"Go!"

It was my cue to dive in. Yet, I stood motionless on the edge of the pool. The blue abyss below stood taunting me as I anxiously glanced down.

"I cannot do this." I thought. However, I could. And I did do it. I fell face first into the pool and had to be rescued by Dad in front of my friends. Did I
regret it? No.

I remember the feeling I got from standing above that pool. I was bombarded with adrenaline, anticipation, and fear. I loved that feeling. It was a rush.
It gave me the feeling that I was going to do something big-something grand.
And it was time to do it. It was there on the edge of that pool, at that precise moment, that I held all the power in the world. The emotion that ran through me gave me supremacy. The moment was mine.

"What do you want to be?" My Academic Decathlon Coach asked me a week ago.

An engineer. A doctor. A lawyer. A history teacher. A pilot. A writer. At
some point in my life I have wanted to be at least one of these professions. Lately, I have discovered that I am not yet ready to take on the decision of
knowing what I want to become. Thus, I could not and did not answer that question, and I still cannot answer it now.

This brings me back to the day I stood on the edge of that pool. I figured out(not too long ago), that the power rush I received from that instant came partly from the risk factor of it. It was the knowledge that I do not know what was waiting for me. It is the knowledge that what I am about to do is something
completely new and foreign for me. It is also the knowledge that the choice I am making is my own. This excites and frightens me at the same time. It is this
same sensation that overcomes me whenever I think about college. Risk alone is not the only characteristic of college that makes college seem so attractive to me. Curiosity also captures me in its net. It is the desire to discover what is on the other side that makes me want it so badly. Just like I wanted to dive
into that pool because... I wanted to feel... I wanted know... I wanted to experience..the sensation of diving in and hitting that blue abyss.

Some people go to college for the simple fact that it might pay off someday. Yes, that is an important and attractive prospect. However, I feel that college is so much more than just that. To me, it is an opportunity to gain more knowledge about myself. It is a chance for me to figure out who I am, what I
want to be, and how I want my future to be like. Unlike high school, it is going to give me the freedom to choose what I want to learn and how I want to
learn it. It is the key to unveiling where my true passions reside.

College is my voyage to self discovery. It is an opportunity for me to finally
figure out who I am and who I want to become. To limit myself to just one major or just one field of study is depriving me of the journey to find myself, the
ability to soak in more knowledge, and ultimately the chance to experience life
in all its crooks and nooks. I know it is going to be a bumpy ride, but the path where I will confront my weaknesses, fears, setbacks and failures is
what's going to help me grow, change, and learn.

So, what do I want to be? I have no clue, and that is exactly why I am going to college-to find who I want to be. I want my moment upon the edge of that pool
again. I am willing to go back to the edge of that pool where I will
apprehensively wait to dive on in. All I need now is my cue to...

"Go!"