common application essay question - 4

Topic : Describe a character in fiction, a historical figure, or a creative work (as in art, music, science, etc.) that has had an influence on you, and explain that influence.

Throughout my highschool years, I have read books and watched movies that were related to the history. In these works, there were many historical figures who changed our course of history. These figures are all confident, have determination and sacrifices themselves for their nation or religion. The figure that influenced me most among them is Balian, a crusader in the movie 'Kingdom of Heaven'. He showed his confidence and determination, therefore I learned the qualities that a leader should have.
The movie 'Kingdom of Heaven' is depicting the crusade years when Saladin, the leader of Islam Empire, was preparing the seige to Jerusalam. The King of Jurusalam was eager to want to have peace, but his generals were not. They had desire to kill Muslims and constantly attacked Muslim caravens. The war was about to begin. In this chaotic situation, Balian came to the city. He was given missions to protect the king and his people, and he fulfilled this well though he was about to die. When Islam leader Saladin led his army to destroy the city called 'Karak', Balian and his men fought with them to protect citizens who was at the outside of the castle. He finally captured by Saladin, but released because Saladin recognized Balian's determination to protect the people.
The peace seemed to be established, but it was crushed when Saladin planned to recapture the city. He was furious after King's generals massacre many muslim merchants who were innocent. Soonafter, he defeated Christian army, and marched to the city of Jerusalem. Balian desperately resisted without losing hope; He fought with Saladin to defend ordinary citizens. Finally he established the peace treaty with Muslims and saved all residents of the city.
In conclusion, he show me the qualities of a leader should have. They are confidence and determination.

June 14 2007

These days, I have thought about getting out of school. The reason was that classes that the school provides me are very boring and ineffective. Teachers only teach us how to get a good grade in GPA or KSAT ,and demand us to memorize the whole things to get good grade. They do not teach us deep knowledge of one subject. Personally, in literature class, I want to teachers to demand us to read a literature and talking about it within our class. It would be very hard to read a book and speculating about its topic, character, or historical background, but it would be very interesting to share the opinions about a book with my classmate. It would be very different from just memorize the facts in books or that teachers tell us. In reality, however, this is an impossible dream in current education system. Therefore, I am currently thinking about getting out of school and seeking deeper knowledge by myself.

Mentoringday

After 4 hours of boring self-study time, the meeting between 'old-boys' and us began to start. The meeting is called 'mentoringday' and this event has held anually since last year. Many former DOSP students visited our school and talk to us about their experience during their highschool years. They told us how to prepare official exams such as SAT or TOEFL, how to 'prepare' extracurricular activities and most importantly, how to get scholarship. To be frank, I was not interested how to prepare exams and extracurricular activities; I have tons of inforamation and I know exactly how to prepare them. The thing I eager to know was how to get scholarship for paying fees, therefore I was very excited about their story. Unfortunately, however, they did not tell us the exact method to get the scholarship. The only thing they said was 'they are lucky to get a scholarship'. They did not said to us how to prepare essays, interview and things that I have to do to get a scholarship. I was very disappointed.

If I can change one thing about me

If God permits me to change one thing about my life, I would definitely ask him to change my personality. I am a passive person. I can not say easily to a girl that I like to go to see a movie; I feel really hard to stand in front of others to say something and I always make an effort causing conflicts with my friends, not confronting with them. Because of this passiveness, I always regret about missing opportunities that could make my life better. I could be a class president and school president if i was more confident. I could have a date with a girl that I liked, and I could know more people and have more friends to be with if I was more active. My introvert personality prevented me from doing this. Therefore I strongly ask God to change me from an introvert to an extrovert.