跟大家分享我写的一篇申请文章。这是stanford第一题。到最后我只申请了沃顿，所以这篇文章是没有提交过的。（虽然其他学校的已经做好了，我原本是打算第
一轮沃顿申请失败再提交其他的-成功过后就没有申请别的了）。现在觉得反正都写了，干脆跟大家分享，作为参考。希望大家觉得有用！
What matters most to you, and why?
“Who can tell me why a lunar eclipse occurs?”
I frequently recall, with uncomfortable vividness, the most embarrassing
situation of my early education. My elementary school teacher’s question met with
silence from the class, and my heart raced. I was an avid fan of astronomy
then, and had just read about lunar eclipses the week before. Surely this was
to be my moment of glory! I raised my hand, and confidently asserted:
“A lunar eclipse occurs when some dark clouds cover the moon.”
It was not the subsequent
gentle correction from my teacher that made me embarrassed, nor had anyone in
my class laughed. What upset me was I had unconsciously fabricated an answer,
when I should have known the right one. This was the moment I first began to
realize what mattered most. I find most meaning in sincerely pursuing all
avenues of learning that interest me. I am driven by a passion for genuine
learning, and constantly seek out opportunities to improve and educate myself.
This attitude of mine is best encapsulated in a phrase I have appropriated from
Elizabeth Proctor of “The Crucible”. Whatever my source of learning, professor,
book or memorable experience alike, I imagine it reminding me softly, “I do not
judge you. The magistrate that sits in your heart judges you”.
I have found opportunities to learn in all aspects of my
life. One of the best opportunities that I have seized, however, presented
itself in a predictable way: in my choice of a college education. When I began
looking at possible college destinations after graduating from junior college,
it quickly became clear that The University of Chicago would be one of my top
picks. It wasn’t the renown of the school that attracted me, although it was
certainly very well-known in the field of Economics (which was my choice of
major), but the emphasis it placed on cultivating an attitude of questioning
all assumptions and taking nothing for granted. I wanted to train “The Life of
the Mind”, and there seemed no better place to do it. It was a school very
serious about academia, and I relished the challenge that awaited me. Today, I
know that I had made the right choice. My intellectual boundaries have been broadened,
and everyday I discover new things that I had been completely wrong about
before.
While my college experience has been all I had expected and
more, my quest for learning has not been confined only to the classroom. Even
before I matriculated into college, it was the key principle that had factored
into my decision to choose a path that will keep me employed at Singapore Press
Holdings (SPH) Limited until the age of 32. In 2003, I chose to take up the SPH
Management scholarship, turning down a chance at a more prestigious Public
Service Commission government scholarship. While both scholarships came
attached with a six-year post-graduation bond, becoming a government scholar-
unlike the SPH scholarship- would have put me on a highly-accelerated programme
reserved exclusively for scholars, guaranteeing my career success while I
served out my bond. Although many aspiring scholars were attracted by this, I perceived
things differently. I did not want a scholarship that came with a bond
shielding me from career failure. While merely attaining success after success
would undoubtedly be best for any career, I believed that avoiding failure
amounted to a short-changed learning experience. Instead, I looked forward to
the learning opportunities that accompanied not only success but also failure.
Unlike the Public Service Commission, SPH strongly endorsed the principle of
meritocracy- and when they came knocking I did not hesitate.
Sometimes I have also discovered learning opportunities in
unexpected places. In 2005, I decided to go to rural Nongkhai, in Northeast
Thailand, to do volunteer work teaching English to Thai students. Volunteering
to teach the young was something that I enjoyed, and besides, exploring a
country I had never visited before seemed like a very enjoyable way to spend
the summer. Once I got there, however, I discovered a unique opportunity to
learn about a culture that I knew nothing about. I had, like most visitors to
Nongkhai, no prior knowledge of the Thai language, and had initially thought
that the mere two months that I would be in Nongkhai would be, like it was for
most others, too short to pick up the language and really learn about their culture.
However, I soon found- after a Thai friend had taught me to count in barely a
minute- that, unlike most foreigners, being fluent in another tonal language
enabled me to quickly and easily pick up Thai. While I continued to work as a
teacher in the day, I thus began to spend my nights learning Thai by memorizing
vocabulary from a phrasebook. I was determined not to pass up this golden
opportunity to not just superficially know but rather truly understand a
foreign culture, and I soon became proficient enough to converse with the
Thais.
With that, my experience of Nongkhai and its culture began to
deepen. I began to understand that Thailand was not just
metaphorically but also literally the “land of a thousand smiles”, with a
different smile to suit each occasion and express each mood. I also learnt of
the benefits that economic development and access to education had brought to
the area. Thai colleagues told me that, prostitution had, not so long ago, been
rampant in the area. Since that time, however, Nongkhai had changed, becoming
much more developed and boasting schools of different educational levels. Subsequently
I found out from Nongkhai’s youth that they now aspired to become singers, tour
guides, and to run their own restaurants. Though I had gone to Nongkhai to
teach English and to enjoy my summer holiday, I left it having unexpectedly learnt
some valuable lessons about the intricate forms of communication in a people’s
culture, and about how to effectively bring about progress in a place where
vices may be rampant.
Indulging an enthused passion for learning is the major
principle by which I live my life. I have sought to find and exploit
opportunities for learning at every turn- in college, in my choice of career
and in the things that I enjoy doing. What matters most to me is to learn
sincerely, and not to superficially lay claim to knowledge: to actually understand why a lunar eclipse
occurs and not merely to be able to console myself with “I have read how it
occurs”. Now, if only I had a second chance to answer my teacher.
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发表于 2009-6-16 13:11:00
