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My Life Before College |
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My Life Before College |
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I'll just give a little background of myself so that you all know what you're getting into. My passion in life is swimming (in case you get caught in a whirlpool hold your breath and enjoy the ride). I enjoy jokes and people who have unique senses of humor. I live to see the next movie that comes out in the theaters, and I enjoy all types of performances made by theatrical groups.
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Music has been part of my life forever. I attended Shorewood High School which, if I may say so, has been one of the most enjoyable experiences in my academic career. I was in the concert band and the marching band. I occasionally played in the orchestra when they needed a French Horn player. When I was in junior high school, I played in the Seattle Youth Symphony Debut Orchestra. |
My Journal:
Check out my High School. The Seattle Times, in 1997, named Shorewood as the number two rated school for academics out of dozens of schools in the Seattle - Bellevue - Renton area. In 2000, the Times continue rating Shorewood in the top five schools in the Puget Sound area.
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My first SCUBA course was in the dead of winter with snow on the ground. We poured hot water into our boots to warm them. As the water hit the pavement in the parking lot, it froze within 1 or 2 minutes leaving little icy spots around our gear. This picture was taken at the Edmonds Underwater Park. Yes, Virginia, it dows snow in Edmonds!
In fact, the waves were crashing over the ferry dock next to the underwater park and onto the apartment lawns on several of the days we were there. |
Here is an essay I wrote for a college application.
Squish! Squish! When you're walking along a pool deck, you can't expect not to get wet. In fact, the way to my heart is through wet feet. When you hear the crowd's cheering and then silence your heart stops beating. The swimmers' tension on the blocks is clearly visible. The anticipation can overcome even the shyest person. As I stand on the deck waiting for the blaring of the starter, waiting to support my teammates by cheering as loudly as I can, I think about the mindset of the swimmers and how I feel when IÕm about to swim my heart out. I sometimes think how similar my life is to a swim meet.
The nuances involved with any competition are a microcosm of the life led by an ambitious person. Stepping up onto the block, the subtle fluttering of butterflies in my tummy, I look at my destination. I sight down the black tile line at the bottom of the pool. My goal: the black cross on the far wall of the pool. When I aim for a goal, I concentrate on how to attain it. "SWIMMERS, TAKE YOUR MARKS!" is announced into the silence. The six swimmers reach down to grab the end of the block, some bringing one foot back for a track start. When we hear the buzzer, we take flight. We are majestic. The least distance covered is six feet, and yet some reach even eight feet from the wall before sliding with minimal splash into the water. The swimmers pull, push, and kick at the water, to reach the end of the pool. When we realize that we are close enough, we flip-turn and push off with both feet from the wall that we had been facing just a milli-second before.
Abrupt 180 degree turns become a way of life for a competitive pool swimmer. If we did not turn, we would swim into a very hard wall and would proceed to nowhere. We swim down to the finish line, our goal obtained, we identify the need for a further goal and go for it. My life is like a swimming competition. Overcoming my shyness was as difficult - if not more difficult - than the physical training, but I succeeded at both. I relate myself to a swimmer preparing to compete in a race.
In my life the race is for education, and the starting block will be college. I have stepped up to the block and am preparing to plunge head first into my experience of college. From college I will take a flying leap into my future, trying to maneuver my way through the engineering job market. I know that I will have to struggle most of the way to my goals and realize that when reached, they will be reset to a more distant goal. But, I will have the opportunity to push off from my previous goal with two feet and be prepared for what lies ahead.
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