Application Essay Example
Believe it or not, Hercules and I have something in common.
Alas, it is not that I am half divine, ridiculously strong, or
ridiculously good looking. Instead, both Hercules and I have
scooped poop. And, as you can imagine, it is a dirty, dirty job, to
put it mildly. Even if shoveling all that old manure didn’t bring
out my muscles, it did bring out something else: determination and
dedication.
My first paid job (that didn’t consist of picking up sticks in
the yard for my dad) was for Mr. Willia, and old gentleman who
had recently hurt his back and could no longer take care of his
farm. In particular, he needed someone to clean his horse barn.
Would I like the job? Sure – said my mom. Thanks, mom. But, I
agreed to do it and soon found myself under the sweltering Iowan
sun, biking down old crunchy, country roads dressed in boots, and
jeans.
Now, I knew ahead of time that the job was going to be
disgusting, gross, and, well, movin’ crap. And when I arrived, I
stood there in the doorway and saw the expected flies, caught the
expected whiff, and thought, “Well, I guess it won’t be that bad.”
But then I dug in, and flipped over an entirely new world of
assaulting sensations.
There is no just way to describe the smell. So, let’s just say
that breathing through my mouth was worse than breathing
through my nose, because with my nose all I could do was smell
the smell. But with my mouth, I could taste the smell. And the
new visuals that digging beneath the encrusted layer provided were
also a treat. At my feet was a wriggling, moving, multiplying mass
of maggots that made Fear Factor look downright sexy.
I should also drop in a hint as to the consistency of my
medium. Manure does not slide. It sticks, it thumps, it whumps.
Heavily – very heavily. So when loading the manure into my little
wheelbarrow, any manure that landed on the sides of my
wheelbarrow (as opposed to the direct center) was guaranteed to
flip and fling my last few minutes of work. But, with grim
determination, day after day, I worked on.
As hard as the work was, I can say, with full confidence and
honesty, that I cleaned, scooped, and scraped out, every inkling of
horse from that barn. It would have been very easy to come up
with an excuse to not do the work. The Willia’s were old people
after all, and I didn’t really know them very well. But, that would
not have been honest, and just because someone gives me a
crummy job, does not mean that it shouldn’t be done well. In fact,
I look at the crappy jobs (every pun intended) as an opportunity to
stand out from the other people who run from, and/or do the job
poorly just to get it over with. If you want something done,
anything done, and done right, I’m the guy for you.