The Wonders of the Word - Other (College Admission Essay)

The Wonders of the Word

I recently found a word that describes me perfectly: logophile. A logophile is classified as a lover of words, and that could not be truer in my case. I love to read, I love to write, I love to play word games, and I just love words in general. I can say words backwards, I often make anagrams of words, and I sometimes play word games to help me fall asleep if I am particularly stressed out. Words have always been my thing, not solely on a word-to-word basis but in how they are combined to convey a message as a whole.

            I wrote my first story when I was five years old. It was about two girls who fight, do not speak for two weeks, and then make up because they both realize they were wrong in their anger. Needless to say, it was not very original. But I wrote it. The words made their way from my brain down my arm and hand and out of my pencil onto the paper, like an electrical wire transmitting a current. My bond with words was, at the time, a baby bird, just waiting and needing to be nourished so it could one day soar.

             Not much longer after I wrote my first story, my older sister received the game Boggle for Christmas. I begged to be included in the game, and my parents explained the rules to me. I was only six years old and really could not play Boggle well. So my parents gave me a handicap: I could jump over letters and all over the board to formulate words. And, instead of the normal one point per four-letter word, they gave me two points. Because of this, my scores were pretty impressive, especially for a six-year-old. My sister would be annoyed if not angry with me for constantly beating her. It did not matter to her that my parents would beat her – my dad especially, as no one could touch him when it came to Boggle – but for her little sister to beat her, well, that was a problem. As I got older, though, I played by the rules. Even now my sister (who is five years older than I) still cannot beat me. Neither can my mother and, very rarely, can my father.

By the time I was ten, I had written countless poems, short stories, and I had even begun to write a novel. I love the look of blank white paper, just waiting to be written on. I love its emptiness, its vastness, and its limitless space that I can fill up with words, my words. Writing is a part of me, and I need it because I have so many ideas upon which I feel the urge to expand.

But it is not the words themselves or the combinations of letter that form the words that mesmerizes me; it is the underlying power of those words. Words are extremely influential. They can incite people to violence, to protest, to stand up for what they believe. And I love the thought that my words too can hold that promise of power. I have the potential to make a difference with what I write, and that causes me to strive all the more to deliver my ideas to people. Even if I do not know them, even if they live across the country, or even in a different country, I can still make a difference in their lives. I can touch their eyes with my words even if I cannot see them. And I think that is an incredible concept: to influence or even to change what people think by sharing my ideas. I can make a difference.

I discovered the exceptional potential of the written word as I got older and began to understand more about the world. People need words constantly to transmit ideas, to explain themselves, to change the world. And that is what I would like to do with what I write: change the world. I understand this is a lofty goal, but it is plausible. I do not need to change the entire world, but maybe just one person’s world. Brandi Snyder once wrote, “You may be just one person to the world, but you may be the world to one person.” And, if I can change one person’s view of the world for the better or if I can be the world for just that one person, then I think I will have accomplished something phenomenal. Every single person on this earth is important, and the written word should be used to encourage his or her importance. Words should not be employed to bully people, to intimidate people, to subjugate people to fear and humiliation, although they unfortunately are used in those ways, but, even then, educated people can respond to the unkindness using different, better words. The written word is a gift to enlighten and empower people. I am fortunate enough to recognize that and want to expand upon that to hopefully better someone’s future. What Edward Bulwer-Lytton theorized about is true: The pen can be mightier than the sword.

Reading is highly important, too, because it gives people ideas about how to communicate what they feel. Reading heightens people’s communication skills such that they may be able to draw upon the words they have read to express their feelings and ideas.

Next to writing, reading is my favorite passion. In eighth grade, I kept a count of how many books I read during the school year, and I wound up reading exactly 100. I am especially enamored with the way words come to life in fiction. There is just something about their flow and rhythm, or even lack thereof, that illustrate words the way nothing else can. When I read, I lose virtually every sense of my actual surroundings, and instead, I find myself wherever the book is occurring, a bystander to the events of the book. I see what happens with perfect clarity, almost as if I am watching a movie. I can smell the salt off the sea, I can taste the freshly picked cherries, and I can hear every word each character says enunciated perfectly. I lose whatever senses I have of the real world and find them all transferred into what I like to think of as “Book World.”

A few years ago I met Toni De Palma and Mary Higgins Clark, two extremely gifted writers, through a program instituted by my school for avid readers. And I realized that someday I could be like them, two women whom I idolize, who change the world every day with their writing. When I arrived home, I sat down to write for a substantial amount of time. Granted, I barely acknowledged how much time had passed because I was so immersed in my writing, but I think I could have written all through the night if I had the opportunity.

Over the past few years, I realized I have a very rare talent that deals with my logophilia: I can say words backwards. Yes, that is correct. I can say virtually any word backward in a split second. I am fully aware that this quirk is completely useless in the real world besides in talent shows, but it is a really fun way to impress my friends.

Words have always been a passion of mine, and I love the way the alphabet can be manipulated into limitless combinations to make words of different lengths, of different meanings, and in different languages. And the power those words have over others is unfathomable. One word can change how a person feels, or what a person thinks, or how a person acts. Words, like the tide, ebb and flow and change patterns constantly. But also like the tide, they are constant and endless. Words can push people away or suck them in, enrapturing them, capturing them in their strong grasp. There are undertows used to submerge people in writing, to evoke a reaction from people. A whole new world can be discovered through words, the same way there is a whole other world underwater. A person just needs to have the proper tools and mindset to explore it.

People use words constantly, whether they are speaking or writing or reading. Words are a basic form of communication and are a vital part of our culture and society. For some people, numbers and algorithms and formulas make perfect sense. For others, it is music or painting. But for me, it is and always will be words.

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