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Epiphany at the Bookstore

A student shares her college search experience. How do you relate?

Featured Author:

Kristin Drew

Salutations! My name is Kristin Drew. I am currently a high school senior in Jacksonville, Florida. I was born in New Jersey, but my family moved to the glorious sunshine state when I was four. Hence, I am truly a Floridian at heart. As for my family, I live as an only child with my mom and dad. In Jacksonville, I attend The Bolles School, which is a private college preparatory school educating students from kindergarten to 12th grade. I was very pleased to join the Bolles community in eighth grade after I moved from Orlando. The nurturing faculty has challenged me to reach my highest potential with my rigorous academic courses. Furthermore, we carry a top-tier athletic program, as demonstrated by our state championships in swimming and football. Last year, Bolles celebrated its 75th anniversary where the Bolles community honored its commitment to academic, athletic, and communal excellence. My interests include music, mathematics and debate. When I enter college, I hope to double major in math and literature while studying music. As a self-proclaimed "opera-nerd," I adore classical music and study voice as a Soprano I. With daily voice lessons, I study arias written by Mozart, Handel, Puccini and many others. As an ardent math student, I participate in Mu Alpha Theta, the math club. I always look forward to their convention in April where I compete for Bolles and literally watch nerds flock into one huge conference room. I also pursue my love of debate in the debate club, which I helped pioneer, as the Bolles captain, founder and chair. In my spare time I love to read, listen to music, or cook. My favorite pieces of literature are "The Great Gatsby," "The Metamorphosis," "The Tempest" and "Tartuffe." I usually enjoy tuning in to classical music or alternative rock. My favorite musicians are Muse, Sissel, The Strokes, Siouxie and the Banshees, Operababes and Radiohead. As a culinary cognoscente, I enjoy creating gourmet dishes and currently have a fetish for French and Cuban cuisine. I am ecstatic to articulate my vacillating experiences as a high school senior and hope you will savor my words to come!

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On one very lazy Sunday afternoon, I went shopping at one of my favorite stores, Barnes and Noble. I could get lost and spend hours looking at random books, CDs, journals and other various accessories in this magnificent store. However, the biography section of the bookstore caught my immediate attention during this shopping trip. On each biography, I saw the pictures of Audrey Hepburn, Abraham Lincoln, Albert Einstein, Mohandas Gandhi, Napoleon Bonaparte, Theodore Roosevelt and many others. After I saw these books, I asked myself what made these people so successful and intriguing to spark the interest of a historian? Did their college influence them to make a difference in the world?

I glanced at the early education chapter of each book. I found that some did attend prestigious Ivy League colleges which many prospective students yearn to enter. However, to my surprise, most grew from humble origins and did not graduate from a super-famous college. Some couldn’t even attend college. Rather, the most successful leaders carried a vision and utilized the best of what life could offer.

After I left the bookstore, I had an epiphany about college and life. It was not the college which would calculate their success or motivation. Rather, it was their ambition and intelligence which granted them success. No matter where they went, they made the best of their resources and carried out their hopes, dreams and visions in the best manner available to them. They were the ones who made their life extraordinary.; their college just provided the tools which they chose to utilize.

Find the perfect college experience for you.

Some very lucky applicants will receive acceptance notifications from their first-choice college. If this has happened or will happen to you, I congratulate you and give you my best regards. On the other side of the spectrum, I am sure that others already have or will see rejection from colleges. As I look realistically at my applications, I will probably receive denial from my first-choice schools. As I feel this sting of doubt about my college applications, I begin to feel uneasy about what the future could hold for me

However, after I think of all of these amazing heroes in history, the doubt vanishes. I know that no matter where I go, I will remain true to who I am and carry out my dreams, ambitions and visions. As long as a college will provide me with an enlightening education, then I, like these heroes, will utilize my college experience to blossom into a better person.