Common Application Prompt: Share an essay on any topic of your choice. It can be one you've already written, one that responds to a different prompt, or one of your own design.
 


 
Space: the final frontier. A bit cliche I know, but the hackneyed phrase has had a profound effect on my life ever since at five, I heard William Shatner pronounce it at the beginning of my first Star Trek viewing. I was enthralled by it, even more so than another of my childhood favorites, Star Wars. Though Star Wars is considered the more entertaining of the two, mostly because of its action and visuals, it is about a war in a fully explored galaxy. Star Trek is about pushing boundaries, exploring the unknown. It relates more to me, as it has inspired my ultimate goal of my life, to explore the frontier of our modern age, Mars. But it especially relates to me now as I get ready to explore the most challenging and grueling frontier known to teenagers, college. 
After watching the campy adventures of Kirk, Spock, and crew, I would often look up to the stars and wonder if I could ever travel to new planets, as my idols did. For the longest time, I was told to not dream too big, because my parents and teachers thought that any chance of me going out to new planets was nonexistent. But now, with our generation’s space race to Mars, the possibility to explore the universe (or at least an infinitesimal part of it), has gone up astronomically. The most exciting part of the journey, though, would be the thought that I am blazing a new trail for the rest of mankind to follow into the next age in human history. But another limitation of my dream is the technology, as we are light-years behind Star Trek in that way. Obviously we can not warp into subspace to reach new solar systems in no time (yet), and it will be decades before someone can actually say, “Beam me up Scotty!” But I will follow my heroes into the stars. Their journeys have inspired me, despite our technological limitations, to assist  humanity’s journey into the final frontier.
However, before I can reach my ultimate goal of traveling to Mars, I will have to explore a new frontier, one that may be even stranger than the vast unknown, college. Like a trip to Mars, I need to gather my valuables and say my heartfelt goodbyes to loved ones before rocketing into my new life. Once I arrive on this strange terrain, the first thing I will do is survey the foreign land and figure out how to live off of it. Luckily for me, there are more dining areas on a campus than on the planet of Mars, so I do not think that finding food will be a problem. I will have to share my artificial habitat with strangers, which will make me appreciate my shower at home infinitely more. And new people will come to meet me, some of them so strange they might as well be extraterrestrials, and some will become my friends. The greatest similarity between Mars and university, however, is college life, especially in academics, will have me fighting for my life, as I brace for many sleepless nights ensuring that I meet every deadline, studying for twelve hours before a test to make sure that I earn the desired grade. But this struggle has purpose, as I will emerge from my college experience smarter, wiser, and overall more ready to face the challenges in my life, especially those found on Mars. Trying to chase my dream without the experience and struggle of college would leave me unprepared for the sheer gravity of the adversities. Even as a child, gazing at the stars wondering what soaring across the them would be like, as the USS Enterprise did, I knew that I needed to experience college, to struggle and learn, so I could finally be ready to live my dream and boldly go where no one has gone before!