Mutant

The problem that college applicants face, the very same problem that I am facing now, is how to convey to an institution of higher education how one is different from every other person that has ever applied. This is a daunting task, not to be confronted by the faint of heart. While contemplating what it is that makes me different, what it is that should make admissions departments everywhere scream “Hallelujah! We’ve found the one!”, I decided that it had something to do with my earlobes.

My earlobes, unlike the earlobes of most people in the world, are attached to my head rather than dangling flaps of skin. According to my 10th grade biology class, this is a genetic mutation. Great. I am officially a mutant. Luckily for me, it is not a physically debilitating mutation (I happen to think it is quite becoming, actually), but it is, nevertheless, a mutation. There are several other things about my physical description that could be classified as mutations, such as my lack of a widow’s peak or cleft chin, or the way I cross my thumbs left-over-right, which make me a mutant several times over. Wonderful. You have on your hands an official, state-of-the-art, genetically-mutated, college applicant. Congratulations; you should feel so proud.

I am sure the thought that “Wow, maybe there is more wrong with this girl than her earlobes!” has crossed your mind, but let me continue to explain myself. I realize that the status of my earlobe attachment or possession of a widow’s peak is not a basis for acceptance to any university. The point I am trying to make is simply this: I am different. I am different from every single carbon-based life-form out there, and even though I may have done the same things that they did, I did them my own way--and I will continue to do them that way until I cease breathing. I am proud of the things that I have accomplished, and just because I am a girl who has never found a cure for anything or tried to solve world hunger (or even been further east than Utah), it doesn’t mean that the things I have done haven’t made an impact or that I won’t add diversity to any program that will take me. After all, I am a mutant. And I think that that should count for something.