Prompt:
Imagine looking through a window at any environment that is particularly significant to you. Reflect on the scene, paying close attention to the relation between what you are seeing and why it is meaningful to you. Please limit your statement to 300 words.
The window is dirty. It's little wonder, since we don't wash it often. Anyways, I peek in like I always do after school. I watch customers grab their necessities - chips, gum, socks, canned foods, ice cream, coke - anything, really. They line up, awkwardly shuffling past each other because of the beef jerky rack in the middle of the aisle. I've told my mother countless times that she should move it, but she insists on putting it there. "More people see it that way," she tells me. "They see, they buy." She is now ringing the money into the cash register. "Foh dollahs an' fifty-fife cents."
This was Crown Mart, the little convenience store my parents used to own. It was in the middle of downtown Toronto, so we get all kinds of people - white-collar workers purchasing cigarettes, gamblers returning for their tenth bingo card, tourists shopping for last-minute souvenirs, drunkards from the bar next door not buying anything. Barely tall enough to see past the counter, I used to wonder at the different people passing through the store: their attire, attitude, language. They even smell different.
Years later, I realized what I witnessed in the store was a reflection of the world: a world of widening wealth gaps, where consumerism takes center-stage while problems like poverty become increasingly pressing. I'll always think back to the little convenience store where I spent my childhood, to the people coming in and out: these global issues impact the lives of those around me. At Williams, I will expand my knowledge and interest in the interconnected political and social factors that influence our lives. I'm not sure where exactly this passion will take me, but I know it will lead me to understand and help someone in some way. And for me, that's enough.
Imagine looking through a window at any environment that is particularly significant to you. Reflect on the scene, paying close attention to the relation between what you are seeing and why it is meaningful to you. Please limit your statement to 300 words.
The window is dirty. It's little wonder, since we don't wash it often. Anyways, I peek in like I always do after school. I watch customers grab their necessities - chips, gum, socks, canned foods, ice cream, coke - anything, really. They line up, awkwardly shuffling past each other because of the beef jerky rack in the middle of the aisle. I've told my mother countless times that she should move it, but she insists on putting it there. "More people see it that way," she tells me. "They see, they buy." She is now ringing the money into the cash register. "Foh dollahs an' fifty-fife cents."
This was Crown Mart, the little convenience store my parents used to own. It was in the middle of downtown Toronto, so we get all kinds of people - white-collar workers purchasing cigarettes, gamblers returning for their tenth bingo card, tourists shopping for last-minute souvenirs, drunkards from the bar next door not buying anything. Barely tall enough to see past the counter, I used to wonder at the different people passing through the store: their attire, attitude, language. They even smell different.
Years later, I realized what I witnessed in the store was a reflection of the world: a world of widening wealth gaps, where consumerism takes center-stage while problems like poverty become increasingly pressing. I'll always think back to the little convenience store where I spent my childhood, to the people coming in and out: these global issues impact the lives of those around me. At Williams, I will expand my knowledge and interest in the interconnected political and social factors that influence our lives. I'm not sure where exactly this passion will take me, but I know it will lead me to understand and help someone in some way. And for me, that's enough.
