College Admissions Essay: Creating An Image Of Perfection

Perfect: adj. \ˈpər-fikt\ 1. Entirely without any flaws, defects, or shortcomings, is the first definition you find on dictionary.com for the word (perfect). Is this actually possible to attain? Has anyone actually ever been perfect? Or is it all in the eye of the beholder? These questions are asked by almost every girl, as we dream to one day reach the unattainable. This is especially true at the tender age of fifteen, where nothing seems to be going right with our bodies and everything is changing in us. This poem stresses the fact that as everyone realizes how unrealistic this dream is, the knowledge makes no difference to the wish. Marisa de los Santos comments on this in her poem “Perfect Dress”. The use of verbose imagery,

Do you want to reach perfection? Perfection itself is not captured through success, it is carried with you through failure. The average person wants to be perfect in some form, but never wants to fail. In the book The Giver by Lois Lowry, a group of elders try and perfect a world so people will never fail, like their previous world. The previous world was much like ours today, but humans’ freedom caused destruction. Although the new society holds memories from the people. This is completely wrong because memories guide us. Memories keep us from repeating our past and memories shape our future. Your memories are vital to achieving perfection.

Out of my 35yrs of life I have ovecame so many obstacles. Being a struggling single parent, and just not satisified with how my life was going there are so many that I can talk about but these three where my biggest obstacles. But with my praying family I was against all odds.

From the time children are entered into preschool, they are expected- for the most part- to do their best and be proud of it. One child’s best could be another child’s worst, and that other child’s best could be totally impossible for the first child. If everyone is doing their version of the best work possible, then could perfection ever possibly be achieved? It is a generally accepted truth that the answer to this question is an obvious and resounding no. By definition, a perfect human does not exist. However, humans are constantly striving towards this goal despite their knowing that it is impossible. The constant striving brings people closer and closer to the impossible goal but leaves them just shy of reaching it. This close-but-not-quite-there ending means a life that it is almost perfect. A life almost straight.

In the years to come, I started to find myself through the help of my family, friends and my

From the time children enter into preschool, they are expected- for the most part- to do their best and be proud of it. One child’s best could be another child’s worst, and the second child’s best could be a different child’s worst. If everyone is doing their version of the best work possible, then could anyone ever truly achieve perfection? A generally accepted truth is that the answer to this question is an obvious and resounding no. By definition, a perfect human does not exist. However, humans are constantly striving towards this goal despite their knowing that it is impossible. The constant striving brings people closer and closer to the impossible goal but leaves them just shy of reaching it. This close-but-not-quite-there ending means a life that it is almost perfect- a life almost straight.

Striving for perfection is something that would better improve our society and really change the way we see what society is because everyone would be making an effort to really strive for the ideal world of flawlessness. Just the mere idea of getting closer to perfection is something that makes us attempt to be more perfect. In the article, “Cheaters Never Win,” Christopher Bergland, a Guinness World Record holding athlete says that, ¨yes, you want to be your absolute best and to try our hardest to win and to be thrilled if you are victorious” (Bergland 7). Bergland is trying to inform his readers that our society would be a better place because everyone is trying their best to succeed and in this case, be their most perfect self. In order for the society to reach perfection, everyone should be trying their very best in order to strive for perfection. We should all be putting forth all our effort we have in order to get just a little bit closer to the idea of perfection and flawlessness. Society would improve for the better if all individuals strived for the world of perfection because every single person would give all that they’ve got in order to make this world just a little bit more perfect. This quote from Bergland is saying that we all need to try our hardest to strive for flawlessness and that we should be thrilled if we do achieve this goal. Trying our best from the start just makes us closer to reaching perfection which allows us to have the driven passion to be

What were the reactions of your family and friends that you spoke to about this difficult time?

through a rough time when I was younger and my mother left our family for drugs.

No one is perfect, that’s

Dennis Prager once said, “Although images of perfection in people’s personal lives can cause unhappiness, images of perfect societies, utopian images, can cause monstrous evil. In fact, forcefully changing society to conform to societal images was the greatest cause of evil in the 20th century.” (Prager Dennis, Search Quote) The meaning of this upscale quote goes to show how our generation evolves into society. In general, everyone wishes to live in a perfect world, with perfect, happy people, where no harm can be done. Each individual has their own way of wanting “a perfect society.” For example, it could be living in a world with no violence or war, and another person can think their “perfect society” would be living in a world of equality amongst our peers. In other words, this perfect world that one would want to/ think they live in is called a Utopia.

That abuse ultimately made me strong enough to handle a debilitating illness—one that would bring most people sons to their knees. As I move on to the next stage in my life, I am comforted with the knowledge that I can handle anything life throws my way.

Therefore, these "perfect" people of a "perfect" society, live, lifeless, in their cellophaned world. They do not grow ugly and fat with age, they never experience hunger or discomfort or fear, yet the only happiness they feel is a simulation, an illusion.

As well as there is people who believe perfection is not attainable, there is also people who believe that it is possible to reach that, when they give everything they have. It is a much divided opinion, which will perhaps never come to one only general conclusion. To succeed in life people must always work hard and sometimes sacrifice some things they think are important, but putting them in front of another type of situations they would not be taken as a priority. The majority of these people who believe in perfection

Humanity would not be improved if all were to strive towards utter perfection. When we try hard to be perfect, an unattainable goal, we are bound to fail. Therefore, this inevitable “failure” shall lead to frustration and anger at ourselves though we have done nothing wrong. Should society not be taunted by this impossible goal, society as a whole will be happier and live fulfilled lives. Whereas if everyone were to be reaching for perfection, everyone’s lives would be the exact opposite. The core of our society would be filled with more stress-more than what already exists at least- as well as less contemptment with our actions. These negative emotions would result in the implementation of bad means as a result of hopelessness. People will be lead to believe that after failing so many times, the only thing left to do in order to be perfect is to not play by the rules, because when they did, it didn’t work. According to mid-twentieth century sociologist Robert Merton, “The moral mandate to achieve success thus exerts pressures to succeed, by fair means if possible and by foul means if necessary”(Robert Merton in Allenby 17). This leads to not only corruption of the individual, but corruption in society as a whole. This is due to the intense level of competition in society that is due to everyone feeling as if they must be the best and outdo those that surround them. These high levels of competition and little room for success leads to stress, depression, and people resulting to loopholes to make their way up to the top. Not only that, but even at a young age, children are being pressured to be the best. Christopher Bergland, ultra-endurance athlete, writer, and psychologist, additionally addressed cheating in his Psychology Today column (2012) when he stated, “We live in such a competitive world. From a very young age our children are taught that if they want to ‘succeed’ in life that they have to finish in the top percentile in just about every challenge they face. But not everyone can be a champion.”(Begland 6). Therefore, not only are adults affected by the pressures of competition, but children are too. If the stress piles up at an early age, then so do the bad habits which will all carry on into their