Do What You Know by Casandra

Do What You Know by Casandra - June 2017 Scholarship Essay

When we are young, it is often difficult to perceive a future outside of what we know. At the age of 6, we are still thirsty for the world, gulping down every bit of new information and basing our worldly knowledge on that which we have experienced. 6-year-old Casandra Baird knew what she enjoyed. She knew what she had experienced. Therefore, it is logical that she would then have aspirations to be that which she most enjoyed.
When I was 6 years old, the simple answer to the all too common question: "What do you want to be when you grow up?" was a first grade teacher. The only professional career I saw completed on a daily basis was such, hence the security I found in what I knew found its way into my future aspirations. The elements of first grade which I loved most - the in-classroom bathrooms, the decorative rugs, the silent reading time, the small toilets - appealed my senses and inspired me to want what I had, and felt secure in. However, as time passed and I grew, the span of experiences I felt comfortable with expanded, as did my hopes for a future career.
By the age of ten, I had found a new wonder in the stars. As an action I look back on in surprise, I would purchase thick astronomy textbooks and spend hours researching and learning about the configuration of the stars, the history of the moon, and the requirements to becoming an astronaut. Night after night would be spent with my eye in a lens, peering through a telescope into the night sky. If my life were to amount to anything, I thought, I would need to be in space.
And then things changed. I replaced my textbooks with music books and my telescope with dance shoes as my experiences broadened to develop a new hopeful future career in musical theatre. My education was centered upon ballet terms and arpeggios. I transferred schools in my sophomore year to the Denver School of the Arts in an attempt to maximize my arts education while continuing my academics. In a show where my director asked us to analyze Myers Briggs personality types, the discovery of my type, the logician, kick started what I now consider to be “what I want to be when I grow up”.
Mathematics is found in first grade education. Mathematics helps us analyze astronomers’ data. Mathematics is a physical representation of the beauty found in music. Mathematics is everywhere. Mathematics is beautiful. After finishing AP Calculus in my junior year of high school, I realized that math is not only enjoyable, it is a culmination of everything I have experienced in every time of my life. My answer finally found clarity. What do I want to be when I grow up? A mathematician.