College Personal Statement

Today, this little number is putting the ROUGH in “rough draft.” Please enjoy.  

Also, I think I tooted my own horn waaaay too hard; please forgive my apparent arrogance. But how does one brag with subtlety and finesse? Somebody teach me!

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           The tortilla glared menacingly at me like a blistering eye. My hands froze as my gaze shifted anxiously to my partner, silently imploring him for help. He gets the message. I shrank helplessly to the side, watching his confident fingers rescue my drowning dish. Tortilla. Cheese. Chicken. He fluidly combines the ingredients together, finally folding it over to reveal a perfect, golden quesadilla, ready to serve to the expectant customer. Defeated, I remain in my isolated corner of the kitchen, praying for the end of a lunch rush that could not come soon enough. It was the summer before my junior year, and the Culinary Arts class I had enrolled in was proving more challenging than I had anticipated.  

            This failure came as an abrupt slap to the face. In most academic and extracurricular pursuits I can hold my own. Over the years, with Honors and AP courses, track and field, my art, seven years of piano, basketball, theatre, I feel relaxed and confident. Responsibility and work ethic define me. Whether I like it or not, I always tend to gravitate towards a leadership role in any group project. Why? Because people trust me to get the job done, and get it done well.

            Indeed, success and I were old pals. Yet here I was, bested by a bit of melted dairy and dough. I felt so inadequate, so useless, so far outside my comfort zone. It was going to be an arduous four weeks, to say the least.

            Thankfully, I had friends and teachers who encouraged me not to give up. We would be running the restaurant for another two weeks, with plenty of opportunities to seek instruction and improvement. The circumstances pushed me to perform unfamiliar tasks and work with new people; everyday was its own unique challenge to overcome.

            It all came down to one moment. It was the day I was assigned to beef stir fry with three other girls. The restaurant was particularly packed, and of course our dish was the favorite meal. The first few orders began rolling in.

            The kitchen was chaos. All around us people were busily preparing their own food, rushing about; the metallic clanging of pans against stoves echoed noisily through the confusion. We were not moving fast enough. Disorganized and overwhelmed, we were backed up with orders. Chef kept yelling at us to pick up the pace, and I couldn’t take it any longer.

             I turned to our girl who was working the stove. “Can you handle cooking with two pans at once?” Without a word, she shook her head. I saw my own fearful panic reflected in her eyes, wide as saucers. But then something came over me. It was almost instinct; a sense of authority and perfect clarity settled around me. I became hyper focused as everything that needed to be accomplished for the dish flashed through my mind.

            “Okay, I’ll do it.” I was a force of nature. I grabbed the pans and rapidly assigned each girl a roll. All other distractions faded to oblivion. My partners did as I asked, tentative hands and uncertainty yielding to a growing confidence. Like a well-oiled machine we produced gorgeous displays of intoxicating food. The kitchen was my domain, and I had never felt so alive. It truly was a glorious feeling of warmth and satisfaction.

            That Culinary Arts class was truly a milestone in my mental development. I learned that a fear of failure cannot champion me. The class taught me that I can flourish even while working in high-pressure and unfamiliar situations. Furthermore, I used to not always be the most social. However, being forced to work with total strangers shattered my boundaries and opened me up to such interaction that I have come to enjoy and love. It has radically enhanced my academic experience, affording me new friends across secondary that got to know me on a more personal level. Indeed, they eventually trusted me enough to overwhelmingly vote me into office as Treasurer for the Associated Student Body, a position with great monetary responsibility. As my high school career draws to a bittersweet close, I know now that I am ready to take on any challenge life throws my way. I can only believe that God has great things planned for my future, and I wait with eager anticipation to see where His path will take me.