College Essay

I have quotes plastered all over the walls in my bedroom. Some may think it’s weird, but I love how some people just have a way with words. They know exactly what to say so I know that someone out there feels what I feel and knows what I know. I see it as a hobby of sorts; collecting quotes, advice, views, experience, and ultimately collecting knowledge.

There is one quote that I wrote on the center of my wall. It is from the book Boy’s Life by Robert McCammon. The book is about a 12-year-old boy and his journey of growing up in small town in the 60s. It is a long passage, but to sum it up it states,

“…See, this is my opinion: we all start out knowing magic…The truth of life is that every year we get farther away from the essence that is born within us. We get shouldered with burdens, some of them good, some of them not so good. Things happen to us… Life itself does its best to take that memory of magic away from us. You don’t know it’s happening until one day you feel you’ve lost something but you’re not sure what it is.”

You see, many adults are burdened by life experience that they are expected to carry. Children, on the other hand, are discovering every aspect of life for the first time. Children see wonder, beauty and purity, while adults know that wonder is confusion, beauty comes with a price and all things that start out pure will eventually become compromised.

Being an adult means to prepare children for what they don’t yet understand. They must discard their magic to protect those who still have magic inside of them. Life gets in the way of children and turns them into adults. But, life is not as immediate as a flip of the switch.

Do you remember when you would stand against the wall as a kid to measure your height? You wanted to grow up so badly, but your Mom always said not to grow up too fast and your Dad said that it wouldn’t happen overnight. But, despite what your parents told you, you checked every day and sadly nothing changed. You couldn’t figure out why it wasn’t happening. Then after some time you forgot about it; you went on with being a kid and had fun playing with your friends instead of worrying so much about getting taller, older, or becoming an adult. Then one day, you notice the wall and realize that you haven’t checked in a couple of months, so you go up to check and you’ve magically grown two inches! It seemed so surprising; you thought that your Dad was wrong, that it must’ve happened over night because you would’ve known if you had grown that much. But in reality it was a gradual process, just like everything else in life.

At what point do you notice that you’ve gotten taller? At what point in a 5,000-piece puzzle do you realize what the picture is? At what point in your life do you mark your transition from childhood to adulthood?

I guess what I’m trying to say is that I don’t think that there was one moment that marked when I became an adult. I don’t think most people could pinpoint that moment; it’s a gradual process. Some may argue that I still haven’t become one, and if that is true, I don’t necessarily see it as a bad thing. It means that I still have some of that magic inside me. It means that I can see things in a different light; a different point of view is never a bad thing, in some ways it can even be a blessing, to offer someone something that they never would’ve thought of. So maybe I’m still in transition, and I’m okay with that.