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!