Gates Millennium Scholarship Essay Example on Acquiring Knowledge and Skills

Other than through classes in school, in what areas (non-academic or academic) have you acquired knowledge or skills? How?

My whole life I have been the shy girl. The disadvantage of being shy is not making many friendships. What I lacked in friends in real life, the friends I made in books always made up for it. The adventures I had in books included solving mysteries with Nancy Drew, revolting against the government with Tris Prior, and prevent a war between the gods with Percy Jackson. However, once I closed the book my adventure for the day would also come to a close. After each story ended, I slowly realized I wanted something more. I wanted to start experiencing adventures in reality. I want to zipline in Costa Rica, I want to base jump in Rio, and I want to scuba dive in Australia. And mainly I wanted real friends.

Being shy has also made it difficult for me to communicate my feelings or ideas to people. My shyness has kept me in a shell that I had trouble leaving but I was determined to break it. When I entered high school, I was no longer the "shy girl". I woke up every morning with a positive attitude and began saying hi to my peers. Although I was still mildly timid whenever a teacher wanted me to present a project, I continued to stay positive and smile. Soon I built up enough confidence to join clubs. I joined the Reading Bowl Team because of my love of reading and made like minded friends.

It wasn't easy overcoming my extreme shyness but it was possible. I'm still not the most talkative person, but the difference now is I am no longer afraid to speak up. My shyness will not hide my bubbly personality anymore. Nor will it fit in a shell.

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