My Summers free essay sample

With a tremendous bang, the top of the port diesel engine exploded and smashed a huge hole in the deck, leaving a smoking crater and scattering splatters of flaming diesel fuel everywhere. As I tried desperately to think what to do, I suddenly felt a tremendous crack on my forehead as it smacked into something hard: the bunk above mine. I jolted awake and realized that I had been dreaming in the narrow bunk that was my home on the majestic pungy schooner Lady Maryland. As I rubbed my forehead to ease the pain, I glanced at my watch, which dutifully informed me that it was 1:57:29 AM on July 3, 2008. Two short hours of wakeful sleep were all I was going to get today, I realized as I rolled out of my bunk, stretching and yawning. I secured my life vest as I climbed up a creaky wooden ladder into the chilly night air and onto the slowly rocking deck to report for duty. We will write a custom essay sample on My Summers or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page Until dawn, I, in the company of the chief mate, was to pilot the ship through a night lit only by skyglow a few miles from the New Jersey shore, with merely a compass to guide me. As I piloted the boat calmly through the five-foot swells, I reflected on how I came to be in that position. I remembered taking my SATs in seventh grade to make it into a summer camp that was run, in conjunction with Johns Hopkins University, by an organization called the Center for Talented Youth (CTY). I remembered thinking that I was crazy to want to spend three weeks away from home on an old sailboat and a college campus studying whales (of all things), when I wanted to become an engineer. I spent a total of twenty days studying whales: nine days on the Lady Maryland and eleven days at the College of Notre Dame. It was the best experience I have ever had. Looking back, I now realize how narrow-minded I was before that experience. I can only imagine the experiences I would have had if I was more open regarding new opportunities. From this experience, I learned that it is very important to always keep an open mind when you are given the opportunity to try something new. Here I now stand as a prospective engineering student with a newfound interest in marine biology; a person that has had the honor of piloting the world’s last pungy schooner through the most treacherous waters on the East Coast: Hell’s Gate; a person whose interests now range from music to politics, from building Legos to cooking, and it’s all because of the experiences I had on the Lady Maryland and at CTY. Now I always take advantage of any new opportunity I am presented with because I’ve learned that when you try something new, you discover something interesting about yourself, and you open yourself to all the experiences the world has to offer.