My Life Sculpted by Knowledge by Ivey

My Life Sculpted by Knowledge by Ivey - December 2014 Scholarship Essay

Answering this essay prompt is slightly difficult for me, as it is hard for me to envision myself without any education. I've always been a curious individual, and I believe that if I had never even started school I would have pursued intellectual answers elsewhere (family, friends, the internet) until I found them. Though I would have found some way to gain knowledge regardless of whether I had formal education or not, I know and believe that my schooling has enormously influenced who I am today.

Possibly the most important thing education does is to train a child into curiosity. Whether born or acquired, a person with an ample helping of curiosity will continue to learn throughout their entire lifetime, regardless of if they continue to take established classes. My mother chose to homeschool me; she wanted to help me discover in which areas I was personally talented and interested in. She gave me access to books that both entertained and taught me, so I would know that learning was both fun and a privilege, not a chore. Children are born with endless questions about the world around them; the trick is cultivating lifelong learning for knowledge.

While curiosity is an important characteristic to have, I believe a healthy amount of skepticism is just as important in pursuing truth. Without a dash of doubtfulness, we would never distinguish falsehood from fact. I know that when a person tells me that their diet consists of food that is completely chemical free, I should take their word with a grain of salt. When I was a child I was much more gullible than I am now, and I had to develop skepticism as a useful skill to derive what information logically made sense in accordance to the rest of the information I knew. It goes without saying that you shouldn't place too high a priority on doubting, but it certainly has a valuable place in the head of a lifelong learner.

While skepticism took time to develop, expressing creativity has always come easily . Paintings, beading, poems, stories, singing, sculpting, drawing- I have always craved the knowledge of how to turn my mental creations into reality, but my education has developed my creative instinct where it wouldn't have taken me if I had no formal direction. My writing has gone from sporadic and haphazard to concise and flowing, my drawings have gone from clumsy sketches to calculated depiction. With my education, I have been able to do so much more than I would have been able to if I had been left to my own devices.

Needless to say I've been an incredibly blessed by the education I've received. I've developed curiosity, garnered a healthy amount of skepticism, and honed my natural talents. Education has definately shaped who I am today, for the better.