Hi everyone, this is an early draft of my Common App essay. I would like to get some feedback about it. I like the topic, but the essay itself seems dull to me, and I would like to know your opinions on it. Any edits and suggestions would also be appreciated. Please be as harsh as possible. I would like honest opinions, not sugar coated, watered down comments. Thanks!
In life, a little uncertainty can be a good thing and it's ok to be wrong sometimes. The benefit of a little uncertainty is probably the most important thing I learned in high school. I learned this through asking questions. Asking a question itself is a simple act: getting a helpful response is not. People tend to either not know the answer or give unhelpful answers. There is nothing one can do to prevent these situations, but by listening with an open mind, one can maximize the chance of getting a helpful response. During high school, I learned to listen to people regardless of whether they are right or wrong. More than a few times, I have suspected others of being wrong, but I was not certain enough of my own abilities to correct them. This uncertainty caused me to humble myself and always listen to people with an open mind. Later on, I learned to apply this open-mindedness to other aspects of life. Now, when debating, I don't automatically assume I'm right. This prevents me from responding too defensively and ignoring what the other party has to say. It's not about being right or wrong. It's about sharing ideas, and that's what I realized.
In physics, we learned that cold is not a physical state. One can feel it, but that does not make "coldness" real. Cold is simply a relative term, describing how much heat something has compared to something else. Right and wrong are similarly related. Being right is like being cold. The absence of any evidence of being wrong does not make somebody right, even though the state of being right seems as real as the state of being cold. It all depends on one's perspective. Keeping this in mind, I have learned to not be excessively certain of myself. What all overly certain people fail to see is that issues frequently have multiple sides. Just like a hologram that changes when viewed from different angles, what is right frequently changes depending on the perspective one views an issue from. As such, I have learned to evaluate issues from several different perspectives. To me, having an open mind is more important than being right. Discovering that I'm wrong is one of the best self-improvement tricks I know. We, as humans, learn from our mistakes. Uncertainty lets the truth emerge, and that is why I believe in it-but I could be wrong.
In life, a little uncertainty can be a good thing and it's ok to be wrong sometimes. The benefit of a little uncertainty is probably the most important thing I learned in high school. I learned this through asking questions. Asking a question itself is a simple act: getting a helpful response is not. People tend to either not know the answer or give unhelpful answers. There is nothing one can do to prevent these situations, but by listening with an open mind, one can maximize the chance of getting a helpful response. During high school, I learned to listen to people regardless of whether they are right or wrong. More than a few times, I have suspected others of being wrong, but I was not certain enough of my own abilities to correct them. This uncertainty caused me to humble myself and always listen to people with an open mind. Later on, I learned to apply this open-mindedness to other aspects of life. Now, when debating, I don't automatically assume I'm right. This prevents me from responding too defensively and ignoring what the other party has to say. It's not about being right or wrong. It's about sharing ideas, and that's what I realized.
In physics, we learned that cold is not a physical state. One can feel it, but that does not make "coldness" real. Cold is simply a relative term, describing how much heat something has compared to something else. Right and wrong are similarly related. Being right is like being cold. The absence of any evidence of being wrong does not make somebody right, even though the state of being right seems as real as the state of being cold. It all depends on one's perspective. Keeping this in mind, I have learned to not be excessively certain of myself. What all overly certain people fail to see is that issues frequently have multiple sides. Just like a hologram that changes when viewed from different angles, what is right frequently changes depending on the perspective one views an issue from. As such, I have learned to evaluate issues from several different perspectives. To me, having an open mind is more important than being right. Discovering that I'm wrong is one of the best self-improvement tricks I know. We, as humans, learn from our mistakes. Uncertainty lets the truth emerge, and that is why I believe in it-but I could be wrong.