Hello! So I'm a senior in high school and wrapping up my college applications. The topic I picked for my essay was, "Indicate a person who has had a significant influence on you, and describe that influence." and this is what I've got so far. Any thoughts?
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I've always been fascinated with technology. Early on, I threw myself at mastering every basic computer operation that I knew of and went out of the way to get my hands on the latest and greatest electronics. I was a self proclaimed tech whiz. As a grew older and life decisions began to loom, I pondered how I might fuse this innate love of tech with a possible career choice. And so, my junior year of high school I enrolled in a computer programming class. Sure enough I loved it. No longer was I constricted what others had built. I could create my own applications to fulfill my own needs! Consequently I began to pursue computer science as a potential career. However mastering something as technical as programming was daunting to say the least. Enter one of my biggest inspirations. The late Steve Jobs.
Steve Jobs loved what he did. In his 2005 Stanford commencement address Job's said, "The only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do." This idea, an idea Steve most certainly lived his life by, really resonated with me. I had to find something I loved. This among other things pushed me towards the technical field that was Computer Science. I threw myself at mastering all things technical. As my computer know how grew, so did the difficulty of problems I encountered. But working with computers, be it coding a program or simply helping a friend set up an email, was something I enjoyed. Here I could do my best work. Here I could find satisfaction just like Steve Jobs.
Steve Jobs had an incredible vision when it came to technology. A sculptor can look at a rough piece of stone and see a work of art. Similarly, Job's could look at current market trends and envision what people would want in the future. The ability to think outside the box that Steve most definitely possessed has motivated me to think similarly. As I have thought of life after college, Steve's approach has pushed me to think of ways in which I can innovate. I may not come up with something as revolutionary as the Macintosh or iPad, but coming up with a business idea and starting a small company based around it certainly doesn't seem out of reach. In observing Steve Job's life, I have been motivated to think like an entrepreneur, to question the statuesque, and to dream big.
We'll never see another Steve Job's. A larger than life figure in the tech industry, Steve had a hand in many of the computer products we use today. Steve, being such a technological genius, naturally drew me. And as a began to delve deeper into the records of his life, I saw someone I wanted emulate. Not perfectly, for Steve Jobs did have glaring flaws, as do we all. But I saw certain aspects of Steve's mindset and philosophy that would be invaluable wherever I ended up. Through both his words and actions, Jobs convinced me that following hard after my dreams was well worth it.
