Squonk

I remember a certain book that we had in the bookshelf back when I was in elementary school—a large paperback entitled "What Every 3^rd Grader Should Know." There was a collection of stories focusing on Greek and Roman mythology. I read that book nearly cover to cover, fascinated by the completely different take on what children of a certain age should be learning. To me, that book was a fountain of fascinating information.

There's a point where the mundane information in textbooks that almost require rote memorization becomes background work, something that loses appeal despite any interest you might have in the subjects. It's the sheer amount of work, the balancing of seven classes at once in varying degrees of difficulty, that causes many high school students to snap. There are two extremes: one of utter indifference and near hatred of having to learn in the first place, and one of complete craving for more information that one has a hope of actually retaining in the overstuffed mind. I have fallen into the second category. I can find history and literary analysis and foreign languages all intriguing, but I also find myself reading every article in the Discover and Newsweek magazines, perusing the daily paper for interesting headlines, and even searching for, and saving on my hard drive, the Democratic Party platform.

Academics have taken center-stage in my life. I go outside less and less often, lie around the house reading for English, research for projects online, and organize and reorganize my increasingly messy backpack. I believe I'm an intellectual person, and I certainly enjoy many academic subjects, but sometimes I find the strict educational institution to be too stressful.

I want to go to college for the experience, for the classes and professors, and for the degree. But most of all, I want to go to college to do what I've never done before. I want to find something about which I feel truly passionate. I want to grow as a person, emotionally, mentally, and socially. I want to have the opportunity to become whoever I wish myself to be.

Swarthmore seems to me to be everything I need in a college, and a place where even I, strange as I am, will find a niche in which I can prosper and learn. There's a certain magic to learning, a breathtaking feeling that says, "I don't have to stop here."

I see higher education as a route in life that is meant to foster the inquisitive and talented mind, to raise the next generation to as high as it wants to go, and to create an atmosphere in which the young and old alike can grow together, symbiotically and because of one another. This is what knowledge is: it's the thrill of reading a book and traveling to the world the author has created; it's the analysis of one's own thoughts and life and the insights it creates; it's the imagination and hope it takes to pursue a dream. But it's always, always the curiosity to ask "Why?"

posted by Sarah Ruiz  # 11:39 PM