RTUV Rewording 2021

Required:

I have always held a strong belief in pursuing a culturally rich ideology and mindset. As a humanities major in the upper-level, creating an insightful understanding and appreciation of international languages, the media, and cultures is critically significant, because I hold that relating to and connecting with my world is the core of being human and showing humanity. The need to expand my cultural boundaries has ultimately imparted a heightened sense of appreciation within me, especially for the opportunities in education that I have been offered, motivating me to flourish as a driven and outstanding student and an active participant within several of the clubs within campus, an unrestrained and efficient intern, and a sympathetic volunteer in my community.

My background as a detailed, dynamic researcher is a skillset that depends primarily on the capacity to reason from a creative and analytical mindset, elements that have led to my positive track record in delivering tangible and consistent results in the academic field. I have polished these reasoning and critical thinking skills all through my career in the university by utilizing the consultation hours with my professors

I’ve honed these critical thinking and reasoning skills throughout my college experience by taking advantage of professors’ office hours and learning more about how to best apply their teachings to real-world situations. Additionally, staying involved in on-campus happenings alongside groups of culturally diverse peers has taught me the value of communicating effectively and being an attentive listener when working as part of a team.

As an intern, I was given the hands-on opportunity to further sharpen my skills as a multitasker, excelling within my administrative duties and proving myself a competent, thorough translator and customer service-minded communicator. Assisting customers was the part of my internship I most enjoyed, as I strongly believe in helping my fellow man in any capacity possible. This moral compass inspires me to lend my services to my community through volunteer work, where I share the lessons I’ve been fortunate enough to learn at University with people who have not been afforded the same luxuries and opportunities. I believe knowledge is a guiding light, and it is my desire to continue sharing my own light with others, embodying the spirit of Fiat Lux in everything I do.

Volunteerism:

There is a pervasive sentiment in today’s society that we should not forgive people who have wronged us. Many people say they would never forgive a person for certain mistakes and resolve to hold onto negative feelings. However, that is a backwards approach to living the human experience. As people we all make mistakes and it is important to prevent negativity from permeating our thoughts and influencing our decisions. When we take the time to forgive others we cultivate invaluable compassion.

I was afforded the opportunity to volunteer at a local high school this past year. I came into contact with a host of incredibly ambitious students, many of whom were taking advanced courses during the semester. One student in particular, Aiden, was taking three incredibly difficult extra courses. His schedule was jam packed, but as a high achieving student he was handling his work load with grace. One week he had a series of tests to take and research papers due. When I saw him one morning he was in tears, telling me he had forgotten to complete one of his papers because he had so much on his plate. He proceeded to beat himself up, calling himself names and saying that he’d never amount to anything. I immediately stopped him in his tracks, telling him that everyone, even the best students, make mistakes and that this one moment in time did not have to define him. I encouraged him to speak with his instructor to see what his options were, and he calmed down. In that moment he was acutely aware of his humanity, and chose to forgive himself so that he could move forward and continue to do his very best in all of his courses. 

Forgiving ourselves and others gives us the space to confront negative emotions and move forward. When we unburden ourselves we create the mental space we need to plan for our futures and go on to achieve great things. Holding onto negative emotions that do that serve us cloud our minds and prevent us from seeing the beauty and possibility of life.

Unique: 

When we take words and we line them up like soldiers and give them a rhythm or rhyme to sing, we create poetry. The most inspiring political and literary figures throughout history have been poets or have created a body of work that is poetic at heart. Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech is poetry that liberates; Winston Churchill’s statement, “Success is not final, failure is not fatal; it is the courage to continue that counts,” is not too far behind it. I, too, line my words into sentences and make them sing. Because of my passion for poetry and through the guidance of my teachers, I see the world with a lyrical beat that alludes so many of my peers. 

The words might come to me from my brain or they might originate from my gut, but when they march out into the open ever ready and at attention, they express what my heart feels, what it sees, what it thinks. Often times, even I don’t know what is being said until the words are saying it; it’s a door that only I can open and only by saying Open Sesame in prose. When I write poetry, I am in the echelons of heaven but, in reality, I might be anywhere; a silent corner of the library or a noisy lunch table. When my friends laugh and say I’m sensitive, they are right. I am in fact very sensitive, I recognize my own needs and the needs of others, and it is poetry that has enabled me to be so alert to these unspoken requests.

When Thomas Gray said, “Poetry is thoughts that breathe, and words that burn,” it was as if he was speaking directly to me. When I read my poems to my friends and family, it is not so that they can assist me with literary techniques, such as alliteration or allegory. It is so that they can see that my life is poetry and that my pathway for communication is the poem; I breathe through that and I burn through it, too.

Talent: 

Karate has been the principle means by which I use to live my life and acquire knowledge. Like a hammer, it shattered my perception of the self, reminding that my arrogance was the very restrictor that prevented me from taking in more knowledge. Thanks to karate, I have become a shapeless vessel, adaptive, flexible, and always ready to learn, grow, and give. 

Karate emphasizes discipline, and as a child, discipline was a virtue that I simply did not possess. I was always acting out, whether it be at school or at home. When I came to karate, my youthful nature made it so that I expected immediate progress. What I learned, however, was the ability to slow down, collect myself, and embrace microscopic bits of progress over time. Karate has helped me to strengthen myself, and I have ultimately developed the ability to punch, kick, and strike with the proper force and tact that only formal training and discipline can provide. My karate instructor once told me that “form is emptiness, and emptiness is form itself,” and committing myself to his teaching, I have been practicing with grit and approaching every match creatively. Training karate takes a great deal of patience and discipline, and it has helped me to train my body and mind in ways I did not previously know was possible. Through practice, I have become definitively better. 

Karate is an honest combat sport. There is no room for pretense. My progress directly correlates with the amount of effort and time I invest in my routine training. It taught me the significant importance of preparation. No matter how capable I am, no matter how intelligent I am, to really succeed in any calling, I have to always prepare, prepare, and prepare some more. Karate instilled within me this mindset, which, as time goes by, has gradually worn off my arrogance and made me a progressively humble person. It enables me to fully appreciate the people around me, the knowledge I seek to learn, every opportunity I have to uplift others, and to strengthening my sense of social responsibility.