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Recommended: Overcoming adversity
In my Junior year of high school, I hit a breaking point -- an emotional, existential crisis in which I was completely lost mentally and physically. I questioned my future with little fate in my abilities. At the time, I wasn’t doing so hot in my classes. A year prior, I had qualified for a conglomeration of nearly full AP/IB classes in history, English, and fine art classes that challenged. I’ve always been fascinated with history, literature, and writing. For years, I aspired to be a poet; but I never had a solid inspiration to look up because I had a heavy dissatisfaction with the poetry that we were introduced to in humanities class throughout middle school. However, during the second quarter of my Junior year, I found my inspiration that would change my perspective on virtually every aspect of my life.
On November 8th, I had just gotten home from school. It was a Friday, and I had no plans to do anything later in the day with how exhausted I was. I decided to lay out on the couch in the living room and watch whatever looked interesting on Netflix. After briefly exploring movie titles, I found a film by Oliver Stone titled The Doors. Interesting, as I had just listened to a few of their songs days prior. I’ve always enjoyed learning about 60’s music, so I figured I’d give it
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a try, regardless if it was written and directed by the infamous Oliver Stone. What I saw amazed me. How dramatic the band was with it ties in philosophy and Greek tragedies. How mentally liberated the lead singer, Jim Morrison, was. Never have I heard of someone who made it their mission to defy normal social constructs in order to freak people out and to evoke reactions for fun. However, what amazed me the most, was that The Doors were a band that existed during an era in which the majority of songs were written about flowery, bohemian love. Whereas The Doors were writing songs about, “What have they done to our fair sister? Ravaged and plundered and ripped her and bit her. Stuck her with knives in the side of the dawn And tied her with fences and dragged her down.” It was heavy, it was dark, it was an evocation of emotions that the audience couldn’t understand. A religious catharsis in which the listener had no idea what the writer was on about because the lyrics were so ambiguous -- they’re left open for interpretation. Although the music of The Doors left me in awe, it wasn’t just their music that affected me that night. It was the image of their androgynous, mysterious singer cavorting like a madman on stage. Still, to this day, I can’t tell you what it was that made me find him so exotic and inspiring at first, but nonetheless, I was cajoled. I wanted to learn everything about Morrison -- his political views, how he wrote, and especially his thought process. What was it that made him want to consistently rebel against everything so meaninglessly? I began reading voraciously about Jim Morrison.
Every single biography I could get my hands on about The Doors, I read. I jotted down every notion that included Morrison’s reading list from The Birth of Tragedy and the Case of Wagner by Friedrich Nietzsche to The Outsider by Colin Wilson. I read everything I could on Greek mythology and tragedies (I topic I once found boring, as I was much more fond of Roman mythology throughout my youth). I read poems from famous poets such as William Blake, Arthur Rimbaud, William Yeats, and Rupert Brooke. Every moment of class during my second semester, I spent with my nose in a book or exploring articles on Wikipedia that correlated with Jim
Morrison. What I found surprised me. Not only was the biopic of The Doors by Oliver Stone horribly, horribly inaccurate, but I learned that Jim Morrison was by far one of the most benevolent, realest celebrities that ever existed. However, very few people saw it that way. When I told friends, family, and teachers that Jim Morrison was my role model, I was quickly shunned for thinking so.
In recent discussions of education, a controversial issue has been whether or not to go to college after high school. On the one hand, some argue that starting your career after high school is the smart thing to do. On the other hand, however, others argue that the smarter decision would be to continue your schooling by going to college to get a degree. In sum, then, the issue is whether or not college is the right decision for you. My own view is that you should go to college because it helps you build character, start a tradition, and gives you experience.
I was given a chance to study art at Harrison and I could not be any happier to officially pursue what I love. Having been shy throughout middle school, I saw high school as an opportunity for me to do a one-eighty with my life, to start with a clean slate. By pushing myself to be more open, I quickly made friends and felt like I belonged. Of course this was only the tip of the iceberg; I was not ready for the events that would ensue. Drama would brew amongst “friends” and school work gradually became more difficult. As the years progressed I began to notice a sense of competition amongst my peers and I, which sometimes led me to doubt my own abilities. It was also amidst the stress and anxiety that I discovered my biggest habit and flaw: procrastination. The procrastination cycle is ruthless; I found myself staying up late and losing to do virtually every assignment up until now, senior
Morrison's childhood gave little indication of the road he would follow. He was born on December 8, 1943 in Melbourne, Florida (Hopkins 30). Morrison's father was in the Navy so he moved around frequently. Jim started high school in Alameda, California. With his best friend, Ford Fud, he engaged in typical teenage pranks and problems. His sophomore year, Jim moved to Alexandria, Virginia where he attended a segregated, upper middle class school. In school Jim was constantly calling attention to himself. Once he chased an imaginary bee around the classroom (Hopkins 39). He was never content to be normal or average. Jim also had a huge fascination with literature and poetry, and his IQ was listed as 149 in school records.
College Admissions Essay If someone asked me where I am going to be in ten years, this would be my answer. I have a great, high-paying job, and beautiful wife and family, and a nice sports car parked in front of my lovely house. When I look into the future, I see myself being successful and happy. Even though I always pictured myself this way, I never worried too much about how I would get there.
Jim Morrison is the lead singer of the classic rock and roll band "The Doors". Jim
Jim’s life began as a story of order and chaos. His father was a career militarist, which brought the order of the military. This job brought a lot of moving and relocation which through Jim’s childhood out of sync. Jim started his life in Clearwater, Florida. Then he moved to Washington D.C., and then on to Albuquerque, New Mexico. Jim’s family kept moving and moving Jim never had time to make any true friends in any one place (Jones 31). To deal with this Jim acted like; one could say the class clown, so he would be liked. This backfired and kids learned to watch themselves around him. With no true friends Jim found that he had no problem manipulating the ones around him. He was his own individual; he just looked out for himself. Morrison received high marks throughout school even though he didn’t put too much effort into the books and spent a lot of time drunk (34). His parents then enrolled him in St. Petersburg Junior College in Florida, but Jim transferred to Florida State University only to drop out and move to UCLA to study film. At the end of the year Jim turned in his film, but he received bad reactions to it and he dropped out of school (Manzarek 60). This made Jim a lot more eligible to be drafted so he moved to Venice just south of Santa Monica.
Starting college is an intense and confusing event that plagues all recent high school graduates. It is like trying to run when all you can do is crawl, and for many freshmen, myself included, one can get easily overwhelmed by the daunting task of picking a major when less than two months ago some of our parents still packed our lunches for us every morning. The concept of entering college tends to be frequently skewed and expecting an eighteen year old to decide what they want to do for the rest of their lives, without having them actually experiment in different areas, has the potential to create a generation of adults who are aggravated and depressed in their careers.
Poet William Blake once said "If The Doors of perception were cleansed, everything would appear to man as it is, infinite" (Gilmore 34). From this quote arose a band that even over 20 years after its disbanding still is played and remembered. The Doors started as a little garage band in California back in the early sixties. They were extremely popular due to their lead singer, Jim Morrison. Morrison himself was a real character. Morrison is considered by many critics a modern day poet. Others view him in a different light, George Will wrote "Morrison resembled Byron in one aspect, they both were mad, bad, and dangerous to know" (Will 64). Still others view him as a hero of the 'counterculture'. He was a sort of 'Peter Pan', one of those boys who never grew up. Morrison basically was The Doors. His blatant disregard for law and order made him a very well known figure. He was arrested on a few occasions for charges ranging from inciting riots to indecent exposure. He was also notorious for his drug use and alcohol abuse. His poetry though, justified his lifestyle. There were also three other members of the band: Ray Manzarak (keyboards), John Densmore (drummer), and Robby Krieger (guitarist). They all made up The Doors, but after the death of the lead singer Jim Morrison, the band's popularity dropped significantly. They did though produce three albums after Morrison's untimely demise (all of which were not very popular). Jim Morrison died on July 4th, 1971, in Paris, France. He was 27 years old at the time of death (the same age Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin died at also). He was found in his bathtub with a cute smirk on his face. He had finally "broke through to the other side"(Gilmore 35).
...from high school with high hopes that college would add the finishing touches to my writing skills – I knew I still had flaws in my style, and I didn’t know how to fix them. And now here I am, aiming to become a successful novelist or screenwriter of some sort (as long as it allows my imagination to run wild).
“The Road Not Taken” by Robert Frost is one of my favorite poems for many reasons, but recently it has started to gain new meaning as I face graduation. I have started to wonder how different my life would be if I had only chosen to travel down one road instead of sprinting down both roads at the same time. When I declared my biology major, my dad expressed concern that I was choosing one possible life and career over another possibility. He said he knew how happy writing made me and he wondered if I was doing the right thing in not pursuing that. He spoke the words I had not yet spoken out loud for myself. “You shouldn’t enter college worried about what you will do when you exit,” said David Rubenstein, co-founder of the Carlyle Group, at a World Economic Forum panel discussion last week on the state of the humanities. Rubenstein’s words are true now and they were true then: I should not have worried about choosing so soon. After I arrived at Columbia College, I began taking English courses because I could not take biology courses without at least trying to explore my passion for literature and creative writing. Thanks to time at Columbia College, I started to see the value the required courses of the WPDM major more because of what they taught me about myself than what they taught me about the subject matter. Combined with my classes, my internship experiences have confirmed that I am indeed heading in the right direction. I could not become a successful writer and biologist without the valuable set of skills that I have gained through my time at Columbia College. I believe I made the right choice by choosing both roads.
If you were to know me back in middle school then you would know I loved going to school and enjoyed the entire learning process. My love for school at a young age is mainly the reason why I’m studying to be a elementary teacher. During seventh grade, there was a poetry contest that I really wanted to enter. If you won the poetry contest then you would be recognized in the school newspaper. I dreamed of becoming a famous poet when I was little because of the influence Maya Angelou had on me. Her words hold a special place in my heart. The older I become, the more I realize that I am a phenomenal woman. I wish I felt this way back in middle school because my life would be different. I was excited to enter the poetry contest but from the trauma of being bullied in school. I started thinking it wasn’t such a good idea. I thought when I got on stage everyone would laugh at me and from that day I stopped writing poetry. This was just the beginning of my pessimism
It is no secret how different college is compared to high school, but my personal high school experience taught me valuable lessons and ultimately prepared me for the challenges I might face in college. I attended a charter school. It was a very small, uniform dress code, same routine every day type of high school. You go to the same classes, rotating the same teachers throughout the year, and learn with the same people. My high school experience was pretty basic. My only priority was getting good grades so I could get into a good college. I was an honor student and definitely an over-achiever in high school. My freshman and sophomore year I was very interactive in school. I had tons of friends. I was on the step team and apart of the yearbook committee. My senior year of high school was when everything changed. My mentality was if it was not beneficial to me
Even though poetry is still taught in classes, students will only view it as a required subject. A majority of students do not find poetry interesting just from investigating on their own. However, when they are learning it in a classroom setting with their peers, they may have more enthusiasm about the topic. Yet, after these students learn about the influence that poetry has brought to our society, they are still inclined to explore their own writing style. There is nothing wrong with this, but this proves that poetry has strayed away from its actual literature and the value it
There are many important aspects in my life that can be applied in college. Over the years, I 've learned a bountiful of life strategies. I am going to use part of those aspects to aid me with my current and upcoming college life. When I graduate college, I will be successful. When I graduate college, I will not end up stuck with a boring job, or even worse, no job. When I graduate college, I will not end up like my older sister, who is stuck at home taking care of her baby. When I graduate college, I will not be stuck. When I first started college, I was petrified as well as really anxious. I thought it would be really different compared to high school, which in some aspects it is. I was expecting a bundle of work with no time to relax or go out. Now that I 've seen a snippet of how the rest of my years will look like, I am not as concerned. I am ready to put everything I 've got into these years. I will use all the strategies I learned over the decade to help me pull through this journey. I am going to set more and more goals for myself. At the same time, I will be successful with the help of my parents who will always be by my side. I understand
It was just an ordinary day. The sun had just set and we were all sitting around the table eating dinner. My mother and father always asked us about our future and what we were hoping to accomplish. My brother and sister always explained how they wanted to go into the air force and be doctor. Of course I would just sit there and think about how I didn’t know what I wanted to be. But this particular night I had an idea of what I wanted to do! So before my mom and dad could get out of their mouth the question, I said “I know what I want to be!”. They all stared and asked what that might be and I replied, “A famous artist!” I said, “I want my paintings and sketchings to be shown worldwide!”. They told me that, that was all good and well but that there was a lot of steps to achieve this goal and that it wasn’t very realistic. But what they didn’t know was that very line pushed me to prove them wrong.