Describe a place or environment where you are perfectly content. What do you do or experience there, and why is it meaningful to you?
We've all been there. We've all been trapped in the endless chain of Wikipedia articles that results from clicking on random links. From Leonardo da Vinci, to the Renaissance Man, to Polygotism, to Savants, and to Ideasthesia, the train of knowledge never ends. Riding this train has always been an experience that I take delight in, and can even get in the way sometimes. As I start my research on apoptosis for a report in my biology class, I stumble upon HeLa cells. I click on the link, and read, learning about the immortal cancer cells, when I stumble upon gene mapping, and then to the Human Genome Project. I read about how many of our genes come from bacteria, and as I am reading, I am sure that I'm going to study genetics in the future. Then I stumble upon the World Wide Web, and this leads to another chain of articles, one that convinces me that the field of computer science is what's right for me. I relish the broad knowledge that I gain from this game, and I hope to continue to learn on such a vast scale. This game of knowledge appeals to me because unlike fancy gadgets, money, or other material items, it becomes a part of who I am. It's something that can never be taken away.
In today's society, it seems that the era of the Renaissance Man has come to an end. No longer is the title of Jack-of-all-trades desired, because they are now being seen as the Master of none. To succeed in the current world, it looks like you must have a narrow focus in learning. The mastery of a single sport leads to gold medals, or the mastery of a single subject leads to a Nobel Prize, or the mastery of one genre of music leads to a Grammy Award. However, I've found that an advantage of being a Jack-of-all-trades is that I get to maximize the number of peak experiences in life, and I learn to enjoy the pursuit of excellence, all while finding the few things I am truly uniquely suited to excel in. Through this wide variety of knowledge gained from the Wikipedia articles and other experiences, I have empathy with the broadest range of human conditions and appreciation of the broadest range of human accomplishments. Relinquishing this yearning for knowledge of many subjects is enjoyable, because I choose to do it, rather than being obliged to.
This thirst for many areas of knowledge led me to take an interest in computer science, a field which can encompass many subjects. After taking an online course on Human Computer Interaction, I realized that it combines many of my interests, including psychology and business. As I plow through those Wikipedia articles one by one, gaining facts and understanding concepts, I feel like I have the power to do anything in the world, because knowledge opens up options, and options gives me the freedom to choose many paths. Through this game, I realized that I don't have to choose, or narrow my focus. I realized that I can take all the options I have and combine them into one path that I will follow.
Thanks!
Wikipedia is neither a place nor an environment and is therefore not the correct response to this prompt. The essay requires you to present a place or environment that you frequent in order to clearly establish why you go there and where the sense of contentment comes from. Wikipedia articles do not exactly fall into that qualification so you should really reconsider your essay and try to look into a different place or environment to use in response to the prompt. Some of these places could be summer camp, a coffee shop, a library, your bedroom, school, or abstract places such as your mind, or environments like competitive sports, school, study period, or any place where you engage in a hobby, etc. Any of these samples can work for the essay. You can choose your own place or environment to use as long as it is a place you frequent and truly find a sense of contentment in as you stay there.
"Wikipedia is neither a place nor an environment and is therefore not the correct response to this prompt. The essay requires you to present a place or environment that you frequent in order to clearly establish why you go there and where the sense of contentment comes from."
I disagree with this to an extent. I do believe that you can write about Wikipedia, or Facebook, or any website for that matter because websites, in essence, ARE environments. I do however, don't think it is the wisest choice. Take this with a grain of salt, but it's easy to interpret this essay as bs. If you truly do love spending time on Wikipedia and clicking random links, then props to you my friend, but it really is not that believable. You are correct in stating that success in the current world relies on narrow focus of learning. Actually, that's how it's been for millions of years. That is something called division of labor, my friend, and it is not a profound concept. I do not believe that colleges nor workplaces nor anyplace will find in the near future a person who has little depth in a breadth of knowledge more attractive than a person who is specialized one subject. In fact, the entire point of majors in college defeats the point of your essay.
At the end of your essay, you do mention that you like computer science, but this goes completely contrary to what you've talked about in your 2nd paragraph -- that you like everything. Choose one--either stick with liking everything or liking computer science. My advice is to go with the latter -- and restructure your essay to indicating why you like computer science.
But at the end of the day, Wikipedia as a place where you are "perfectly content" is just extremely unrealistic and unbelievable to a college counselor. It's the equivalent of writing "my only hobby is studying I promise". A passion for studying must come with a warrant/reason, which is usually exclusive to studying a single/few topics.
