The period between November and December 2003 was a hectic time with the A level Examinations, a youth caucus trip to Geneva and the completion of overseas University applications.
The university applications were frustrating to fill up, but I took pleasure in writing some of the essays. I enjoyed staging my personality in print. Below are two of the application essays I wrote for the University of Chicago.

Tell us about your favourite magazine?

Most young women have stopped reading teenage girl's magazines. It is for the reason that the magazines no longer provided the approiate information for their interests. However, for a particular teenage magazine Cosmogirl!, its appreciative features extend beyond the usual scope of fashion spreads and caring for one's appearance. It does more and encourages readers to be bold with their ambitious pursuits, to believe in themselves and to have a strong calling to what they do. The magazine regulary dispenses word of reassurance that all seemingly "cool antics" of following the crowd and getting the desired romantic partner are inconsequential to attaining personal goals and maintaining idiosyncrasy to feel comfortable with oneself. The magazine affirms the need to chase desires and not to be ashamed of being an individual. I read almost every issue or whenever I need a "perk me up" from a pessimistic slump( such event happens when I give a sunstandard attempt at a task), and I usually get back into a optimistic boom the next day, inspired with new ideas. It is my cheerleader in print.


Essay Option 5: Write your own essay

The literature of war often explores the theme of ambiguity in civilian life. Tell us about a conflicting relationship or aspect in your life that reflects ambiguity of stance.

Writing And I- A hate/love story

Learning how to, developing or teaching someone to write is, by my own definition,, an uphill Herculean but not impossible task. When faced with a circumstance of coining words, abbreviating or chuning out something factual in non-spoken verbal form, I get to the level of near impasse. Writer's block or whatever those interllectuals call it. It seems as if the printed manner of words confines the brain's activities toand thoughts to the geometric shape limits of a page(squarish or rectangle by the way). Why don't we have pages in circular format or sentences that go in circles as well? I am sure others have shared this wonderment. After all, according to some psychologists, including those who work for tickle.com, have stated that the square/rectangular shape symbolises routine and lack of change and creativity. Round/circular shapes represent flexibility (of ideas). So with this in mind, writing is a form of communication that restricts the full capacity and intention of the message. Compare it to a spoken form of verbal communication and one will realise that the latter would offer a remarkably more comprehensive understanding. I cannot help but recall the endless letters of greetings to people that inevitably degenerates into a one-way sob-fest in print. The sense of betrayal, which serves to demoralise my already disgruntled imposition towards the written language, has somewhat sidelined my personality where expression is concerned.

This is unlike the days before kindergarden, where a young child is judged solely on the basis of verbal expression. Smiling, frowning, speaking or making up non-actualised words convey expressions "pure to meaning". The absence of flowery language or jargon, does not infest the message with unwanted guesses. Books were mainly pictorial, free from the plague of word jargon.

Then one day, I discovered a form of expression commonly known as poetry. I think of it as hiding your confusion and stupidity by dazzling it with ambiguity. It is relatively simple to write one for a person like me of mean intelligence. I come up with an idea, then build up a swarm of connotative/dennotive/metaphysical/personifying/onomatopoeic words around it. The results are usually brilliant. An intellectual's acute criticism
of the pieces that I write are often highly profound, far from the original (and simple) intention. I like this very much as a person like me of average intelligence gets to masquerade around in smarter clothing. Sometimes
I wonder if it is my source of healing that acts like a soothing balm to counteract my scar of betrayal from factual writing accounts.

To the admissions officer: The essay had intentionally been written by hand, to avoid the transcending of the squaring effect of the computer monitor, which would limit the creativity of the essay. Words were first spoken into a tape recorder, then written out through dictation.

To the reader of this blog: This was typed out from a messy piece of handwriting-the first handwritten draft before nicer stokes were used in the second for the sake of the University application.