The goal of the personal essay was to show our connection to our personal statement. In the essay, I told a story that explains why my statement is so important to me and why it defines who I am.
To enhance my personal essay, I made it into a podcast. This is a way to help capture the viewer's attention. By digitalizing the essay, you can apprehend the meaning visually. And by being able to watch something
The Magic Trick
With a flick of my wrist, the details fall into place. The scratchings of my pencil against callus-like surface of my paper leave their own rough marks. With the individual grey streaks, the image becomes a whole but a face that’s incomplete with no mouth but tattooed with a permanent mark which seems out of place. This is a mark incredibly stronger than pencil. It’s a fox track drawn on the cheek whose lines were dry-pressed in ink. Yet, I can’t find a pen at my desk. This mark came to be over time and by itself. I drew the eyes of an observer: eyes blank and emotionless that stare without judgment. They look old and filled with wisdom yet young and excited with their few years of existence. These eyes belong to one who looks closely at detail and learns from it, like the fox itself. The face lacks a mouth because it doesn’t need words, just like the silence of a fox. These eyes look into yours to see what you hide. This fox sees the truth. The truth is written all over our faces.
Some time in my life, I will experience a moment where I take events into my own hands to make peace. Previously, this happened to me several times over my summer vacation of 2014. During the span of two and a half weeks in Europe, my family of five burst into many arguments like a prank sparkler which reignites after your futile attempts to suffocate the flames. Whether this was from the rough time change or our inevitable crankiness from being stuck in rental vehicles for hours upon hours, no one could be sure. I don’t think anyone could be blamed for these “fights.” The most intense occurred in a terrifying storm, on the edge of Italy, with the five of us in a car. Ice the size of my fist pelted the windshield of the car, rain made it impossible to see. This fight sprouted from everyone’s need to express what they thought to be the best course of action. What I saw was like a cluster of kindergarteners screaming and crying over a debate between legos or blocks. Would we wait out the storm or continue driving to get home faster? I took no part in the childish debate until things began getting physical and the ordeal started to become loud enough to be classified as an annoyance. One raise of a hand brought my attention to the problem reflexively. The one thing I know everyone regrets most is violence. And I didn’t need that causing any more damage to our “vacation.” One glance up and I saw anger set in the face of my older sister, fear written on the younger one, indecision in my mother’s eyes and stubbornness in my father’s. “Shut the hell up!” The car went as silent as it could be with the storm raging around us. “Do any of you actually think shouting is helping you right now? Are you kidding me? The only thing any of you are accomplishing right now is absolutely terrifying the eight year old in the car.” By now everyone looks down and bite their tongues. I had to change the situation to help the most crucial of emotions being felt: fear. It’s the hardest to overcome and the most difficult to deal with. By subtracting the fear, you can remove chaos from the equation of the fighting. If you choose a side in any fight, you can never truly understand why your opponents do what they do. Understanding and neutrality are key to keeping peace.
When I say “the truth is written all over our faces,” people usually assume it’s some perfect magic trick, but it doesn’t always work. I can’t read your mind; I just decide to be actively empathic. This requires observance. Anyone can do it, some better than others, and some do it more than others. What I mean by the truth being on our faces is that when you pay attention to what others feel, usually through the emotion they show, understanding one another becomes a lot easier. I’m the type of person to constantly do this. I think it makes interacting with people a much more pleasant experience if you are able to understand what to say, why you say it and how you say it. The fox, like this technique, is silent and requires observation to be successful.