<p>I am a senior applying to Stanford and Berkeley and for the essay that asks about a significant experience that has affected me, I was wondering if someone could read it and give me feedback. I feel pretty confident that iit shows who I am as a person, but thats just my own opinion. Thanks!</p>
<p>There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy.
Shakespeares Hamlet</p>
<pre><code>Many people can pinpoint the most defining and dramatic moment in their lives, when they discovered something that changed their perspective. It is an experience that gives a person new knowledge to carry as a ubiquitous theme throughout life. For me, however, that moment was much more subtle and thought-provoking in a way I had never experienced before. All it took was one contemplative glance at an image we see almost every single night.
The temperature was warm, as is expected of a typical July evening in Mammoth Lakes, California, but comfortable enough that three best friends could relax and enjoy their summer vacation outdoors in anticipation of a demanding senior year. I was proud to be one of those three, lying almost still on the soft dirt and observing the beauty of the stars. Although I had many times crawled upon the roof of my house and stared into the night, contemplating the concerns of my heart, the experience in the mountains many miles from city lights was entirely different. As I fixed my gaze upward into the sky, the quiet murmur of my friends was drowned out by my own inner thoughts beginning to scramble inside my head. Filling my view were thousands upon thousands of bright stars, shooting across the sky or standing steadfastly vigilant. But even with a myriad of thoughts inundating my focus, one overpowered the rest: eternity and the unknown.
If I am only one of almost seven billion people in the world, and our world is but a tiny microcosm of the solar system, does every individual face problems, bliss, worry, failures, and success as I do? And how is it possible that a solar system like ours could exist around every one of the thousands of stars I saw, maybe with just as many people? How can something, like the universe, cease to end? Or never have a beginning, like time? All these questions bombarded my mind on that warm evening, stemming from the sole concept of eternity. Instead of trying to wrestle with my questions alone, I rolled over in my all-too-thin sleeping bag and voiced my concerns. As my friends and I debated and struggled to find the answers, the truth slammed me as if it had leaped from the sky and knocked me over. I realized the reality that there are some things humankind is not capable of understanding, of explaining, of grasping.
However, being the kind of person who must know more, that reality did not satisfy my curious and inquisitive lust for answers. Did it mean there is no tangible value in scientific knowledge and research because there are things that we cannot comprehend? As the night hours ticked forward and my friends drifted into sleep, more analytical thinking helped me understand that acknowledging the unexplainable gives even more value to our scientific knowledge. When you struggle with things you cannot understand, you appreciate the things you have proof of. So then what DOES it mean? Upon reaching this question, my eyes were opened in the way that others experience in a dramatic moment, and I laughed quietly in seeing the simplicity of the answer. I realized what was necessary in order to accept the unexplainable is to have faith. There is something that overpowers all and controls the things out of human reach, and whether that something is God, or another power, or simply the natural laws of the universe, I understood that there was a power greater than me. I have to be willing to trust in that, and trust other things in life as well, even if I cannot comprehend them.
On a night that for most would simply constitute a peaceful intimacy in the woods of nature, I faced an experience that transformed my perspective and left me with an acceptance of who I am, what I cannot understand, and what I need to do. I was humbled to realize that I was only a minute part of our colossal universe. I emerged with a renewed respect for the definite truths of our society, and the realization that faith and trust are necessary components of a satisfied life. There are elements of this world that cannot be explained, no matter how advanced our technology becomes, or how intelligent humanity is. My inspiration to become a doctor stems from that moment, as I want to discover all I can about our physical beings and share that knowledge, knowing that there are some concepts I cannot grasp but striving to master the concepts I can. A dramatic or tragic event was not necessary to change my point of view. All I needed was a warm summer night in July, when I gained the motivation to work harder than I had before to satisfy my curiosity, but the changed perspective to trust and accept the things even the brilliant machines of the human mind cannot conquer.
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