1. Some students have a background, identity, interest, or talent that is so meaningful they believe their application would be incomplete without it. If this sounds like you, then please share your story.
I love my town. In more ways than one it has shaped me as a person. New Paltz is the type of place where you can be walking down the street and almost every person you run into you know. My high school is small and I feel confident in saying that all my teachers make an effort to know me as a person. I love that everyone is friendly and says hi to you in the hallway.
As I prepare to choose the place I will spend the next four years of my life, I wonder: have I been to sheltered growing up in a small town where I know everyone? Am I too comfortable? Even if the answer to these questions is yes, I would never want to live anywhere else.
My best friend and I spend hours outside on her porch swing, which looks out onto a particularly quiet street in New Paltz. As we talk about everything under the sun, contently listening to "The Bangles" Pandora Station people walk or ride their bikes by, sometimes stopping to chat or just waving as they go by. In these moment I am perfectly content and I think that can be contributed to the types of people and the mellow environment of New Paltz in general.
Another incredibly special thing about my town is that we have two nature preserves very close by. My whole time growing up the mountains and these preserves have been a major part of my life. My friends and I go on all day hikes just roaming around the woods or doing a rock scramble with an out of this world view of the surrounding mountains. Everyone in New Paltz is incredibly involved with the environment, especially when it comes to protecting it. It is not uncommon to see signs against fracking or bumper stickers encouraging everyone to recycle. This is probably where my interest in the environment stems from.
In college I hope to study in environmental studies and international relations/global affairs. I can 100% contribute these interest to my town. New Paltz has helped shape me to the person I am today and inspires me to do great thing, maybe even change the world (sorry I know that's corny).
Okay I'm now going to go attempt to turn this brain dump into an acceptable common app essay. ttyl
Thursday, June 11, 2015
Monday, June 8, 2015
sorry for the rant, but I drank a lot of coffee before writing this
Let me preface this by saying straight up I am not the biggest fan of this blog topic. Failure is something I have never been able to accept easily. I guess I am a very optimistic person and failure definitely doesn't come easy to me. That's not to say that I don't fail, because I do... a lot.
Not to be predictable, but I'm going to talk about swimming. I remember very clearly being 10 and behind the starting blocks at the beginning of my race. Here it was, the dreaded 100 breaststroke was finally upon us. I've always hated breaststroke, not with the passion that I hat butterfly, but pretty close. I somehow manage to be moving my arms and kicking as hard as possible without going anywhere, It's a talent really. Okay sorry, I'm getting off topic. Failure, right, okay here we go... So it was race and my coach for god knows what reason had decided to put me in the 100 breaststroke. It's not that I hate this race I just don't like to lose and that's inevitably what was going to happen. I also have issues with admitting that I'm wrong and am too competitive for my own good. Okay sorry, off topic yet again... wow I fail at writing this blog (haha get it?) anyway I heard the single whistle blast, which signaled that we were supposed to step up onto the block. Like any great swimmer (sarcasm) I began to visualize my race, touching the wall with two hands, not belly flopping in the pool, DOING THE CORRECT UNDERWATER. In the midst of all this great visualization I was doing I had failed to notice the buzzer going off and didn't realize it till I heard my fellow swimmers hitting the water. Shit I was late! I dove in and began to do body dolphins (for any of you non-swimmers out there this is considered "illegal" to do when swimming breaststroke) I realized this very quickly and started doing my pull out (aka the right thing to do while swimming breaststroke). I was mortified and was convinced that everyone had notices, especially that mean official who had yelled at me earlier for getting in his way.
Following the race I climbed out of the pool, expecting to be greeted by an official who would tell me the I had been disqualified... but no one came
sorry for the rant, but I drank a lot of coffee before writing this
Here are the rules to breaststroke swimming, just fyi
http://www.fina.org/H2O/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=284:sw-7-breaststroke&Itemid=184
Not to be predictable, but I'm going to talk about swimming. I remember very clearly being 10 and behind the starting blocks at the beginning of my race. Here it was, the dreaded 100 breaststroke was finally upon us. I've always hated breaststroke, not with the passion that I hat butterfly, but pretty close. I somehow manage to be moving my arms and kicking as hard as possible without going anywhere, It's a talent really. Okay sorry, I'm getting off topic. Failure, right, okay here we go... So it was race and my coach for god knows what reason had decided to put me in the 100 breaststroke. It's not that I hate this race I just don't like to lose and that's inevitably what was going to happen. I also have issues with admitting that I'm wrong and am too competitive for my own good. Okay sorry, off topic yet again... wow I fail at writing this blog (haha get it?) anyway I heard the single whistle blast, which signaled that we were supposed to step up onto the block. Like any great swimmer (sarcasm) I began to visualize my race, touching the wall with two hands, not belly flopping in the pool, DOING THE CORRECT UNDERWATER. In the midst of all this great visualization I was doing I had failed to notice the buzzer going off and didn't realize it till I heard my fellow swimmers hitting the water. Shit I was late! I dove in and began to do body dolphins (for any of you non-swimmers out there this is considered "illegal" to do when swimming breaststroke) I realized this very quickly and started doing my pull out (aka the right thing to do while swimming breaststroke). I was mortified and was convinced that everyone had notices, especially that mean official who had yelled at me earlier for getting in his way.
Following the race I climbed out of the pool, expecting to be greeted by an official who would tell me the I had been disqualified... but no one came
sorry for the rant, but I drank a lot of coffee before writing this
Here are the rules to breaststroke swimming, just fyi
http://www.fina.org/H2O/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=284:sw-7-breaststroke&Itemid=184
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