Closed Book Open Mind by Elizabeth

Closed Book Open Mind by Elizabeth - August 2016 Scholarship Essay

One of the best decision I ever made in high school was to take Psychology. It didn’t inspire me to become a psychologist and I took it to fill the empty semester I had in my schedule. I thought it was some class where you decode inkblots and stare at pictures all period and try not to get a headache. But all it took was that first day and five minutes into the welcome lesson and my brain kind of exploded in a mass of confusion and awe before actually getting a headache.
The most fascinating thing in the world to me is people. I tend to have a philosopher’s mindset combined with a analytical tendencies and boom I’ll be spurring out theories like nobody’s business. Growing up, my brain did kind of a Benjamin Button on me because instead of having that naïve child mindset, I was judgmental. But as I grew older and saw that the world wasn’t rigid, I realized that people simply cannot be labeled because they are a mix of complexity, experience, and capability and there’s not enough stickers in the world to cover every one of those.
My Psychology teacher, Mr. Higgins, was a tall, liberal, and... unique man. He first caught my interest when he began talking about people. He told the class that Psychology only gives the basics about behavior and how people act, but to truly know someone is to accept the fact that you don’t know them at all.
Because of this one lesson I was able to look deeper into people’s actions and I began to understand. People are an endless wonder and the less eager I was to stick a label on them, the more open minded I became, allowing me to connect with others no matter who they are.
This helped me greatly when mentoring troubled kids because I overlooked their stubbornness and tendency to be more reserved. Through a program called PALs, I met a little boy in pre-k; let’s call him Bobby. I had asked Bobby if he wanted to play action figures with me and he told me no and to leave him alone. Every week, I’d bother Bobby until he became more and more comfortable with me, which took ages. Months later, he finally revealed to me that he had a hard time making friends because he didn’t know how to. The fact that he was so open with me warmed my heart as I was more than happy to demonstrate the making of a friend via action figures. I was never intimidated by Bobby’s words, and to this day I will always treasure the moment I told him “I’m not going anywhere, take this action figure and let’s play.”
I applied this concept to everyone I met despite their choices of clothes, the way they spoke, what language they spoke, and how they carried themselves. It added flavor and spice to what made them unique and what they could bring to the table.
However, the Psychology lessons did not stop there. As we approached the Intelligence Unit, before Mr. Higgins could move past the title slide of his PowerPoint, he posed a very important question to the class: “What is intelligence?”
After a week, my whole perspective on intelligence did an entire 180. To most people, intelligence would mean making good grades, being successful, high IQ, and all that jazz. But what we usually don’t consider are the underrated things like the ability to paint a masterpiece, or fix a car, or even the ability to make someone laugh is a form of intelligence. Society tends to belittle those who are not academically on top and sheds very little light on talents and abilities outside of grades and test scores. After being enlightened by this lesson, I not only applied it to the way I viewed others but took it as an opportunity to simply learn.
I made a friend who was awful at physics but could sketch the most beautiful portrait of a person like no one I had ever seen. She taught me how to paint and different ways to color using just crayons. I also made a friend who was borderline passing all of his classes but was the absolute funniest person I had ever met. He had a way of talking with people that was smooth and brilliant all at once; just by observing him, I saw how easy it was to talk to people. Because of this, I commend my family, friends, and strangers on all their talents and abilities because not only does it make them intelligent, it makes them different.
Oddly enough, the best subject I took in high school taught me nothing about my future career, how to manage time, or how to write the greatest essay known to man. Instead, it taught me the most important lesson of all- something most people hardly ever grasp in their lifetimes- it taught me how to accept, connect, and understand people. I have grown in the greatest way I possibly could, not quite academically but mentally. I know see people in a different life and appreciate them for their best and worst qualities because they are all leading star characters of their own book. And I was never one to leave a bookstore willingly.