I need most help on answering the second prompt. Also, if you’d prefer to use Google Docs or Word Doc, please say so — I’d be happy to send you an invitation to the Google Docs or a Word Doc copy. THANK YOU!
PROMPT 1
What is your intended major? Discuss how your interest in the subject developed and describe any experience you have had in the field — such as volunteer work, internships and employment, participation in student organizations and activities — and what you have gained from your involvement.
I often ask myself, “Why do we only have one life to live?” There are so many things for us to do, let alone learn. Though faced with so many choices, I am certain about the career I want to pursue. Just like Amir from Khaled Hosseini’s The Kite Runner, the gifted fictional character who later became a published novelist, I want to become a writer, tell stories, and leave my footprints with the words I use. Nonetheless, I possess a passion for exchanging knowledge that cannot be fulfilled solely by writing. The former United States Secretary of Agriculture Charles Brannan once said, “If you have an apple and I have an apple and we exchange these apples, then you and I will still each have one apple. But if you have an idea and I have an idea and we exchange these ideas, then each of us will have two ideas.” I believe that I can present clever ideas through publishing my writings, but then there would be few to no thoughts and opinions exchanged with the readers. I would also like to be an English professor; it would provide me with the opportunity to foster discussions with the students regarding provocative and moving literature.
My dream to become an educator and a writer sprang when I was in sixth grade all because of Carmencita Pacis, my then journalism teacher, who introduced me to the various jobs of a journalist—from gathering information to presenting it in news stories, feature articles, and documentaries. Since then, writing has been a source of enjoyment and a method of recording my own memories as well as a source of learning. I remember reading a part of my old journal entry, about what my mother told me when I was younger: “‘Mayroong magiging writer sa ating pamilya,’ my mother grinned with her immaculate teeth. There will be a writer in the family.” Now that I am a grown man and unraveling the puzzle of life, willing to pursue degrees in English and Creative Writing regardless of the stereotypically high unemployment rate, I figure that my mother was talking about me. I have come to the conclusion that I want to teach and help others write their own stories.
Looking at the stack of all stories I have written, I thought, “What can I do with these?” The answer came when I took part in the 2014 Summer Bridge Program provided by the Student Support Services Program to get involved with and gain insight into the Santa Ana College community. This program introduced me to various clubs and organizations on campus, specifically clubs that focus on writing. I then joined the SAC Literary Journal in Fall 2014, a club that celebrates the voice of not solely the Santa Ana College students and staff but also Santa Ana’s citizens. The advisors of this club, Stephanie Keefer and Nidžara Pečenković, have strengthened my enthusiasm for writing—they believed in my writing skills and helped me publish two of my short fiction stories: “Haunted,” a story about a boy who was haunted in dreams by himself, and “Last Note,” a surrealistic story narrated by a dead fetus about a pregnant woman who lost her family and ended up committing seppuku. As the club’s Editor, Media and Marketing Officer, I play an active role in soliciting submissions, revising and editing writing, and disseminating the product which includes designing the club’s fliers and book covers. By publishing these writings I thought, “We help these writers to polish their work, express themselves, and to impact and emblazon the community with their poetry, stories, and opinions.” In a way, we are able to leave our footprints behind and be remembered.
PROMPT 2
Tell us about a personal quality, talent, accomplishment, contribution or experience that is important to you. What about this quality or accomplishment makes you proud and how does it relate to the person you are?
I clapped my eyes and realized, “I am a rebel.”
It is not that I make impromptu slam poetry instead of deep thinking about life in the shower, or sing Jessie J’s songs especially “Who You Are,” but because a lot of my friends from high school and acquaintances in college have often asked me questions like: “Which med-school are you applying to after you get your Bachelor’s degree?” or “What kind of engineering are you going to pursue when you transfer to a university?” Sometimes I would receive messages like, “OMG! Your [sic] not going to pursue a STEM career?” I would simply quote Amy Tan, an Asian-American novelist, and answer them, “No, because ‘Fortunately, I happen to be rebellious in nature and enjoy the challenge of disproving assumptions made about me. I became an English major [before my second] year in college, after being enrolled as pre-med’” because neither the shape of my eyes, gender and sexual orientation, nor complexion of my skin define me—my pen does (“Mother Tongue”).
Rebelliousness is the reason why my knees are not stuttering whenever I against people’s hackneyed ideas. It is the personal quality I am most proud of, an accomplishment I have always boasted, a contribution to the people I have inspired through my writing, and an experience I will always treasure.
I am a fish in the Salmon River going against the flow of the water, trying to avoid from being eaten by the hypocritical and stereotypical bear.
“I am a rebel,” I repeat.
I’ve been posting most of my rough drafts on here o.o JFC