I'm baaaaaaaaack
actually... i've been back for quite a while... i just haven't bothered to update or anything and i won't really go too in depth about what's happened since then but i am going to include the first essay i had to write in Eng 4 Honors. I do believe it's the best writing i've done in a long time...
So here I am, sitting on my front porch, listening to Billy Joel’s “We Didn’t Start the Fire”, and trying, though seemingly in vain, to put together an adequate college acceptance essay. It appears I can’t narrow my interests and talents enough to make a coherent statement. All around me fireflies dance and glow, some are brighter than others but they’re all beautiful. I can’t quite concentrate but I don’t mind really. Watching the yellow pulses is somehow comforting. I begin to think, “Ha, What would admissions think if I wrote about fire flies?” “That would be an utterly silly idea” I answer myself and promptly dismiss the thought as I give in to my inner child and try to catch a few of the evasive bugs.
At first, I try to catch them with only one hand. I figure, “Hey, this’ll be easy. Surely my hand-eye coordination has improved since last time I did this!” Unfortunately, within five minutes, I find that is not the case and I revert to using both hands. I still can catch only one or two and even then, I can’t hold on to more than that at the same time. Whenever I open my hand to put one in, two more fly away and disappear into the night. I think, “What I really need is a can!” so I run inside and grab a clean, empty can out of the recycling bin and hurry back out to the yard. This go-round I manage to catch a good five or six. They are securely in the can but it’s still no good because I can’t see any of them through the aluminum. I try the same thing with a glass jar and it works like a charm. I can see them and they won’t escape.
I take this jar back to where I was working and set it down beside my paper. The glow from the lightning bugs provides a warm glow over the list of interests I had made up. In fact, when the light hits just so, it looks as if the words themselves glow. Then, a light bulb materializes over my head and I know exactly what I’ll write:
“My many interests and talents are the fire flies. Some of them are stronger than others and they show through my daily life. Some only glow bright when I catch them and want them to shine. Without an education, all I can do is think about them and wish that I could put them to a good use. With an elementary education, one hand, I am able to try to use them, and I find out a little about them but I cannot develop them nor can I choose which ones are stronger. With a middle school education, both hands, I can better my talents and be more choosey but still I don’t know how to best use them. With a high-school education, the can, I can develop them, decide which ones I want to keep around and I can use them to better myself. More than a few people would say that this is enough but I disagree. This is where a college education plays a role. With a college education, the glass jar, not only will my chosen talents be evident to me, they will be evident to others around me. My talents will be able to shine through and I’ll be able to use them to better others as well as myself. They will glow for all to see.”
So maybe fire flies aren’t such a utterly silly idea.