FREE ESSAY ON STANFORD

STANFORD

Essay for Stanford
As the beast ran rampant through the streets, I couldn't help but wonder 
if my work had been for naught. Trying to salvage any remains, I chased my 
dog from the room and stared at the havoc left in his wake. The city lay 
in ruins; the buildings were razed. The prospect of beginning from scratch 
was ponderous, but I instantly welcomed the challenge. With patience and 
determination, I began returning the small plastic bricks into their 
former glory; and then greater glory. Block by block I rebuilt my cities 
and block by block they built me. From these Legos I learned valuable 
lessons in versatility, creativity, and tenacity.
The sheer vastness of possibilities that Legos present is both 
intimidating and exhilarating. The colorful blocks lay strewn about in no 
particular pattern and no particular order. From this chaos virtually 
anything can be created. As a child I gradually learned not to be 
intimidated by the endless possibilities but to embrace them, to relish 
the opportunity to create something from nothing.
A preschool teacher recommended holding me back one year. Because I 
preferred the challenge of Legos to running about with the other children 
on the playground, she believed that I was socially and psychologically 
unprepared for school. Little did she realize that the creativity these 
blocks taught me became a cornerstone for the rest of my life. The 
seemingly insurmountable challenges gave me confidence and taught me to 
value cooperation. Watching my Lego edifices grow slowly but surely 
skyward taught me patience. Watching them fall again taught me the 
tenacity to continue onwards. Remembering how each task was created piece 
by piece allowed me to, line by line, memorize the works of history's 
greatest playwrights. I was able to join MEChA and help lead the Latino 
community as co-president, arranging events with our two hundred members. 
My organizational skills were further utilized as the commissioner of 
elections.
Legos also taught me to help others and to ask for their help. I realized 
that with the creativity another person at my disposal, we could build 
things we had never even dreamed of on our own. During my senior year of 
High School I was introduced to crew. I was enthralled by the rhythmic 
grace of the sport. My dreams soon had me breathing the early morning air 
nearly flying over the surface of the water. This dream seemed destined to 
die unfulfilled because I grew up in a part of the country where crew 
refers to the roadside construction teams, but before the year was out I 
had convinced one of the Olympic coaches to take me under his wing. This 
interest is one I would like to develop further.
As the years went by, my Lego blocks made way for the blocks of my future. 
But just like my experiences with Legos, I continue to choose individual 
blocks from chaos, each one bringing me closer to the life I dream of. The 
spires lead up to a diploma, the drawbridge leads to a family, and the 
buttresses support my lofty aspirations.