The girl who loved dinosaurs by Roya

The girl who loved dinosaurs by Roya - June 2017 Scholarship Essay

On May 21st, 2007, an eager 6 year old girl with curly, brown locks and two bouncy pigtails rushed to the mahogany podium that loomed over the sea of anticipating parents. As the little girl clumsily climbed on top of the plastic stepping stool, an elderly woman with a sharp, pointed noise turned to the girl and posed a question. “What would you like to be when you grow up?” Zealously, the girl grabbed and adjusted the podium microphone, and while grinning ear to ear she proudly answered the question with a smirk. “I want to be a paleontologist!” The audience stared at her with their eyes wide open and mouths hanging low as the 6 year old girl marched back to her seat with a devilish grin on her gleaming, bright face. Unlike the other boys and girls who wished to be an astronaut, singer, or movie star, the delicate, petite girl with a toy velociraptor dreamed of becoming a famous scientist that studied dinosaur bones. Once leaving the kindergarten graduation, her parents gave the girl a proud pat on the back and praised her for the job she wished to have.
Around the age of four, my father introduced me to the world of Steven Spielberg. My fondest memories with my dad were watching Spielberg movies, such as Jaws, E.T., and Jurassic Park on repeat. Instantly, I specifically fell in love and became obsessed with the movie Jurassic park for two simple reasons: my dad looked similar to one of the primary actors, Jeff Goldblum, and I thought the main protagonist Grant, the paleontologist, was the coolest character ever created in film. One scene from this popular pop culture film sparked my desire to be a paleontologist and inspired me at the age of six to convince my peers that was the profession I will purse in the future. In this intense scene, Grant with a velociraptor claw taunted and scared a pesky, young boy by explaining how if velociraptors were alive in the present they would easily outsmart the child and kill him. Out of all scenes from the movie, that was the one which made me say “That’s it! That’s the career I want to have! Thanks Grant!” Not surprisingly, this movie began my obsession of dinosaurs. My four to ten year old self collected dinosaur books, toys, movies, puzzles, etc. You name it; I had it. One day in my kindergarten year, I remember my classmates and I had to pick and draw our favorite animal. Of course, I drew a velociraptor, which was my favorite dinosaur. When I handed in my drawing to my English teacher, she snatched it from my hand and told me “Dinosaurs are dead, so they aren’t animals anymore.” I never forgot that day because I don’t think I have ever been that mad at a teacher in my life. I bet my six year old self would be surprised to know that a future English teacher would end up inspiring me to follow a career path I was born to do.
As I began to slowly mature, I started to consider the importance of education and I desired to have more academic achievements in life. In fifth grade, I really took grades seriously because of my reading teacher at the time. My teacher saw me struggle and not improve in my reading abilities, she then had an in depth conversation with me about how reading can be just as fascinating as the movies and TV shows I watched. After that discussion with her, I began to read constantly and my grades went from an A/B average to straight A’s. Venturing from primary to middle school, I became the top ten percent off my class, participated in all honor classes, and was always on either honor or principal roll. I joined theater during this time, which allowed me to flourish socially and become a spectacular class speaker. Eventually, I left my quiet middle school to enter an IB program at one of the top schools in my state, which was an interesting experience. During the beginning of my high school career, I was convinced I would do something in the science field, such as medicine (I gave up on my paleontologist dream when I realized it sadly wasn’t a very relevant job anymore). All this changed when I entered my 10th grade English class. During my sophomore year, my English teacher gave the IB students a film unit, which was my favorite thing out all of my classes I had to do. My teacher analyzed like film in such a unique way; I have never in my life seen anyone talk about film like that teacher did. He made me so fascinated in the whole film process, and he rekindled my love for the industry. After I left his class, I knew what I wanted to become – a filmmaker. He made me appreciate the art of film, and his class allowed me to explore ever depth of different films. The same movie that inspired my English professor to teach his subject also helped encourage me to pursue a career in film. This movie with one of my favorite actors, Robin Williams, was called the Dead Poets Society. All I have to say now is “carpe diem seize the day gather ye rosebuds while ye may…” (John William Waterhouse).