College+Essay

I began playing paintball about two years ago, and I’ve loved it ever since. Running through the woods, jumping over bushes, winning the game for one’s team; it all makes for a great time. Tell me why, though, I have almost as much fun after I go home to clean my marker as I do at the field? Why does the sight of my paintball gun laid out before me, completely disassembled, feel like such an accomplishment? I was obviously meant to be an engineer. For as long as I can remember, I’ve been like this. I have always loved taking things apart and seeing how they work, trying to understand why and how they act a certain way. When teachers throw formulas at me and tell me it is so, I’m never satisfied. The way my mind works, I have to understand something for it to be accepted. In the case of my paintball addiction, I truly started loving the sport once I understood the role that all the different regulators and valves and such played in launching that small little ball at my target. Knowing how my marker words is a huge advantage as well; being able to fix any problems right then and there on the field is essential. I can project this scenario to my entire life, as a matter of fact. The way I see it, the more you know about the tools and ideas that you use and live by every day, the more effectively you can use them to your advantage. Because I’ve always wanted to understand the world around me, math and science have both played huge roles in my wanting to be an engineer. I can honestly say that the most interesting class I have ever taken was physics, and that’s because it explained exactly what I wanted to know. Gravity and friction and buoyancy, ooh-lala! I can’t imagine a better job in the world than being paid to use what you know about these concepts to change others’ lives, and possibly learning something new along the way.