2015. 4. 27.

[에세이 샘플] 커뮤니티 대학(Community College)에서 UC Berkeley 편입한 학생 에세이

낮은 고교성적, SAT 점수에도 불구하고 커뮤니티 대학에서 열심히 공부한 결과 버클리에 합격하는 영광을 얻었다. 목표 대학 입학에 실패하더라도 계속 노력하면 이런 결과도 나올 수 있다.


Tell us about a personal quality, talent, accomplishment, contribution or experience that is important to you. What about this quality or accomplishment makes you proud, and how does it relate to the person you are?

As a non-believer in a devout Buddhist family, I used to question the meaning and rationale behind Dharma, which can be translated into the “natural law” of Buddha. To this day, I find Buddhist teachings and disciplines challenging to understand and abide by; however, I have come to accept and acknowledge that the fundamental philosophy of Buddhism is to respect others regardless of the world they come from.

When I was thirteen, my mother once told me to go to the only church in our village, and learn the piano. I was quite startled as I thought it was quite unnatural of my devout mother to encourage me to go to church. Isn’t this against Dharma? I soon realized that my mother had accepted a courteous offer from a lady at the church, who suggested that anyone could learn the piano at the church, regardless of religious belief. Throughout my lessons, to my surprise, she never mentioned anything about Christianity or even religion. And yet, her loving and quiet actions had taught me something similar that I might have found in Dharma.

During the two years I lived in this small village of Millyang, I learned more than just piano skills. I learned how to respect other people’s beliefs, lifestyles, preferences, and values. There I met people who have never seen skyscrapers or rode on the subway; there I learned how to play with real friends doing real things outside the virtual world of computer games; there I grew a few inches taller while expanding my horizons by thousands of miles. The lessons I learned there have laid my foundation, on which I have continued to grow and develop with new experiences in different cultures. I finally came to believe that the fundamental Dharma of life is harmony within a society.

Now I am in a different society from Millyang, preparing myself to move again to another one. The teachings from Dharma and from the village, especially from my mother and the Christian piano teacher, have given me the ability to look out for harmony, and at the same time to know how to empathize with those who may be in a new environment as I have.

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