Newsgroups: alt.prose
Subject: <Meek wave> Hi!
From: sralsto@eis.calstate.edu (Scott)
Date: Sat, 10 Oct 1992 01:32:04 GMT
Organization: Calif State Univ/Electronic Information Services

I'm a highschool senior--and here lies my college application essay.  I
tried my utmost to break the typical "This is what I learned from being
class president/janitor/honorary underwater basket weaving coach."  I'd
really appreciate some criticism.

-=--=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=--=-

     An ominous computer console sits before you.  The first
thing you notice about it is the outline of a hand etched on a
counter with five needles protruding from the palm.  Various
lights flash while turbines whir.  Something inside tells you to
place your hand upon the needles.  You look at them apprehen-
sively--it looks painful.  Flexing your hand anxiously, you
cringe as you lower your hand upon the needles and apply steady
pressure.

     Immense pain floods your nerves.  But this pain soon mutates
into extreme euphoria.  Suddenly you feel light-headed, and your body
droops.  But you don't feel yourself hit the floor.  Your mind is
elsewhere. Various bursts of prismatic light and then inky
blackness, as you find yourself standing on a pristine white tile
floor floating in a void.  Standing before you is a sign: 
"Welcome to Scott Ralston's mind!  I sincerely hope you enjoy
your stay here.  Please keep litter in its place and do your best
not to disturb the inner workings of this human being."  The path
continues to the north.  Instinctively you follow it.

     At the end of the path is a huge oak door with a single
brass hinge in the center.  A placard on the door proclaims
"Beyond this door lie my hopes, dreams, ambitions and nightmares.
Proceed with caution."  The door opens easily, and you make your
way inside.

     A bright nebula of rampant energy. Colors pulse and swirl
 like fireworks.  Amidst the lightning float many objects. 
A skateboard floats by, a bodyboard, a black compendium of
Scott's written word, a computer.  "These are Scott's favorite
possessions" you read through your mind's eye.  Your eyes focus
on the book.  Many feelings radiate from it, some conflicting. 
Loneliness, anxiety, happiness, joy, love, chaos.  Molten
creativity literally drips from the book, flowing like a stream
of magma.  The bodyboard brings forth a feeling of being in
nature's womb, inside the body of a perfect cylindrical wave and
marvelling at its beauty.  The skateboard makes you feel free and
alive, gliding through the pit of man's creation and dodging
incumbent barriers.  The computer opens new worlds.  It allows
digital communication, a good place to write, a friend that
always understands and never asks questions.  When everything
else is foreign, one's computer remains the same, an old friend
willing to teleport you from this world of despair into a perfect
alter-reality.

     And then you are presented with Scott's sensitivity. 
Various thoughtful perceptions and wonders brush your
consciousness.  A warm feeling radiates from the area as you are
exposed to his friendliness and usually jovial personality.  Many
quotes and images from various sources float by on a brilliant
tapestry, and you understand his will to learn and expand his
mind.  A cold numb creeps through your body as you share his
fears of failure and daily anxieties.  Then benevolence and
intelligence shine through your soul like a burst of sun through
the clouds.  You are aware that he values his friends and family
as dearly as life itself.  And finally, you stand in awe as you
witness the blue magma waterfall of his creativity, beautiful and
ever-changing, rotating shapes like a kaleidoscope.

     And as if this sight was too much, you feel your presence
begin to falter.  You look down at your hand and see it fade, and
finally disappear.  You look around alarmed as the terrain of
Scott's mind fades from view and you begin to return to reality. 
You start to life like being startled from a deep sleep, and find
yourself standing before a computer console, nursing your hand. 
You look on with awe as the holes on your hand close shut and
heal like time-lapse photography.  You remain startled and
touched, presented before the essence of Scott's mind and with a
newly acquired understanding of what this human being is all
about.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
I want to major in Creative writing and/or Computer Science.
Thanks for reading this :)