College Application Essay
By: Ashley Eyster
My friends and I decided to go to the beach last summer. On our way we drove down Woodward Avenue, a street that happens to be lined with beautiful old tulip trees. “Those are tulip trees; they are the largest deciduous trees in North America.” I told my friends. Of course I received the inevitable question from the back seat, “How do you know that?” I had to think about that for a minute, and then I knew; when I was in first grade we started learning about plants, and we learned the difference between coniferous and deciduous trees. I can remember sitting in my father’s car telling him about what I had learned and he told me about the Tulip Trees that lined Woodward Ave.
My friends are always amazed that I can hold onto information for such a long time. Of course my ability doesn’t impress me. What I find astonishing is the way that learning grows from itself, like a plant whose cutting you can put into water so that it will root. Knowing one thing, the difference between deciduous and evergreen trees, led to my learning about something close to home, which led me to learn about when the tulip trees were planted, by whom, and what zoning rules were causing some of them to be preserved while others were cut down. Knowledge is just like that - you get a little bit of it and it grows.
When I think about going to the University of Campbell college, about leaving the facts and sights that I’ve known and explored for years I am filled not with fear but with a rising tide of excitement. To live day in and day out in a place filled with my peers who are all in the pursuit of different branches of academia seems like a dream come true for me. The conversations and information that I will receive outside of class alone will be staggering, and the ability to choose and specialize my educational pursuits and goals is thrilling.
Someday I hope to be a wildlife biologist and to have the ability to meet lots of interesting people who share the same interests in learning as i do and to be able to accomplish my goals in animal care. What will be truly exciting about this job will be the opportunity for me to learn many different things I don’t know and be able to pass on that knowledge to my friends and family.
Every time you get out of bed and start a new day you are giving yourself a new opportunity for experience and learning. Each day that you spend awake is a day unlike any other that has ever been lived or will be lived again. There is nothing which, once learned, serves no purpose; for, even if it’s only use is repeating it at an apropos time, there is always the chance that you are planting a seed in someone’s mind. When I leave my home and my Tulip Trees I will not walk forward without casting a backwards glance. A love of knowledge has been sown and now it can only flourish.
