the ring of truth!
So... maybe it is like that.
Oh my gosh...this was so good!! Great Work!!!
Thank you EF Susan. That was helpful. :)
And thank you sofia10. :)
I intended to capitalize the 'four' because it would be next most important phase of my life. Maybe it just makes it look strange perhaps.
I wanted to write about what X could mean to me, but it fits so many different concepts and ideas that it became almost impossible for me to write about one thing. X led me to one thing to another and to another as you said... :-)
I'm glad you all liked this.
the 'four' because it would be next most important phase of my life.
Yeah, I don't think that part really works... but it is funny how we all see everything differently. Anyway, you did really well.
This is beyond amazing, you should have no trouble getting in! Its a very insightful essay and i really enjoyed reading it. I can tell your really bright and that your creativity will get you far in life.
Hehe. Yeah. :) Thank You EF Susan. Please read my Amherst response and tell me how it is.... I worked very hard on that too...
Hi MarinaXD, thank you so much. I'm glad you liked it. :)
