Free Write 4

This is a free write. You have been warned.

Prompt: Some students have a background, identity, interest, or talent that is so meaningful they believe their application would be incomplete without it. If this sounds like you, then please share your story.

Brainstorm:
section 1: my identity
section 2: goals

Who am I?

Goal: Use programming to make the human species spacefaring.
Core Values/Attributes: Curious. Adaptable. Persistent

Possible Stories:
canvas of fingerprints - "Where are you from?"
intake shard necklace - Robot wouldn't drive
motherboard - exploding computers in the living room
MITRE hat - capture the flag event

Attempt 1:

What is my identity? One way I could put it is in a list like this: South Korea, Delaware, Italy, Saudi Arabia, Montana, and Indiana. I'm a Korean born in Delaware that has lived in environments ranging from blisteringly hot deserts to frigid cold mountainous towns. But my identity is more than that.

Attempt 2:

"So, where are you from?" asked the [programming lead] cybersecurity club captain at my first meeting. Flustered, I only managed to utter, "I'm Korean, but it's a long story..."

For much of my life, this was my only response to this common question. Not because I didn't want to tell people, but because I didn't know the answer myself. It's easy to list my life history. I'm a Korean, born in Delaware, who's also lived in Italy, Saudi Arabia, Montana, and for now, Indiana. But my identity is more than that. All that moving has done more than just give me a new landscape out my window. It has changed who I am and the dreams I chase.

I've often envied my classmate's long friendships or activities like boy scouts. [However, on top of giving me international friends and views, I realize that the most important change has been something else.] However, I realize now that my worldwide travels have changed me in an important way. It has broken me out of my shy and quiet personality over and over again. I've had to be the "new kid", proactively make new friends, find new clubs, and show my skills to others multiple times. Part of my identity has changed from being afraid of change to embracing change as something I excel at.

Each place I've lived at has also contributed to my dreams. In Saudi Arabia, a college exchange student showed nine-year-old me an app about comparing the sizes of the planets. It planted a seed in my heart for space. The next year, I joined the computer club. This was the start of my programming career. Moving to Montana, I was introduced to the world of robotics. Over the course of middle school, I learned to program simple robots. At high school, I had wanted to help teach younger students in robotics. However, right before my junior year, our family unexpectedly moved to Indiana. When I heard that we were moving, I first felt totally exhausted. It seemed like I had lost years of effort and time that I had spent planning my high school schedule, getting to know teachers and coaches, and exploring my goals with my friends. However, Indiana gave me unexpected opportunities. While exploring clubs to join at my new school, I found friends who were also interested in programming.

Attempt 3:

outline:

intro story - walking into the robotics room

explain the story, show the question & topic of essay

show who I actually am

programming provided an identity -> how?
- It motivates, connected me to friends in new places, inspires me,

conclusion - i am a programmer, citizen of the world. Not the question where, but what my passion is

"So, where are you from?" It's an easy question. Or at least, it should be an easy question. Caught off-guard, my brain freezes. Meanwhile, the cacophony of power tools fills the small robotics classroom. Plywood and shiny sheets of aluminum lie scattered among the numerous workbenches, and students skitter about, grabbing bolts and wrenches. My mouth hangs ajar as my brain frantically tries to come up with a reasonable response. After an eternity, I only manage to stumble out, "I'm Korean, but it's kind of a long story..." The team leader showing me around the workroom raises an eyebrow questioningly but continues with his tour. I am left wondering, "Why was that so hard?"

For much of my life, I searched for my identity by trying to find my hometown. The first place I looked was my ancestry. By blood, I am fully Korean. However, I've never lived in Korea, never had any friends in Korea, and my Korean handwriting is so bad a kindergartener's would be more presentable. I don't even have Korean citizenship anymore. Next, I considered my birthplace. I was born in Delaware. Unfortunately, I have no memories of Delaware, only having lived there for three years. The other places I've lived in don't help either. Four years of my early childhood were spent in Italy, near Rome. For the next five years, I attended an international elementary school in Saudi Arabia. Just as  I started developing a sense of home, our family moved again. I spent the next five years in Montana learning to ski, finishing middle school, and creating a plan for high school and college. However, my plan was interrupted just before junior year, when we relocated to Indiana. The names of these places are all familiar. But when I say them, "hometown" doesn't quite feel right.

Throughout our family's various moves around the world, I sought familiarity. Back in elementary school, I randomly joined my school's computer club. I was immediately sucked in. I spent days on Scratch dragging blocks of code together to create little games, making platformers and calculators. I didn't know it yet, but this small seed would follow me around the world. I fell in love with programming because of the freedom it granted me. I could make anything, at any time, with the only cost being my time. So I did just that. The Santa Fe school shooting inspired me to make a small app for my friends where we could warn each other of dangerous events. Seeing excessive microtransactions in games motivated me to publish a mobile game with none. Programming became the way that I scratched the itch to do something about the world. Programming has also helped me make new friends every time I moved, as I've always found like-minded peers.

At some point, I started calling myself a programmer. That's when I realized I'd already found my identity. I'm not a product of a "hometown", the list of places I've lived, nor a simple sum of my experiences. I am an international person motivated by my curiosity with a passion for programming. Asking where I'm from is the wrong question.

The above content may change as I edit and revise this essay.