Can't think of a good title for this
In this post I'm going to let you know what I've been up to lately and also share my very personal essay with you all. Hope you enjoy it.
I haven't really been posting since I got to Russia. I've been having a lot of family stuff going on. My grand-aunt died. She's had cancer for like the past 5 years or something and she just happened to die like two weeks or so after I got to Russia. I never knew her that well, but it was made clear to me that if I didn't go to the funeral, that would be considered betrayal by my family. I went. The fact that my grand-aunt was dead didn't bother me that much, but hearing my grandma reminisce and cry about my dead grand-aunt made me extremely sad. I've always been very close to my grandma, and seeing like that almost made me cry.
Most of my time is currently spent having relatives come over and stay over and tell them about Olga and I. That's been nice at first, but then it got fairly annoying. It seems like it's now finally dying down and I'm slowly becoming old news and finally getting a chance to get something done.
I've been refreshing my math and physics skills a little bit. That's been nice. I've been juggling quite a bit (though not as much as I expected to). My dad goes and tapes some of the things I work on every once in a while. I think he's been putting some of that out on youtube, but I also think he hasn't released a bunch of cool stuff. I'm sure either me or him will put it all out at some point. Sue (Bakalor) suggested I work on my writing skills, so I wrote a 300 word essay the other day in response to the following question I found among college essay topics:
"How would you describe yourself as a human being? What quality do you like best in yourself and what do you like least? What quality would you most like to see flourish and which would you like to see wither?"
If any of you wonder how I answered those, here's my essay:
"There are many qualities to each human being and I am no exception. However, there is one quality to my character that is very important, when attempting to understand who I am. It gets me ahead and sets me back, it hurts and heals, I would like to see it flourish some times and wither at others.
The quality I am talking about is curiosity. Be it science or religion, economics or human relations, AIDS in Africa or genetically engineered crops in developed countries, I’m curious about everything. There are two sides to my curiosity.
On one hand, my curiosity helps me. It makes me acquire knowledge and keeps my world view evolving. My curiosity took me all over the world to Japan, France, Great Britain, Argentina, Israel, Germany and others. It makes me ask “But what if..?” after saying “I understand”. One of the biggest things curiosity has done for me was prompt me to learn about the immigration law of the US, helping my sister and me to leave our family in Russia and get situated here in the United States.
There is a downside to my curiosity though. It motivates me to get into things that are none of my business, many times creating awkward situations and making my life and others more difficult, than they have to be. I am often curious about things that people are hesitant to talk about. One of the more awkward moments caused by my curiosity occurred when I asked my close friend who has been happily married for 37 years if he had ever even considered getting a divorce, in front of his in-laws.
When used correctly, I think curiosity is a great quality. It is what has led humans to where we are at now. I would like to see my curiosity flourish without going overboard and getting into other people’s personal business."
Hope you enjoyed it. Please critique my writing, as it would help me improve it.
Thanks
Comments
Your essay is well written. I'd say you have better english writing skills than about 95 percent of the AMERICANS that were in my college english class.
I've seen some of the videos your dad put up on youtube. Great stuff! I can't wait to see more!
Posted by: Lars | November 26, 2006 09:22 AM
Really nice essay of your opinion about questions like this, kinda topic is very interesting...sometimes i didn't understood some of your words, because your english is so much better than mine :-) but hope you understand me. People would have different opinions about this topic you have written, but yours is one of the, i would say a normal way of seeing, you as human being.
Can't wait to read more of your posts.
Posted by: Peter | November 26, 2006 10:11 AM
Me again, what else... i think curiosity as i know too is a special quality which a lot of people helps, i know kind of situations. You are not on a wrong way in my opinion.
Posted by: Peter | November 26, 2006 10:20 AM
not bad at all very good to be more precise
Posted by: Chris Merra | November 26, 2006 02:24 PM
Hey Vova!
I love that divorce-story! I reminds me of another curiosity story about you, which makes more sense for me now.
I think it was at the Dresden 2003 convention where I was talking to you a little bit, at one point showing you the 4 ball Burke's Barrage, which you picked up very quickly and within a minute or so could do better than me. Then we talked about some other tricks and you mentioned that if I could do trick so-and-so, then I should also be able to do the same trick with a pirouette thrown in (I believe it was (6x,4) or some variation of it). I said I couldn't do pirouettes and you asked, as if it was the most natural thing: "Why not?".
I was very amused that you'd ask such a question and answered because I haven't practiced them. Somehow the answer didn't really seem to satisfy you :-)
Posted by: schani | November 26, 2006 03:51 PM
Hey there!
Sad to hear about your grandaunt, "good" for you you didn't know her that well. It was the exact same thing with me when we moved; My grandfather died from cancer like a month after we arrived there.
About your essay; It's really well written, and your english is probably mucu better than, like Lars said, 95% of American people, if not more.
I think it was well done to find that your "skill" was curiosity. I wouldn't think of that about myself.
A really really good essay(however it could have been a little longer, but who cares about that when it's so good writing), and I'll give it a... what grades do you use in Russia? Anyway, the best grade, keep it up.
Posted by: Sondre | November 27, 2006 06:54 AM
Thanks for posting, Vova! It's nice to hear about your life. I thought your essay was nice because it was clear and concise. Also, it raises and intersting quality of yours that I'd never really thought about. You should write more, as your thoughts are very interesting to us.
Posted by: JuliaJuliaJulia | November 27, 2006 03:05 PM
Hey Vova,
Nice essay! You are a great writer.
I have two suggestions about your essay, which you can take or leave:
(1) I would remove the first sentence. Let the second sentence say who YOU are, and declare the point of the essay.
(2) Maybe take a look at the last sentence in the third paragraph. What helped you and Olga to get leave Russia and get situated in the US? Curiosity? Learning? The law? The antecedent to the "helping" phrase was not clear (to me).
I liked the use of humor. You did a good job of illustrating both sides. And I think you answered the original question, though I'm also curious about what grades you use in Russia. :)
My sister is friends with Kristi P. in Seattle. Thanks for the videos on youtube and the Recovery video. Hope to see you juggle "live" someday.
Posted by: Ellen | November 28, 2006 08:10 PM
Hey Ellen I'm pretty sure in Russia they use a grading system of 1 to 5, although I'm not sure, but thats how it was in Bulgaria and I think they adopted that method from Russia.
Posted by: Elizar | November 28, 2006 09:20 PM
Yes, we use a grading system of 1 to 5. But it seems to me in Bulgaria the highest grade is 1, while in Russia - 5.
Posted by: Vasili Galchenko | November 29, 2006 03:05 AM
I liked your essay. Here is a detailed grammatical critique to help fine-tune your writing skills:
There is one quality to my character -- Change to: There is one quality of my character. You would only use the preposition "to" here if the verb required it, such as: This added a quality to my character.
It gets me ahead and sets me back, it hurts and heals, -- Change the commas to semicolons. Independent clauses that are closely related in meaning are separated by semicolons, not commas.
Germany and others. -- Change to: Germany and other places.
more difficult, than they have to be. -- Remove the comma.
My curiosity took me all over -- Change to: My curiosity has taken me all over. The simple past tense (took) is generally used to describe a single event in the past. The present perfect tense (has taken) is used to describe multiple actions at different times, as is the case in your example. For other uses of the present perfect, see http://www.englishpage.com/verbpage/presentperfect.html You can also google "my curiosity took me" and "my curiosity has taken me" to see some examples on the web.
many times creating -- Change to: often creating. This is more of a style issue than a grammatical error.
Posted by: Fr. Terry Donahue, CC | November 30, 2006 01:02 PM
I hate when you never tell me that you've posted a blog, even though I probably know everything about the entry anyway, I still like reading them!
Posted by: Lindsay | November 30, 2006 03:11 PM
Thanks Vova - really enjoyed your essay. It also helped me crystallise thoughts about my own curiousity, which, like you, has led to occasional problems for myself and those around me since I was very young. After reading your essay, it occured to me that perhaps a side effect of acute curiousity is a lack of interest in the mundane, which has, to my cost, often lead me to overlook the obvious solution in search of the profound.
Posted by: Ben Beever | December 15, 2006 06:12 PM