The Worst College Essay (That I Ever Wrote)

             Hey I brought home my class’s fish. Really, let me take a look. Be careful; they can be really sensitive. Of course I will. Aren’t they pretty? Yeah, they are.

             That was years ago. And for those years, I raised fish. Generations of them. At one point, my biology teacher in middle school made a brilliant suggestion: “Why not write a research paper on the tropical fish you seem so interested in? There are science fairs for middle school students, too, you know. You might do well in one.” And that became my first research paper, titled Finding the Optimal Tropical Freshwater Fish for Koreans Based on Biological and Behavioral Properties (2006). The prize was great. Immediately, Mrs. Seok, my biology teacher, became the answer to all the “influential person” questions asked to me. It’s true. She changed the course of my life.

             Frankly, at first when my little sister asked me to manage the fish, I never intended to “study” them in any way. Rather, I simply loved looking at them, which I found extremely beautiful and unique. I spent hours per day with them, looking, checking, cleaning, feeding. A week into it, however, I realized managing an aquarium was no sport. It was business.

             I quickly found out that some fish were harder to raise than others. Being famous did not necessarily mean it was easy to raise them. There were also fish that could not be put into the same fish tank, or else they would fight or one would prey upon the other. I also learned that the freshwater tropical fish people normally know of or keep is only a miniscule portion of the whole population. I found all these facts very interesting. I cut my pocket money spending on all other things, and focused on buying new fish tanks (cheap ones, normally), fish (not necessarily cheap), and other equipments.

             I eventually had eight fish tanks, all inhabited by many different fish of various species. The living room of my house became a small lab. Because I had to plan by myself and spend my own money on all fish-related stuff, and because my pocket money was limited, I became a semi-expert at efficient spending on fish. Also, my three years of “looking-at-fish” experience had allowed me to accumulate the sort of knowledge that only experience could teach you. This led to writing the paper.

             Mrs. Seok found it very interesting for a middle school first grader to be “scientifically,” as she put it, interested in fish, normally considered as mere pets or decorations. I once showed my English teacher a short story I wrote on fish, original titled The Pet Disruption, recently recreated as A Tropical Disruption. My English teacher showed the story to Mrs. Seok, and Mrs. Seok suggested me to write the research paper. It was the beginning of my “research life.”