Gates Millennium Scholarship Essay Example on Excelling

Discuss the subjects in which you excel or have excelled. To what factors do you attribute your success?

Fine arts, particularly music are a specialty of mine. I excel at fine art due to the fact that the heart and soul I believe are full of music, and every fine art is just an expression of that music within the soul. Dancing is just the body moving to the beat, art is emotion on a canvas and acting is a person portraying the emotion of another's personality. Every personality is an expression of the music that is overflowing from the soul. Though some may disagree, music can change the mood of every individual, and this is because each aspect of music contains an emotional substance which persuades the listener's heart and soul into conformity with the artist's emotion. This brings the audience and performer together, creating a sense of peace, comfort, and togetherness that some in our world feel they will never encounter otherwise. This emotional turmoil is one reason to attribute success in music.

Turmoil flows from every individual at some point in their lives, they feel lost and helpless. My life is no different, and in my distress, I have often turned to music, anything from classical to rap or any of the many genres that exist in our ever changing world. The music always makes me feel at peace, and through this encouraging sound, a love for music was created. The sound of music seems to fill my everyday life, not a moment goes by in which I cannot hear a song, whether it be in my own head, or a rhythm from a simple pencil tapping on a desk. That rhythm is the base of a song the tapper is creating from their heart beat, and I feel this beat and am moved by the sound and the song it creates. This sense of peace, and love for music was not created by a simple enjoyment of music, but by the constant need and desire to find peace when my world seemed like chaos.

My success in fine arts also comes from my father, who is over flowing with a desire to share his hearts beat with the entire world. When I was younger he forced me to take piano lessons, saying, "If you can learn to read music and play piano you can do anything in music." I hated it when he said that, because there were so many other things I wanted to do then go to practice and try to read "a bunch of dots on a page." I desired to go play with friends, watch T.V., and waste time doing nothing, but over the years I gained knowledge and eventually learned to read music, and though I eventually quit piano lessons, I soon joined the middle school band, and choir because my short break from music was short lived. Not one month out of piano lessons and I began to yearn for music. I wanted to feel the pleasure of creating a great work of art from my body.

By the time that I was in eighth grade band was not fully fulfilling my musical desire, I longed for more. In ninth grade I immersed myself in band, now playing two instruments (flute and French horn), choir, and theatre. By tenth grade I had run out of electives, and needed to take a foreign language class (a fine art in itself I believe). I was forced with a difficult decision, which do I quit? I chose theatre, it was not my best fine art and the teacher was retiring. By eleventh grade I again wanted to try something new, and decided to quit band and try art class instead. This turned out for my benefit. While not the best in the class, was still very good. My senior year I became vice president of the art club and a member of the art 3 class completely skipping over the art 2 classes. I love the feeling of looking at a blank page and after a few hours seeing not a blank page but a work of art, that only I could see from the start.

Success comes from practice and a desire to continue to work towards success. My success in music is no different from any other kind of success. The love created by turmoil, gave me the desire to work, and with the constant pressure to practice from my father in the music in my heart and soul grew until not only was the music my heart created for my own peace and comfort, but for those around me as well. This helps lead me to success, when others find peace in one's own hearts beat, success is created. I will probably never find complete "success," but I will always be working towards it, for music is ever changing and something no one can fully understand, even if an entire life is spent looking for this success. I just hope that I will always hear the music of hearts even as I lay in my death bed, the world around me and the people in it will all be playing their own song, and if one listens hard enough one can hear the chorus the voices of their souls create.

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