Hi, I've chosen Topic 1 for my common app essay which is:
Evaluate a significant experience, achievement, risk you have taken, or ethical dilemma you have faced and its impact on you.
I've written a really quick rough draft about my missionary experience in China.
PLZ PLZ PLZ evaluate if this is a good topic and feel free to criticize me!!!!
“Ka-Talk!” my phone alerted me with a new message. Thinking that the message is probably from one of my friends, I unlocked my phone and figured out that the message was from one of the group-chats. As I slowly read through the chat that the group had left for me to read, I noticed that I could not understand a thing the group was talking about. I called my friend who was also involved in the chat and asked him, “What is going on in this group chat? Who are these people?” He answered, “It’s the group I was talking to you about in church. The Wen Zhou group!” As soon as I heard the phrase “Wen Zhou group”, everything made sense to me as if a Rubik’s cube got sorted out in my brain. The group was a missionary group coming from Korea and the strange abbreviations they were using in the chat was to avoid the Chinese government from understanding about what we were talking about.
Under Chinese government pressure, our two-week journey began. I was repeatedly reminded not to speak Korean outside the church in Wen Zhou in case any local Chinese gets suspicious and reports us to the government. In such case, both my family and I could get exiled from China. With that in mind, our group turned our phone off to prevent any location chase by the government. Heading off to such a risky journey was not an easy decision to make. However, with my desire to provide the Chinese freedom of religion, I decided to go against the government for the first time.
As soon as our group arrived in Wen Zhou, we were led to a shabby local church. There we unpacked our sound equipment and immediately went through a rehearsal. My role in the group was to translate Chinese and Korean to both groups and also lead the band as a vocalist in front of more than 300 Chinese. With thorough preparations and practices, within a few hours, our band was ready to perform and propagate the Christianity.
Second day of our arrival, our team was all set and was ready to go. In the morning, more than 300 Chinese willing to learn about Christianity gushed into the church and waited for us to start the program. Our group was not allowed to share our contact information with any of the local Chinese since we did not want to leave any trace behind us. In order to do so, we had to live and eat at a separate place from all the other Chinese.
At first I had no sense of how the two, very, different groups can get close to each other. However, as days passed by, I surely felt that the two different culture group were becoming one under one factor, Christianity.
My heartbeat rose like it never did when I stood in front of the crowd to sing. The nervous feeling at the beginning came to me as a sense of fear but as I got more confident about myself it turned out to be an excitement. With this crazy feeling I have never experienced before, I forgot all about the government pressure we were under. Although separated by the stage, when they cried, we cried, when they laughed, we laughed along with them, when my band sang, they sang with us.
A lot happened just within two weeks. For the first time in my life I got fans that sent me hearts made out of paper and many other presents. I also learned how my abilities to translate and sing could help and heal people. But most importantly, I learned how good it felt to do a right thing. This “illegal” and audacious journey has inspired me not to fear any authorities if I know what I am doing and know that it is right.
THANK YOU FOR READING!!!!!!!!!!!!
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