Monday, September 14, 2009

Personal Statement: Take 2

When I was schooling, knowledge was placed into 2 vast categories. The sciences; of which there were 3, physics, chemistry and biology, and the Arts; namely geography, history and literature. That seemed to be all the world knew about. From our peers we knew there were those who were science oriented (me included), where math and numbers were fun, and then there were those Arts oriented, where essays and remembering huge chunks of dates were their forte. It just seemed so perfect, this classification system.

It was only till I left my formal education till I realised one day to my consternation that I did not know anything about this world at all. On that fateful day my friend had told me he was studying about leather. I did not know that there was such a subject called leather. But indeed there was; different grades of leather comes from different parts of the hide from which it is made. And then my eyes opened to the rest of the things around me. I read up on philosophy, the very building block on which scientific principles stand. In fact, most early scientists were mainly philosophers first. Rene Descartes, my favourite philosopher who came up with the quote "I think therefore I am" also came up with the idea of cartesian geometry.

Indeed the world is much more interesting than I previously thought. There is no way to condense all the knowledge in the world into 2 broad categories of arts and science, it just does not work. Even as I train myself up in scientific endeavours , the practicalities of skills involved in understanding and learning chemistry is transfered into my personal endeavours. In my spare time, I enjoy dabbling in graphic design and even bought hardware and software to practice on. My skills in chemistry will not be wasted as I intend to transfer my knowledge to the workplace where I discovered a field in the chemistry of fragrances. The formulation and creation of olfactic organic compounds is indeed a very exciting prospect for me as it combines both the arts and sciences which I love. Hopefully I will be able to make a career out of this fascinating yet challenging industry.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
- Robert Frost
The Road Not Taken

4 comments:

  1. Hi there my fellow chem major :)

    Firstly, I really enjoy the build up in this post ( 1st paragraph on your past, then 2nd paragraph on how you realize that there is alot more out there then just what you have learnt).However, I feel that if you can explain further on how you think you can transfer your knowledge to work place and especially on chemistry on frangrance, it will be even better as I feel that the main point here is not really elaborated and rather just briefly mentioned.Also, you may want to explain why you choose the field in the chemistry of fragrance, cause maybe there's a certain reason for it? That's just some of my opinion, but I think overall I enjoyed reading your personal statment :)

    -yongshen-

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  2. Hi Aaron,

    Admittedly, I used to share the same system of classification as you! I’m glad that, for both of us, the initial feeling of consternation upon discovering the complexities of the world eventually became that of amazement – the sheer immensity of this world that we live in is already a clear indication of its capacity for beauty. It is not surprising that so much can be learnt about the subject of leather alone.

    Also, you have a very specialised (and impressive) pastime! Perhaps you could’ve explained how you’d applied the practical skills acquired from your Chemistry modules to graphic design, because this sentence doesn’t seem to fit well with the rest of the paragraph.

    Otherwise, I really liked the way you challenged the overly simple way of classifying knowledge in the first two paragraphs!

    Bing Fu

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  3. Hey,

    That verse doesn't seem that relevant to your revised statement. Perhaps it might be better with it taken out along with the other bits related to it.

    Smooth writing overall, except I agree with Bingfu about the transition from "world is interesting" into your interests. But that's not too obvious or jarring.

    Alvin

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  4. Hello Aaron,

    There is a very neat flow to your personal statement! Except towards the last paragraph.

    I cannot seem to find the gist of your personal statement. Is the focus on the different worlds of knowledge, or the lack thereof in our education system or your love for chemistry? Or perhaps you may want to develop a smoother transition from the worlds of knowledge to your interest in Chemistry.

    I definitely liked the part on your mentioning of the rigid classification of knowledge in our education system and how the 'outside world' is not depicted as such.

    (: Joanne

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