Education and Who I am Today by Jason

Education and Who I am Today by Jason - December 2014 Scholarship Essay

“Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire.” This quote from William Butler Yeats sums up the impact of education upon my life. Education has shaped who I am today by providing not only the acquisition of knowledge but the thirst for more. Education ignited in me the desire to share and impart knowledge with my friends and colleagues. Education, and those who provided it to me, illuminated the path on my journey to becoming the man I want to be. Education ignited a fire that I hope to spend my life fueling.

Every child experiences natural curiosity. Early in my life, education became about more than school and the classroom. Education became about books. Reading, interpreting, investigating, and imagining the world through pages written by others was an early passion that continues today. Learning about people, places, cultures, and concepts has inspired even more curiosity. Who I am and what I believe is constantly changing, but the constant is the desire to learn about and experience more.

The sharing of information is critical to building a sense of community, friendship, and creating a connection that continues to promote collaboration in relationships. Whether that information be practical or theoretical, a mundane description of the day or an idealistic debate about society, the passage of knowledge from one to the next fuels connectivity. I deeply value my friends and family, largely because we can have spirited debates and constantly learn from and teach each other. Our relationships are constantly building, growing, and expanding due to the acquisition of knowledge. Additionally, my initial interest in new connections is finding out what they know, what they would like to know, what I can share, and what I can learn. The desire to teach, learn, and share with others is a primary factor in what makes my current and future relationships rewarding, a primary factor in who I am today.

As I continue to grow, to become the man I’ll be remembered as being, education is pivotal. It is more than the continuation of what I know. In my younger years, those who imparted knowledge because I valued it became role models. They had the secrets to a world I yearned to experience. The way they conducted themselves taught me how to behave. Their patience through my questions, their guidance through my failures, and their assistance in my successes taught me patience, taught me how to encourage, and taught me how to inspire. My desire to assist, guide, and lead others comes directly from those who taught me. My ability to see every problem as having a solution, to find joy in a quote, and my faith that every story can end happily stems from those who showed me how to find the answers, to keep looking for a positive outcome, and to use interpretation and perspective and character development not as just analysis of a page but as a way to change an outcome. My story, while still not finished, is the creation of a character those people helped inspire and one who, through their example, can help those I care about write their next chapters as well.

Education did more than just form who I am and what I know today. The learning of my past fuels the desire for more in my present. My relationships today are largely built on what we have collectively learned together through the sharing of our educations. Our future connections will be largely build upon what we continue to learn from each other. The new connections I make will be driven by my desire to share, teach, and learn. Who I am is because of not simply what I have learned, or even the doors that education has opened. Instead, who I am is someone who strives to continue learning, debating, philosophizing, growing, sharing, and learning. My education taught me the power of knowledge, the benefits of continuing to search for answers, the secrets behind the words on a page, and the ability to not only analyze, but to apply. My education gave me a passion for community, for ideas, and for reaching beyond the obvious. Knowledge has not given me all the answers, but it lit a fire that guides, encourages, and inspires. A fire that is a part of me, eager to be shared, a resource to be used, and a starting point on the journey of not only who I am, but who I’ll be.