Today, I can proudly say that I’m not like the rest. Looking back now, I realize that I would rather be called strange, different or weird than being called normal, cliché, expected, boring or worst of all mainstream. In high school, the worst thing a kid can be is different. In real life, the best thing you can be is different. Through all my high school years, I felt that I had to follow the rules of the status quo. I was strained by the constrains of society and the community I was part of. That lifestyle which was full of rules and expectations didn’t make sense to me. I wanted to be whom I felt I was and not what the society expected me to be. I’m a very logical person, and so I didn’t follow those rules .I am certain that I was not the only one who didn’t agree with those rules, but I was one of the few to actually go against them or ignore them. I always felt like I didn’t belong, and of course I did not fit in. Because of this, my attitudes weren’t the best towards life, school, and my future. I wasn’t depressed. I could always see the light at the end of the tunnel. I knew there was a place for me out there and not inside the school. I was a kid who tried to fit in so much and ended up fitting nowhere. In my first year of college, I realized that I was blessed with originality and being different wasn’t a bad thing.

When I arrived at the college, I realized that the things people bullied me for in school, were the things that were going to make me go far in life. With time I discovered how smart, handsome, talented, and ambitious I really am. Today I know I’m capable of anything. So everyday I wake up and do my very best. Not only to prove everyone wrong but to prove myself right. In my community, I want to be that example wish I had. That hero that wasn’t ashamed of not being like the rest. Show them that there’s a place for everyone outside of the bubble they live in.

During my first week in college I was no longer an outsider and for the first time, I felt accepted. Where I come from everyone is the same. Everyone wears the exact same shoes, the exact same belt and they even have the exact same haircut. The majority of its members are orthodox Jews. Since they are orthodox and Jewish, it obligates everyone to revolve around its own center. This creates a ripple effect on us, it coerces most people to be religious, close minded and with narrow perspective. This ripple effect has really good and bad consequences. It can be seen from a bochinchoso point of view. Because everybody knew everyone, it made someone’s problem into everyone’s problem. Although people may see this as a bad thing, it helps to keep the kids out of harm’s way. I did not always see this good side. I only learnt this when I was obligated to get involve with the American culture. I had to step out of my comfort zone and learn to live within an alien philosophy.

In my first semester in college, I got my first culture shock. I joined the Greek life society that tries to create an aspect of high school in college. What I mean by this is that Greek life is high school all over again. Because I realized that before I got in, I got to see things from a different perspective. I realize that the status quo is constrained. Besides, I felt even greater in college than in high school. This different channel that I had into society comes from the fact I came from a different culture in which my status quo is very different from the American one. During this semester, I got to see the world as it is. I got to experience another culture, which made me understand mine. A culture is an entity in which people are legally associated with a status quo that is set by them. This entity has the power to exclude and the power to exile. This power wasn’t given, it was taken, at least in my culture. Although we try to escape it, it is there to welcome us and the more you fill unwanted by it, there more it wants you.

So what was college for me? It was the equivalent of Rumspringa, it was a moment in youth were I leave the community to experience the outside world. It is my rite of passage given to me by my parents to grow and expand my knowledge. It was a way for me to learn about where I was from, and why I do the things I do. It was a way to learn who I was. Now I understand why my dad was so eager to send me to college. College is not about partying and having fun, it is about learning to accept things the way they are, a way to coming to peace with yourself.   Now I know I am different, I am strange, but I am part of the Paitilla Jewish Community.

Today I am applying to Graduate school at Brandeis IBS, and I can proudly say I am a mature, open minded and smart individual. I am ready to study what I love. I am ready to bring my perspective of the world, to enhance my learning. I have learned to accept, understand and to shoot for the best. This experience that I had in college will help engage in countless debates about thousands of topics. It will help approach things from different views. It will also help me embrace my culture so I can give a taste to the Brandeis culture what it is to be a Panamanian Jew.

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Essay two

In what ways do your academic background and recent professional or managerial experience provide evidence of your potential for success in the program you selected? In your eventual career? Please provide specific examples of relevant coursework and/or experience.

I always knew I wanted to study economics and finance. But I did not want it to be the only thing that I become an expert on. I came to college wanting to prepare myself for my future career in finance. I wanted something that experience could not teach me. Something that was going to be hard, so I could improve my cognitive ability way beyond my dreams. I wanted to understand technology, so I could be in the frontier of innovation. I was focused in improving my mathematical and computer skills. The combination of all these led me to system engineering.

During my bachelor’s degree, I learnt advanced mathematical and computer skills. Everyday was a challenge to become an expert in what was going to become the backbone of my career. I became a part of a small percentage of people who undress technology and understand it from its most basic core. During my algorithms and data structure class, I got to understand and see the computer from the inside out. I got to develop and understand the algorithms that run every piece of technology. This combined with what I learnt in my simulation analysis class to help me develop financial algorithms in my future career in finance. That, along with my master’s degree I plan to get at Brandeis, will help me to become an investor in the technology sector, so that I can bring the world of innovation to Panama.

System engineering has taught me to look at things from the inside out and from the outside in. I learn to look at things in a meticulous way. I have learnt to tackle and trace problems to its most basic essential. I have developed the fundamental skills of an engineer, to understand and to fix. This has developed my brain in ways I used to think as impossible. Today I can say that I have developed both my left and right side of the brain. This links directly to my creative and analytical side. I like to think of myself as an engineer on his way to becoming a businessman. I am an engineer because I find practical solutions and I am businessman because I see opportunity.