"The itch to understand" Personal statement college application - a topic of your choice

Essay on a topic of your choice

Instead of inheriting from my parents a couple inches to add to my height, I inherited an itch: the itch to understand.
As a kid my playground used to be a jumble of old circuit boards, spare electric wires, and an assortment of broken appliances. I spent hours disassembling and tinkering with the amazing treasures I found lying around our garage. My childhood playtime allowed me to discover the irresistible appeal of imaginative questions which only inflamed my itch but I had no means to scratch it.

Since my parents were almost always at work, I grew up without guidance from any scientific role models. I never learned what it meant to do science, let alone differentiate science from science-fiction. As a kid, it was obvious to me a flying car was equally as plausible as a man on the moon. Not being terribly interested or specialized in physics, my parents would only tell me that my design for a helium filled car would not fly, they could not explain why, they just knew it wouldn't. At the dinner table, I would always lose the only chance to bond with my parents and since my curiosity went unrewarded, I learned to silence my scientific mind to avoid the torture of my inability to scratch the itch.

It was not until I got my hands on "The Feynman Lectures On Physics: The New Millennium Edition" that my perspective of the universe changed. Not only was Feynman a Nobel prize winning physicist with a unique approach to the subject, but his pedagogical capabilities were perfectly suited to my personality. When Feynman teaches, he does not just teach physics, he teaches how to think and understand. He helped me recognize that my passion wasn't for physics, it was a passion for learning, stemming from my itch to understand the workings of this universe.

Feynman's Lectures aroused within me the most intense feeling of elation I have ever experienced and motivated me to become the person I had always strived to be. Midnight boredom turned into midnight research binges that took me through quantum physics to the theory of Mind AI to the trouble in the South China Sea. Every article and book that I read and every question on Quora that I put thought into, allowed me to look at the world through new perspectives. On Reddit, my newly incited intellectual curiosity and scientific mind allowed me to connect with people from all around the world on a more meaningful level by sharing and gaining knowledge. I no longer found myself compelled only towards physics, but towards a goal: To relieve my itch by exploring through whatever means I had available.

Once learning became my passion, old concepts gained new beauty, the blues became a powerful medium of expression, and bonding at the dinner table became easier. Taking free courses on MIT OpenCourseWare and borrowing books from our seniors to learn advanced topics became a habit; Mathematics became a language rather than a subject. I rocketed from the shy kid who cried while learning about negative numbers to the one who ignited deep-thinking sessions in class by asking questions beyond the obvious explanations. The more I shared my individual learnings in class, the more my shyness withered away and the more I became confident in myself. Realizing that my curiosity no longer went unrewarded, my itch started to relieve.

Looking back, all this natural progression stems from one development - I learned how to scratch my itch by investing in not just a book, but in a new way of life.

This the most personal essay you have written so far. It is insightful, shows various facets of who you are , and how you respond to various situations. The presentation works. It does not try too hard to create a high brow image when what is required of you is intellectual interests in relation to your humanity. Your ability to understand those around you and adjust your personality to make things work all around shows a maturity and college preparedness. The essay does not need to be explained to the reader because the theme, intention, and discussions all inter- connect and relate in creating a written basis of who you are and why. This essay may be used as is

This is overall a really good essay. The description about you being able to respond to various problems in particular paints a great picture of your personality. Good luck with your application!