|
Boston College (Carroll): Essay 2
QUESTION: Discuss the accomplishment of yours which required the most effort to achieve. What intermediary steps were necessary? How did you overcome challenges along the way? (1-2 pages)
As life progresses, the significance and related difficulty of achieving accomplishments also changes. I can recall winning a photography contest in the local newspaper and thinking it was a great accomplishment, but by the time I reached high school, the achievement decreased in relative importance. Similarly, the accomplishment which requires the most effort to achieve is often the most recent one, perhaps only due to fading memories of the effort required for earlier achievements.
During my adult life, I have tried to continually re-establish new goals every few years. These have grown from simply wishing to see the world to furthering my education, both personally and professionally. Attaining a patent by the age of 30, co-founding a start-up company by 35, and now pursuing an MBA are examples of such goals - each requiring substantial effort to achieve.
But one of my most recent goals was difficult to accomplish due to an unexpected lack of support from my family, which was very unique for me considering the closeness of my family in other matters.
Learning to fly had always been an interest of mine even before I briefly considered aeronautical engineering while in college: I always requested a window seat on commercial flights, and enjoyed small planes while traveling. So at the age of 33, I decided to pursue a private pilot's license.
Investigating flight schools, instructors, and costs were the first steps in my typical engineering analysis. The time commitment, both ground-school and in the air, would be substantial and would require cut-backs in other recreational activities, such as golf, softball, and skiing. Budgeting time between work and personal life would also be a challenge, since family visits with grandparents and a new niece were high priorities. My search led to a part-time flight instructor who was also an engineer and a flight-school with brand-new equipment and a need for students. The one initial obstacle that I did not foresee in my analysis was that of my family's lack of support.
Virtually my entire extended family lives in the [deleted] area: Parents, sister, grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins - quite a nice crowd at holidays and birthdays. They have always been supportive, even during difficult times such as when I divorced. But learning to fly small planes was not something that they could appreciate or support: They questioned my safety, the costs, the benefits, and the reasons. Instead of sharing my eagerness and excitement, they only questioned and dampened it.
Dealing with the rigors of flight training, bumpy landings, and windy weather, all require fortitude of mind and body. Pushing personal limits of fear and mental acuity, while making reasoned, safe decisions can be learned, so that soft landings even in high winds can be accomplished. Soloing and a few cross-country solo trips were major milestones where hours of training and studying won out over apprehension and self-doubt, not to mention complicated weather.
But the issue of my family's support of the whole endeavor was the most difficult obstacle to overcome. Throughout life we tend to highly value family's opinions about our life choices. Most are reasonable and do not often conflict other than in some specific situations that can be reasoned through. But whole-hearted disagreement and concern are difficult to appease.
Being unable to discuss my progress and accomplishments with my family was the most difficult aspect of the learning process. Being able to share one's goals and experiences is a key part of any relationship and separating this from my relationship with family members was certainly a challenge I had not expected, and had much difficulty with.
Fortunately, I have a wide and diverse group of friends who were supportive and with whom I could share my experiences, personal achievements, and disappointments. Without these people who are close to me, I doubt that I would have reached my goal. But now taking friends up for short trips has become a well-earned point of pride and enjoyment for us all.
Within my family, I have been able to break down misconceptions and inform some of them of my recent license. A famous aviation author did not inform her mother about her license for eight years, so my goal is to improve on that timeline. It will surely be a slow process, but as with any difficult endeavor, the opportunity for continued learning and growth is an on-going benefit of the process, and one that I look forward to every day. | 
京公网安备11010202008513号 京ICP证101109号 京ICP备12012021号
发表于 2004-6-27 19:15:00
发表于 2004-6-27 22:11:00
还有更多的samples吗？能不能也给俺发一份呢？
