<p>Jmmom I PMed you for help on my first draft but no reply :(</p>
<p>"Describe your greatest accomplishment and how it was prepared you for Stanford."</p>
<p>2 questions:
Is it too long?
Should I take out the (cheesy) quote at the end?</p>
<hr>
<p>Late Friday afternoon: the time of the week when everyone is in a good mood because his weekend is about to start. Not for me though; until my violin lesson is over, my weekend would not start. Truth be told, the only reason I kept up with my violin was because of the music scholarship or so I convinced myself. It was therefore almost humorous when my teacher suggested that afternoon that I should perform at the school concert this year. I replied immediately that I didnt think so, but being one of the most stringent teachers at the school, he dismissed my protests: Nonsense. Ill talk to the music director. Now lets see which piece you should prepare for the concert An hour and a half later I was back home with the music for Vivaldis Spring in my hand.</p>
<p>A couple of months later: although I had become comfortable with most parts of the music, there was a particular section in the piece (the Storm section of the first movement for those familiar with the music) which, no matter how many lessons were devoted to, did not improve over time. When it came time to rehearse with the orchestra, things did not change; the rapid notes of the Storm still eluded my fingers. After several weeks without improvement I resigned to the fact that I was simply going to make a mistake on concert day. </p>
<p>Two days before the concert: the technically advanced Storm still did not allow itself to come under the control of my fingers, despite the repetitive practice. My teacher, frustrated at my resignation, suggested, Maybe its a mental thing. Every time you tense up and tell yourself that you cant do it. I replied that its just a small section of the piece, and it wouldnt matter too much if I made mistakes just in that section. Every section, every note is important, he responded with obvious annoyance. When I refuted by saying that there was nothing else I could do, that I had tried everything, he questioned again penetratingly, Have you really tried? I had no answer.</p>
<p>Great accomplishments are realized by achieving things through truly trying. I can say that during the two days before the concert, I truly practiced (not the mundane repetitive finger exercise that I had called practice before), taking the section apart note by note. No one was more amazed than myself when things finally clicked into place, and I was able to conjure the perfect Storm. Before the performance I was actually looking forward to playing, rather than being anxious, for I knew that I could perfectly play that section and I did. I did make one mistake on different section however, during a relatively easy part near the end. It wasnt a huge mistake, but enough to prevent the performance from being a perfect one. After the performance, I told my teacher about the mistake Id made, but he questioned with genuine surprise, what mistake? When I insisted that I was sure that I had made a mistake, he replied that sometimes performers unconsciously learn to cover their mistakes, so the audience never notices it. Indeed, my mother said that she did not hear any mistake, nor did the principal or anyone else I asked. On the way back home I listened to the video-recording of my playing, and I could definitely hear the mistake. I pointed this out to my mother but she said that during the performance my playing was so confident that it did not seem like a mistake at all, and she was right. I could definitely hear the mistake, but I could not see it. Seeing myself perform not just play in front of hundreds of people, seeing myself achieve something, I knew that my performance had been perfect. I have never forgotten how sweet this achievement accomplished through hard work and sweat tasted, and I will never forget that throughout my life, college or otherwise. As the saying goes, No sweet without sweat.</p>