Okay, I’ve given up. I always resisted posting my essays on here, partly because I figured I would know when it’s “ready,” but that’s just not the case. I have to send this off with the Common Application soon, and I need feedback from others. I’m not worried about security because it’s pretty tailored to me, but if you <em>insist</em> on stealing this essay, please do us both the favor of not sending it to Dartmouth, Harvard or Swarthmore, because those are the schools to which I’m potentially sending it. It wouldn’t be pretty if they got two versions of the same essay. Enough! Please read this:
<pre><code> “Hello, and welcome to WBLT TV, Baltimore’s leading news source. I’m Lee Freeman, Tammy’s off tonight. Our top story this evening is, yes, it’s finally happened-- we’ve always joked about it, but today, July 28, 2004, storms tore through the Chesapeake Bay, separating the eastern peninsula of Maryland and Delaware from continental America. The peninsula, consisting mainly of struggling farming communities, was quickly evacuated.”
*****
"Hello, and welcome to WBLT TV, Baltimore’s leading news source. I’m Lee Freeman III, Tammy’s off tonight. 75 years ago, folks, my grandfather brought you shocking news that eastern Maryland had broken away; the island drifted to and has been lost in the arctic ever since. Incredibly, the island reappeared today, but the arctic climate has devastated areas not sheltered by trees. Shockingly few areas were not cornfield; the only southern land intact is a small forest, in which investigators found a trailer home belonging to “The Martins,” as the mailbox read. The house was emptied before evacuation-- except for one bedroom.
Investigators say the room is organized but “busy.” The walls are covered with posters of a wide range of musical groups- everything from singer-songwriter Carly Simon to French “electronic” band Air to the legendary Velvet Underground; colored pencils and sheets of poster board stacked under the bed indicate that rather than buying these posters, the inhabitant drew them. Albums matching the posters were found near the bed.
A desk-- the only furniture in the room except the bed-- contains the most detailed information about the inhabitant’s life; college applications and rough drafts of play scripts are piled on top. The most complete play is about two Parisians who wake up baffled in Amsterdam. Several scripts concentrate on the search for self-identity; researchers suggest this could be a result of the author’s homosexuality, of which only one friend was aware. The rest of his work portrayed the author as a warm, open-minded person whose greatest desire was to promote inclusion and tolerance in society. In the first drawer of the desk, employee payslips from a three year span identify the inhabitant as Bobby Ray Martin, a male 17 years old when the house was abandoned. Working long hours seemed to pay off, as bank statements in the second drawer indicate Bobby saved enough money to purchase his own vehicle. The third drawer contains several photo albums and a camera. The photographs are “cityscapes” taken by Bobby. A stack of books-- mostly plays by Thornton Wilder and Tennessee Williams, and poetry by Walt Whitman-- as well as videos of Bobby acting on stage as Petruchio in The Taming of the Shrew and as Sherlock Holmes in The Hound of the Baskervilles, are part of the organized clutter on top of the desk.
Eastern Maryland historians, however, are disappointed with the findings, saying that while they’re sure Bobby was proud to be from the area, and proud to know the value of courtesy ingrained in country living, his interests did not reflect those of the average peninsula citizen. And now, tomorrows weather.
</code></pre>
Brutal honesty is encouraged.