Lena Dunham: The Smart Kid In Class

I wouldn’t be applying for Questbridge if it weren’t for my strong desire to stay labeled as the “smart kid” in class. Maybe that’s what’s motivating me to go through what some people consider an insane process. Madness is the emergency exit, and in a way I’ve been looking for one for a very long time and at last opportunity has come knocking.
I eventually found out what exactly I wanted to do by looking back in hindsight. When I was younger, everyone liked telling me “he’s a smart kid” although that was an immense stroke to my ego I never really paid attention to it. It was just one of those things that were ‘there’ an unmovable and unyielding fact of my life. I never really realized my great potential back then. I had stopped all of my usual habits reading, writing creatively, and trying my math problems instead of looking at the answers in the back of the textbook. By tenth grade year id realized that I had dropped something along the way, I’d

dropped something very special while being preoccupied with social interactions and stuff. I knew where my passion for the written word had gone and I knew that I had to get it back because becoming an avid reader was a skill I was going to need if I wanted to become what I had realized I yearned most, a writer. As my second year in high school was coming to a conclusion. I realized I needed to rekindle my long lost desire to read.
As a Writer I’m always looking for ways to hone my craft, to extract the emotional response I desire from my audience.

Lena Dunham is one of those people who can do that. Although sometimes razor sharp and witty; she also has the amazing ability to really jerk the tears right out of you. After first being exposed to her work; I had realized that she was who I wanted to be; I knew that whatever path I choose that I must simply become someone or something like her. Her show GIRLS about a twenty-something girl living in New York was one of those stories that really changed my whole outlook on life. I know it sounds silly that a Television show can really change how you think and what you find comical, but art was made to make you think outside the box. Part of my job and her job as a writer is to not only cross lines, but to also redefine and reshaped them. She is one of my biggest inspirations as a writer, actor, and playwright. I know deep down that I have that great potential to change the minds of others like she

has.
One of my many enduring qualities is the ability to question, I’ve had plenty of problems always questioning my mom’s actions or that of my dad. But this isn’t just a problem with authority it’s a thirst, a thirst for knowledge and I don’t mean things that can be found in books. I’m talking about things like the current political climate in the U.S., the black lives matter movement, and of course LGBTQ+ issues not being limited to transphobia and homophobia. I have a passion for fighting against injustices. I have an amazing talent to debate the pants off of someone, this whole spiel isn’t trying to communicate that I’m the best or that I’m the most exceptional out of anyone that goes to my school; because I trust there are some others who can probably debate the pants off of me. If it weren’t for me developing this urge to “argue” I wouldn’t be the inquisitive mind I am today. I wouldn’t have a proper way with words; I wouldn’t be able to write about things no one else wants to write about; I wouldn’t be willing to break the mold for other LGTBQ+ teens out there currently struggling with who they are. Now I am not saying I know who I am yet, but I am saying that , my life so far has helped me develop who I am and I hold on to the hope that what I’ve learned so far can help me deal with life after college. What I want most of all is to learn in a place where my ideas are constantly challenged, a place where I can trade similar ideas with other students and eventually become a smart, well read, functioning adult after College.