申请Oberlin College的Essay.

听说Oberlin College比较开放，所以我就大胆了，写了一篇比较和谐的......

My teacher has always said that the poolroom is a bad place for teenagers. “There are rowdy boys with daggers, smoking and betting, and terrible fights escalated from trivial quarrels……”So, I was extremely upset when I went there for the first time with my friends as if I had committed a crime. Surprisingly, I found that it was not the hell at all: No robbery, no smoking, everybody was friendly to chat with me and teach me to play. For the first time, I realized that teacher’s words are not always right.

The story did not end. As I learned history and politics more and more, I began doubting about many ideologies and historical facts I was told. One day in a history class, I asked my teacher the truth of 1989 Tiananmen Square demonstration, but he pretended not to hear me. My friend told me, “You had better not care about that! It’s dangerous!”

As a result, I have formed a unique habit since that time: I love to read reports on a same issue from different Medias: First Xinhua, then NY Times. There are many contradictions on topics like Kim Jong-Il, Ceausescu, Taiwan and Tibet. When I was young, I believed that our government was right. Those foreigners are forces hostile to our socialist motherland; but when I went abroad later, someone told me “Your government is cheating you!” Then, who is honest, and who is cheating? Now, I am not satisfied with telling the right from wrong, because I know that either of them is just, like what I heard from my teacher, instruction. I will read both of them, but never be credulous.

As my teacher taught me about the bad poolroom, teachers in the North Korea will tell children that Americans are all monsters who drink human blood. Apparently, North Korean kids and I are all good children, but we do not always know the truth of the world. Therore, to let a person “know more” is not necessarily making him “go bad”. In contrast, the best way to make him good and innocent, yet brainless would be not letting him know anything on the other side. From that, I think of our government’s blocking Facebook, Twitter and YouTube: They prevented another viewpoint from arising. They told us that we needn’t think. Just be good kids and follow them! However, I maintain that I shall build my own mind, to know more, no matter “right” or “wrong”, no matter Lt or Right, whether it is “dangerous” or not. I will judge with my own brain, not with my teacher’s instruction.

With such expectation of giving myself a brave and thoughtful mind, I discovered Oberlin. Yes, I should be like that, fearless! Touch the taboo, the dangerous! It’s always safe to be a good kid; it’s always comfortable to follow others, but only if I dare to know more, think more, can I form an independent and strong mind. I need two treasures from Oberlin in order to be fearless: the courage to challenge and the ability to analyze independently. I hope to create my own cause with them and spread the spirit “and that is so Oberlin”.