Thursday, April 2, 2009

   I am my own executioner.
((Below is the essay I typed, most lovingly for the one I love. He will be using it to apply for an internship in the capital, far, far away from where I will be. It breaks my heart- but it is what he wants, and what he has asked me to do. And for him, I would do anything.))

It is rare in a student’s life that he is able to weigh his ability and opportunity, before acting to catalyze any work great or small which results in the betterment of his fellow man; and yet I find this to be my highest goal. I am an idealist- I am an extroverted dreamer with a passion and a plan. To be frank: it is my sincerest hope that in this life I will leave the world (if only slightly) bettered by the diligence of my work, and the fervor in my convictions. The impulse for altruism has taken me many places, though all roads lead back to one place in particular: Washington DC- the shining city in which my ideals reside, and take shape. To me, it is beacon of hope amid a tempest of cynicism; and it is a place of great potential, its residents given the elite responsibility for the safe steerage of the national course. I dream of one day joining their ranks. It is in this city that I find my greatest chance to further that dream. At present, I reside in Merced, CA, a place in which the opportunities are scarce, but the impoverished are not. Very little chance excists for an undergraduate student to effect the overall quality of life in the general public, it is a limitation that is both frustrating- and stifling for one of my ambitions. The university is removed considerably from the main town- and so many of the students are shielded from its harsh realities, happily ignorant, the student body has not found this dear town’s blight to be as great as it truly is. To me, this is both a thing of shame and a call to action. My area of academic interest is in executive and legislative ability to end, and means of easing, national poverty, a topic I have considerable personal experience with. I see it daily, and though I am among them, I am severely restricted in my means to ease the suffering. A semester in DC would provide me with the first-hand governmental experience and connections I would need to pursue this dream farther, to realize my ambition of aiding others farther than I could ever hope to achieve here. As a Political Science major, confident public speaker, and technologically literate individual, I find myself to be well suited to this realm of academia- a fine blend of action and ideology. I see great opportunity (for both personal and political growth) in the UCDC program, and consider it to be the best logical step along my path of personal calling to make this nation -- this world more than it is, to uplift my fellow man, and to do so by means of diligent study, cultivated idealism, and of course, action.
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