The Outsider
Respecting Your Elders and Submitting to Authorities: I explain why it’s hard for me to respect the elderly or submit to authorities – simply because they think they know everything when they don’t and that they’ve lost all sense of idealism. (2006)
Living out Your Dreams: My reflections after reading one of my favorite books – Into The Wild by Jon Krakauer. The book is about the story a young American’s journey into the wild which ended in his tragic death. It’s a book I absolutely love because it portrays the idealism and passion of a young man I can identify greatly with in certain ways. (2001)
Romantic Love
A Severe Mercy, the Shining Barrier and the Secret to Everlasting Love: Reflections on the book A Severe Mercy. This is also one of my all-time favorite books and the book I’ve given away the most. Although the book is so much more, I write here about its portrayal of romantic love and the secret to couples remaining always in love, which is simply sharing. (2000)
The Greater Marriage Feast?: A short reflection about how probably in heaven romantic love between a man and a woman would no longer exist – as we’ll be enjoying our greater marriage – between Christ and His people. It’s kind of a sad thought, though I’m sure we’ll only be happy when such a time comes. (2002)
Application Essays
The Beginning and Development of my Christian Faith and its Impact on my Life: This is the essay to the 1st question in my application to Wheaton College. It was written in late 2001 and I got acceptance for the 2002 intake. I eventually chose not to attend Wheaton. For the reason why, you can read my Response letter to Wheaton College or about my University Studies in Australia. (2001)
A Culture of Reading and Learning: This is the essay to the 2nd question (part b) in my application to Wheaton College. (2001)
A Passionate Idealist Struggles to Exist in a Nonideal World: My responses to the two general questions and also my essay response in my application to The University of Chicago. The essay options given by them were very interesting and creative and I thoroughly enjoyed writing my essay (of all the University application essays I’ve written, this is my favorite) – I was even able to formulate my own question for it! I didn’t actually send my application because I eventually realized I wanted to study in Wheaton College more and also because of the fact that the University fees were too expensive. (2001)
Global Knowledge Leads to Compassion for Third-World People: My essay in my application to New York University. Again, I didn’t send this for the same reasons as above. (2001)
Miscellaneous
My Love for Canada: I describe why I love Canada, which boils down to two main reasons. Firstly, it’s the ultimate immigration destination in the world due to its multiculturalism. And secondly, it has a huge liberal-leaning population and an impressive concern for development in the third-world. (2005)
Encountering Anne Frank and the Mask we all Wear: Anne Frank’s “The Diary of a Young Girl” is one of my favorite books. I talk here about the desire of everyone to connect in a deep way with others and the mask we all often wear to hide this deep longing. (2003)
Living a Passionate and Exciting Life: Some reflections on passion in life after reading a book about the Netscape founder Jim Clark. (2001)