Nonfiction

Márk Gál

The potato originates from South America, from the region of Peru and Bolivia. The Incas and their ancestors domesticated it between 7,000 and 10,000 years ago. In the harsh conditions of the Andes, where corn and many plants could no longer grow, the potato was an option. The Incas let potatoes freeze overnight and stomped out the moisture during the day, making a food that could be stored for years.

The Europeans encountered this plant during the sixteenth century, through the conquistadors. They feared this plant; since the Bible didn’t mention it and it belonged to the class of nightshade (a very deadly berry), they thought that this might be a hellish plant. Later they realized it was nutritious, so they gave it to their pork and cattle.

Starvation wasn’t an unfamiliar concept for Europeans. (Even nowadays just it is now quality starvation.) Antoine-Augustin Parmentier in the eighteenth century wanted to popularize the potato to end famine in France. He convinced King Louis XVI to wear potato blossoms in his buttonhole, and Marie Antoinette even wore them in her hair at royal balls. Parmentier had the King’s plantations guarded by soldiers during the day to make the potatoes seem like a “royal treasure.” At night, he withdrew the guards, encouraging the peasants to “steal” the crops and plant them in their own gardens. I believe even nowadays when every tenth person is in the field of marketing, he would not have any problems at a job application for these kinds of gigs. In fact, many companies would hire him straightaway.

This tuber became later widespread in Europe and weirdly in North America; too. Although it needed only pass through the yet nonexistent Panama Canal to reach the North American continent, it didn’t. The other tribes probably didn’t care about this plant, and it didn’t have wings or legs, so even a nonexistent canal could make such trouble, yet the potato didn’t travel directly from South to North America. Although wild tubers existed in the north, the potato was brought back to the USA by European immigrants (like Irish settlers). It first became popular in places like New Hampshire.

Ireland became dependent on this tuber. It functioned similarly to wheat but was even more crucial. So when potato blight (a fungal disease) arrived from America, it destroyed the Irish harvests, which led to a massive famine, killing masses and leading to the emigration of millions of citizens. Today, many of Americans have Irish roots because of the catastrophe.

In the late 19th century, the American horticulturalist Luther Burbank developed the Russet Burbank variety. This large, hardy potato became the foundation for American fast-food culture. Today, this is the specific variety used by McDonald’s and other major chains for their French fries. (By the way, there are two theories about why it is called French fries. The first is that it comes from the cutting technique “to French.” The second theory is that the American soldiers stationed in Belgium during World War I got this as provender, and since the Belgian army spoke French, they thought that they were French, so they named this essential food after the troops.)

Jázmin Juhász

It was the most devastating moment of my life hearing the bombs and realizing I don’t have a home anymore. Looking at the ruins of my neighborhood, breathing in the dust as the tears were streaming down my face, it felt like my life had ended. I lived with my parents, my older brother, and my younger sister. They were all at home that tragic evening; I was the only one who survived. 

The gap between the poor and the rich has been getting bigger with each year. While we are not sure if we are lucky enough to eat today, they live in enormous palaces and walk around in extravagant clothes that cost more than what we spend in a year. They could easily end our suffering, but they just don’t really want to. They have so much money that they run out of things to buy, but still, they want more. That’s why the war started decades ago: they needed more resources to maintain their glamorous life. The land was ours back in the “golden days,” so there’s nothing wrong with taking back what was ours, at least that’s what they say. But then it turned out that conquering these territories is not as easy as they expected it to be, so now our lives are centered around war. We are either soldiers fighting on the front lines or scientists inventing new weapons or working in factories. They live their lives as if nothing had changed, they don’t have real jobs, but they own everything in this country. No amount of hard work would be enough for someone like me to get to their level; you have to be born there, there’s no other way. All this injustice, but still we don’t rebel; everyone has accepted their faith. We work like robots with no hope or real purpose in life, not really understanding how bad our situation is. If it weren’t for getting lost that day, I would think just like everybody else.

I was only eight years old when I went shopping for groceries with my mom. The streets were particularly crowded that day, so I lost sight of her and started wandering by myself. I came across a large building, I went inside and realized I was in the library. I’ve been here a few times before with my brother when he needed to borrow some books. It looked exactly the same: tall shelves packed with thick books about war tactics and science, nothing too interesting. But I decided to look around anyway. As I was walking through the labyrinth of shelves, I noticed a door that was slightly open. I scanned the room to make sure nobody was watching, and I entered. It looked just like the other parts of the library except that these books were about fairy tales, adventures, love, and poetry, things I had never heard of. I sat down and opened a picture book, I was mesmerized by it. I didn’t know I could feel this much, that life could be more than just surviving. I don’t think anyone else had been here before, except the rich and privileged of course. From us regular people this world of emotions, complex thoughts, and art is hidden away. What we need to be focused on is working, and we shouldn’t waste our time on nonsense like entertainment. I was so invested in a story about princesses and magic that I didn’t even hear the footsteps of the guards approaching the room. When one of them found me, he immediately dragged me out, saying this is forbidden territory. My mother was waiting at the front door, relieved that I had been found. A few days later I returned, but the door was locked. Luckily for me, these guards aren’t famous for being attentive, as it’s just a library, nothing too dangerous here, so stealing the keys was a piece of cake. They really underestimated the power of words, since these books opened my eyes and fundamentally changed the way I think. I went back there very often. I was at the library the day of the bombing too. I read books about many different things, even war. In these stories the battles were glorious and good always defeated evil. In real life there’s nothing glorious about war; it’s cruel and brutal, and it consumes everyone and everything. The ones who are actually fighting are just pawns in the game. Losing your morality is inevitable, so the line between good and evil is blurred. There are no winners either; you either die on the battlefield or leave with mental scars that you can never recover from. And nobody is safe; hospitals, schools, and homes get destroyed with innocent families and children in them. They say there’s no victory without sacrifice, but hasn’t it been enough, is it really worth it?

After the bombing, I was moved into a large building with a bunch of other children who had suffered a similar fate. They gave me no time to mourn; today I have to go to school as if it were just a normal Thursday. But I have a plan, I’ve had it for a long time. I just didn’t have the courage to carry it out, because if I failed, I’d put my family in danger too. I have always been more aware than others, I hate this place with a burning passion, so I dreamed of escaping. I live very close to the Southern border; evidently that’s where I want to go. There’s not much there, only forests, meadows, lakes, and I also heard a few rumors about isolated little towns. It sounds perfect.

At school I’m studying to be a pilot just like my dad. He served in the army for many years before he crashed his plane and lost his right arm, from then he couldn’t work anymore. Today we are practicing shooting, so we cross the country’s border to train safely. It’s perfect timing for me to finally leave this place, and now I have nothing to lose. Training is the same as always, we shoot at the targets from the air, and after two hours we are commanded to land. Instead of landing, I switch to maximum speed trying to flee. I know it’s not the most well-thought-out plan, but even after years of weighing my options this still seems the best. From my radio I can hear my teacher ordering me to turn back immediately, but nothing is stopping me anymore, even death is better than this life. After a few minutes the radio becomes silent; it’s very unlikely that they let me go this easily, and I’m terrified of what’s coming next. Then suddenly I’m not the one controlling the plane: it’s turning back. There’s no chance I’m going back, so I have no choice but to jump. It’s mandatory to wear a parachute on our backs for safety reasons, but I’ve never thought that it would come in handy once. Falling from the sky is as terrifying as it sounds, and it feels like an eternity. Finally, my parachute opens, and I begin to float down slowly, I’ve never been more relieved. Unfortunately, they don’t give up, they start shooting at me and then I’m falling again, they hit the parachute. I can see my life flashing before my eyes, I guess this is how I die, falling till my bones crush. Suddenly I splash into cold water, I barely know what’s happening, but my survival instincts kick in and I start gasping for air. I try my best to swim to the shore, but every movement hurts, I don’t think I can swim for much longer. Just before I start sinking, my feet hit the ground and I walk out of the lake. I immediately lie down in the grass trying to catch my breath. It’s a miracle that I survived. After I rest a little, I can finally start my new life.

Áron Kaposvári

Since childhood, I have been fascinated by the wonders of the natural world. Although I did not understand how the world works, I preferred to let myself be immersed into some “detailed” observations of living organisms and other wonders of the world. Without any exceptions I enjoyed all of them, from a butterfly’s wings to the behaviour of ant colonies or the nature of bees.

I think everything started with the ants. When I was five years old, I once decided to go out into our garden for some fresh air. I was playing when I suddenly discovered a huge colony of ants. At first sight at that age it was only a big black spot on the ground made up of small and tiny moving dots, not just some, but hundreds and thousands. I gave them a closer look. As I was watching them, they completely occupied my mind: how they collected the many kinds of food they found all around their anthill. The weather was getting worse and worse: the wind was blowing stronger, the sky was quickly filling up with dark clouds along with their terrible sounds, but I wasn’t scared at all, since I was immersed in this curious phenomenon which was new to me and my knowledge. The storm was getting more and more dangerous. My mother looked at me through the window, confused, thinking of what I was doing, and also worried because of the storm. So she took me into the house, despite the fact that I tried to resist, since I didn’t want to leave the new part of nature I had discovered and the opportunity of observations. This experience drove me to the desire to improve my passion towards science. I believe that it aroused my passion and curiosity for scientific exploration.

Now during my secondary school studies I can gain the knowledge needed for awakening my true desire regarding Biology. I have decided to pay attention to almost every detail that is mentioned during the many lessons of the natural sciences, which include the subjects of life: Biology; Chemistry, Physics, etc. My future plan is to go to university to improve my knowledge. We must save and protect our environment, as nowadays many dangers threaten our world. In conclusion, I hope that this college application essay shows my deep passion for scientific exploration and my desire to become part of a community that values innovation and intellectual curiosity.

Zsombor Górán

I have always loved to play games since the moment I saw them. They can allow you to do whatever you wish: fight Darth Vader, build the biggest castle you have imagined, be the best assassin in history, rob the bank and escape from the law, or just relax by farming potatoes. Games offer me freedom that is hard to feel in real life. The monotony of life can be so tiring, but in games you have no responsibilities and no rules to follow. They give me a choice to do things I would never do in real life. It is a world of imagination that I can control.

Life is similar sometimes; for me it feels like a path composed of small challenges or problems to face. Go to kindergarten, then to elementary school, then high school, and now college. This is the place where I stand at the moment. This is not the first challenge I have had to overcome, and it won’t be the last. If I fail, I will try another way until the challenge is complete. I have a lot of small challenges to complete on my own, from getting up in the morning to  getting into a college.

I usually play in teams with my friends or just random people. If I can, I take the role of the team leader and try to organize the team so we can work together efficiently. If the team has better leaders than I, I let them organize the team and follow their plans. I usually like to plan out everything and minimise the chance of failure; so far I have been mostly successful at this. I really like to learn everything a game can offer me if I find it interesting. I will try to do approach college in the same spirit. After college I plan to continue playing and might even create games of my own. If I get there, the possibilities will be endless. But in order to achieve this I need your help. If I could get accepted into this institution, it would mean the world to me, and everything leading up to this moment would be worth it.

Viktória Wilujeng Botka

It’s funny how I never seem to be able to talk about myself when people ask me to introduce myself, or explain why I am the way I am. It’s almost as if I was created yesterday, and hadn’t had enough time to learn about myself, or maybe it’s the way I drastically change, my personality, hobbies, resulting in me having too much to say about myself, and nothing.

I feel like so much has changed since when I was a little girl, innocent, always full of dreams to achieve, always excited to get up for the next day and never worrying about anyone or anything. I remember when my teachers always said that I was imaginative and creative,  and how they would get irritated every time I zoned out or daydreamed during lessons. My favorite subject used to be English Grammar, and my first dream job was to be a grammar teacher, mainly because I really liked my English teacher and she inspired me to be someone like her.

My dreams and goals change constantly, I was motivated and confident. Every time I got new ideas, they get harder and harder to achieve, especially because I lost interest in them quickly and found something new to focus on. I’ve dreamt of being a scuba diver, a vet, a marine biologist, a private math tutor, and the list goes on. I think that it all probably ended around sixth grade. I lost my confidence, my motivation, gave up on my dreams and really didn’t want to do anything anymore. And just as I lost my talents and A grades in subjects, I lost interest in life.

I’m never really sure why I stopped. All I knew was that the world was too cruel. People were selfish and unkind; to each other, to animals, to the environment, to mother nature. I hated the way everyone rarely cared about important things, the way they always prioritize themselves, the way they think the world revolves around them. People burn forests, throw plastics and chemicals into the ocean, causing global warming and climate change, testing makeup on animals, etc. I want to stop them; I can’t just sit and watch as people hurt the Earth with their selfish actions. I need to interfere, I never cared about the wrong things people do, as long as I don’t do the same things, but I’ve realized that doing nothing to stop these actions is just as bad as doing them. I’ve decided that I will try to make this world a better place, where animals aren’t harmed, making sure that every single animal species can live peacefully in their natural habitats.  To achieve that, I will need the help of the whole Earth’s population, and most importantly, a good college that will allow me to get a proper education, and that’s why I spent these three hours writing this essay; to get accepted to your college.

Zalán Kaposvári

From a young age, I have been captivated by the power of engineering to shape the world around us. When I am surrounded by a nature-like, peaceful environment, with no one bothering me, I like to contemplate on things and thoughts I have collected during the day, but sometimes even some memories from my young ages. When I was young, I was always interested in a pretty large question: How do things work? So I was determined to find proper answers to this question. There were a lot of times I attempted especially to understand the way some ”mechanical wonders” worked. Honestly, I have to admit, it was not an easy ”job,” as none of them was as easy to understand as I thought. Due to my lack of knowledge, I have decided to follow the way which can help me immerse myself in the complicated world of engineering.

I would like to explain this valuable—and at the same time memorable—memory of mine. Its beginning can be traced back to the old times, when I was quite young and had plenty of time to spend. In those days I loved creating new things, especially buildings, instead of destroying them, as unfortunately I also experienced the pain of seeing a day’s work being destroyed (in my case by my brother). Thus I hopefully learned that nothing is as easy as it first seems or it is thought. So in the knowledge of these facts, I built and even rebuilt a construction. One day a small and simplified version of a space station could be seen in my room, and on the next day it was reborn as a school. Of course neither of them could be considered as an expert’s work. Nonetheless, I cared about them and respected them that way. For this reason everyone in my family knew that I was crazy about this kind of activity, so when we invited other members of our family for a special event regarding me, they all could surprise me with new sets of building blocks. It was the beginning of my passion that drove me onto this road.

Throughout high school, I eagerly pursued opportunities to explore various branches of engineering. I paid attention to every Maths lesson and also the ones related to nature and science, especially Physics. This aided me on my journey to discover and understand more complex forms of engineering. These experiences have also reinforced my passion for engineering and affirmed my desire to become a well-trained constructor. In conclusion, most of the time I wonder what breathtaking buildings people can ”give birth to.” Considering this, I am confident that an education at a technical college will provide the ideal platform to nurture my skills, expand my horizons, and empower me to engineer a better future.