Entry 54: Literature and Death

Respond to the quotation below. It is not necessary to research, read, or refer to the texts from which these quotations are taken; we are looking for original, personal responses to these short excerpts. Remember that your essay should be personal in nature and not simply an argumentative essay.
“Literature is the best way to overcome death. My father, as I said, is an actor. He’s the happiest man on earth when he’s performing, but when the show is over, he’s sad and troubled. I wish he could live in the eternal present, because in the theater everything remains in memories and photographs. Literature, on the other hand, allows you to live in the present and to remain in the pantheon of the future. Literature is a way to say, I was here, this is what I thought, this is what I perceived. This is my signature, this is my name.”
--Ilán Stavans, Professor of Spanish, Amherst College

• I would agree with the quote above. Literature is indeed a way to say, I was here, this is what I thought, this is what I perceived, this is my signature, and this is my name. It is something that will keep us in the present and help us remain in the pantheon of the future. There is, however, one thing that I disagree with concerning this quote. This quote gives me the feeling that the only way to overcome death is literature. I believe that there are other ways to overcome death. Examples may be in any form of media. A few examples of media include television, drama, music, and other forms of entertainment. People leave legacies after they become famous through these media. Though the message conveyed by the people differs from media to media, all of the following above does overcome death because a part of the person is left behind even when the physical body dies. In television and drama, a person's visual images, acting, speech, and other physical aspects or characteristics are kept. In music, a person's music melody and rhythm, lyrics, and a person's voice are kept. Since we have digital files now, music can be shared and kept for a very, very long time. Basically, any media that involved video or audio recording can be similar to and perform similar functions to literature - it helps overcome death.

Entry 53: Reasoning and Insight

Respond to the quotation below. It is not necessary to research, read, or refer to the texts from which these quotations are taken; we are looking for original, personal responses to these short excerpts. Remember that your essay should be personal in nature and not simply an argumentative essay.
“Rigorous reasoning is crucial in mathematics, and insight plays an important secondary role these days. In the natural sciences, I would say that the order of these two virtues is reversed. Rigor is, of course, very important. But the most important value is insight—insight into the workings of the world. It may be because there is another guarantor of correctness in the sciences, namely, the empirical evidence from observation and experiments.”
--Kannan Jagannathan, Professor of Physics, Amherst College

• I agree with the quote above, that both rigor and insight are important roles in mathematics, and that insight is actually more important than rigor despite the fact that rigor is very important. Why is insight more important than rigor? This is because when people need insight in order to look into the workings of the world. And this can best be seen in one of the most important and fundamental processes of science: the scientific method. This method asks a person to first think of a question that he or she is curious about and wants to know about. This is insight, because it helps us find the questions that we want to solve. Without the questions, there will be no scientific process. Only after the question is voiced can the rigorous reasoning take place when the person is trying to create a reasonable experiment to test their his or her hypothesis.
• I believe that that insight is also important to solve problems. A sudden insight may help a person solve problems that he or she has been working on for a long time, such as a puzzle.
• Generally, to get the empirical evidence from observation and experiments (which is also known as the "rigorous reasoning", one must have insight. Insight provides the basis of science because it is the first step of the scientific process.

Entry 52: Life of Service

Tell us how the integration of faith and learning can prepare you for a life of service, and discuss the impact service-learning can have on the renewing of your mind, spirit, and community.
--Pepperdine

• Faith and learning can help prepare me for a life of service because it provides me with an incentive to do things that I am supposed to do, or things that are right and should be done. Having faith in myself, my friends, my family, and other people I interact with helps me in many situations. One of these situations may be when I am in a dilemma during the process of learning and I need somebody to give me a hand so that I can continue to learn without giving up or letting go of my academics. Having faith in others provides me a strong pillar by providing me with a social life and confidence. Service learning can renew my mind by changing how I think. In other words, service learning can change my attitude towards many different things. Service learning might also increase my spirits because I know that I have the ability to do many good and right things as well as the ability to help other people. Finally, service learning may change the community that I reside in because I will learn to actually do things to help my community, and the people within my community who need my help. One example of this is community service such as recycling and helping elders.

Entry 51: The Best Laid Plans

Tell us about the most significant challenge you've faced or something important that didn't go according to plan. How did you manage the situation?
--MIT

• One of the most significant challenges that I faced is actually something that happened just today. It is the taking of my AP Human Geography test. The test was really difficult and I had a hard time completing the exam. For the multiple choice question, I managed the situation by going through the questions slowly and thoroughly, and I separated my time into three sections. The first time period, I went over the test as a whole and did any and all questions that I am confident I know the answer to. Then, during the second round, I go over only the questions that I left blank in the first round. I do the question that I need to pick on answer of out two, and I try to use the process of elimination for the other questions that I didn't eliminate until I only have two answer choices left to pick from. Finally, during the third round, I pick answers from the remaining questions. This method helps me increase the probability of picking the right choice to a multiple choice question. As for the essays, I can only try to answer the question that I know the answer to first and try to buy some extra time so I can think of a more appropriate response to the other essay questions that I initially don't know the answer to.

Entry 50: My World

Describe the world you come from; for example, your family, clubs, school, community, city, or town. How has that world shaped your dreams and aspirations?
--MIT

• The world that I come from is actually very small. For example, my social circle consists of basically only my family and people from my school, and coincidentally, these are the two things that influence my aspirations the most. Notice I didn't say dreams, because my dream is influenced from something that is completely different. School is my life, seeing as I am a student, and school has guided me and given me a direction to life (of course, it's mostly academics, but there are also some social aspects such as clubs and other school activities). School is also the place where I will be applying for colleges, and it is an important turning point in my life seeing as it is helping me start a new stage in my life. My family plays the more important part. My parents provide me with education (which is my school) as well as shelter, amongst many other different things (for example, food and other basic needs). My brother had a prominent influence because I have to follow his path (that's basically means that what he does, I have to do). I would also like to go to the college my brother is at, and one reason is because my mother would be more relieved to know that there will be someone in America to take care of me (sometimes she thinks I'm retarded; maybe...).

Entry 49: What I Am Proud Of

What attribute of your personality are you most proud of, and how has it impacted your life so far? This could be your creativity, effective leadership, sense of humor, integrity, or anything else you'd like to tell us about
--MIT

• The aspect of my personality that I am most proud of is my effort to finish work and hand it in on time. No matter what events I have or what activities I have, I always strive to hand in my homework on time. For example, when I have model united nations meetings outside of the city or abroad, I will always try to finish my homework beforehand and hand it in early. When I know that I will be late and not be able to hand in homework on the day it is due, then I will try to know the assignment beforehand and bring as much homework as I can to my destination so I can work on it as well. The last hypothetical situation may be when I won't be able to bring the material outside of the city or abroad. Then, I would have to come back and do it. In this situation, I would try my best to finish my homework and hand it in as soon as possible. I know that sometimes I am not as disciplined as I would want myself to be, but I do try my best to control my impulses. For example, I love to read stories, and sometimes I would be too distracted to continue writing or concentrating on my assignment. I have ways to combat my impulses, however. For example, I will create a reward system that will make me do a certain amount of homework for a certain amount of reward, which, in this case, is reading novels.

Entry 48: Busy busy busy

We know you lead a busy life, full of activities, many of which are required of you. Tell us about something you do for the pleasure of it.
--MIT

• An activity that I do for pleasure is reading. However, when I am talking about reading, I am not talking about the very academic type of reading. I like to read fictional writing, stories that have very interesting plots that will be able to get my attention. Some of them may be nonfiction as well, as along as the plot is interesting and not too bland, repetitive, or predictable. Several themes or genres of stories that I love to read include action and fighting, detective, mystery, and romance (NOT the mushy one, but the ones with plot and actually MAKE SENSE). Another thing that connects to reading stories is that I like to write stories. Most of the time, my mind is filled with plots are trying to pour out of my hand. Sometimes I choose the plots that I like more, and write them down. I have started on many different stories already; the bad thing is that I have only finished one that I REALLY like. For the stories that I have not finished, I occasionally go back and add to the plot. So even though I started on another new story, I still progress, despite the progress being slow. Generally, I have about five to six stories that I am writing and still progressing. Currently, I am writing a fictional story that is mainly action (it's a military unit) but includes some romance. The ideas are all in my head!

Entry 47: More Art

How has a piece of artwork, a performance, a composition, an example of design, a piece of literature or a film affected you? Please describe the work and explain how it affected you as a person and artist. The piece you write about must be the work of someone other than yourself.
--Cornish

• The performance that affected me was not an official performance. Instead, it was just a few of my friends practicing their dance skills. However, that became a motivation for me. Seeing my friends dancing showed me their confidence, skills, and passion. They showed me how to have fun exercising, how to enjoy oneself when doing something, and how to love and have passion for an activity. As I started to indulge myself into the activity of dancing as well, I began to enjoy the benefits and advantages of dancing. First, dancing can help me gain the confidence that I used to lack. It also serves to teach me self-discipline, seeing that to learn a dance routine, one must put in a considerable amount of effort. Dancing is also a very good activity because it allows to me exercise when I do not have the amount of time or space to do other exercises - for example, playing basketball or jogging needs larger areas, while dancing can be done anywhere, any time. The last way that dance influenced me was that it helps me take away stress. Dancing until I feel tired and out of breath makes me feel relaxed and refreshed, and will make my day a lot better.

Entry 46: Art and Life

What life experience(s) inspired you to pursue the arts? How do you perceive that art school will prepare you for your professional career? Please describe your prior education and involvement in your art form. Describe the work you do and what influences it. What are your artistic goals, what are your passions and what has led you to pursue a career in the field? How will attending art school contribute to your plans and aspirations?
--University of Hartford
--Cornish

• The field that I wish to study is involved with communications and psychology. When I talk about psychology, I mean more specifically to consumer marketing, and most likely advertising as well. The life experience that made me want to pursue a career in communications is actually very simple, and may be experienced by anyone. I happened when I was buying a drink from a department store - HiLife - with my friend. When I went to the cashier, she had a very, very... unpleasant face that made me feel as if she had a grudge with me. It made me want to yell at her and ask her what did I do to make her make that face at me. After this simple experience, I began to pay attention to how people serve me. There have been people who excel at their job. However, about eighty percent of the people who I met who participated in service type services had very bad attitudes. I want to fix this, because I do not appreciate it when someone else takes away my content mood because of their own bad mood. To do this, I also believe that I need to know psychology, because know psychology will be able to help me find motivations as incentives to make people willing to do their job with their smile on their face, no matter when or how they are really feeling.