Jonathan Shuster
Honors 100BJ
October 8, 2013
Path to UW Honors
My path to UW has been stunningly average. I live in average house painted
an average shade of green (lets call it: puke) on an average street with average
neighbors who tend to be pretty unexciting. I have an average Jewish mother who
coddles me, and an average engineer dad who works for a small suburb of Seattle.
My sister has the most unaverage life out of all of us: a four year member of her high
school cheer team, her boyfriend of two years is star of the football team for that
same high school. My households returns to the mean with an average cat who just
lies around and eats all day, but somehow isn’t fat. I went a small, Jewish elementary
school, a much larger middle school and an average high school with your
stereotypical cliques and social stigmas. I applied to seven schools and although this
may be a blow to the Honors Program here, decided to apply for Honors five hours
before the application was due. So I wrote what I would consider an average essay
two hours before it was due, and here I am. But just because my life is average in no
way means that it is boring.
I’ve seen thunderstorms sweep down the coast of the Yucatá n Peninsula. I’ve
seen gators try to snap at low flying herons. I’ve seen a city with streets of water
and another with so many ruins they can’t build a subway system. I’ve seen Gaudi’s
alien works and Michelangelo’s portrayal of a hero. I’ve been to (London)derry,
where Protestants and Catholics hate each other and built walls to keep each other
out. I’ve been to Jerusalem where Jews and Arabs hate each other and a modern
wall of concrete is being built to seal the west bank off from the rest of Israel. I’ve
swam in the Mediterranean Sea, I’ve swam in the Red Sea, I‘ve swam in the Dead
Sea, I’ve swam in the Jordan River. I’ve played hearts with my feet in the Sea of
Galilee, I’ve played hearts in a tent at the base of Mount Rainier, I’ve played hearts in
my bros’ basement, I’ve played hearts in my own basement, and occasionally I play a
game of hearts with a girl. I’ve seen Mount Rainier from the space needle. I’ve taste
tested all the different kinds of flavored nuts at Pike Place Market (orange honey is
clearly the best). I’ve scored the winning penalty kick in a tournament soccer game.
I’ve thrown my jersey off in frustration and swore at the top of my lungs at the end
of a particularly disheartening frisbee game. I’ve been shopping with my sister
countless times, including once or twice on the coast of the Yucatá n.
But there’s also so much I haven’t done. I’ve never built roads. I’ve never
timed traffic lights. I’ve never worked with urban planners, geotechnical engineers,
transportation engineers, chemical engineers, and structural engineers to build a
bridge. I’ve never learned exactly how Roman engineers allowed their rulers to take
over half of Europe, The Middle East, and North Africa. I’ve never swing danced, I’ve
never played competitive badminton, I’ve never been part of a Cuisine Study Club,
I’ve never built a stone canoe, and I’ve never lived with my friends. I’ve never
learned about triple integrals or inertial reference frames. I’d never heard the word
‘interdisciplinary’ before applying to the UW honors program and I still don’t know
how it will affect my career at UW. I’ve never been part of a scholarly community of
any kind, let alone one so distinguished and large as the UW Honors community.
I’ve never been in a school anywhere as big as UW and I’ve never been around so
many people, all at school to learn (mostly), get jobs and live healthy, sound lives.
