Welcome to Gaia! ::

If you’ve seen my hometown in the news recently, it probably wasn’t for anything good. I hail from Destiny City, USA, a city which, if popular news outlets are to be believed, is ruled by warring gangs of terrorists, besieged by mysterious biological warfare trials, and is, in general, not a very nice place to live. A place where any given night a pedestrian might go for a stroll downtown and turn up dead in an alley three days later.

Ladies and gentlemen, rumors of Destiny City’s demise is greatly exaggerated. We are still a regional center for arts, sciences, and medicine. Last year a koala, a chimpanzee, two gorillas, and a giraffe were born at our zoo, and the humane society opened a new, expanded facility that will allow it to reduce its euthanasia rate. The mayor’s office instituted programs to improve public transportation and reduce ozone emissions by fifty percent, and our public school system was ranked in the top twenty in the country. All these accomplishments are overlooked, however: when one mentions Destiny City, the first thing that comes to mind is its soaring crime rate.

I have lived in Destiny City my whole life and will attest as soon as anyone that it is something of a weirdness magnet – I spent all last summer in a coma, which I hope will account for my missing AP scores. But the rumors that the coma wave was a biological attack are just that: rumors. In truth, no one here knows what caused it, whether it was chemical warfare, or some kind of plant toxin, or radio waves, or something as improbable as a solar flare.

I remain curious, though, and while I exercise a healthy dose of caution (as many in my hometown do), at the same time I seek to keep myself informed about goings-on in my city. Despite my middle-American upbringing, I seek to be, first and foremost, a citizen of the world. Through my participation in Model United Nations, I have expanded my mental horizons and educated myself about international issues. I have learned geography and politics, and keep myself up to date on global events. A well-informed mind is one that is prepared for the twenty-first century.

Through my participation in the MUN, I have also polished my leadership and organizational abilities. In the club, I represent Finland, head panels focused on nuclear proliferation and animal rights, and am also in charge of new member recruitment. Not to brag, but I am superiorly skilled in the arts of Google-Fu and Powerpoint construction. Our club took second place overall at regional conference last year, and I received third place among all Finland representatives from the tri-state area. I feel that in order to be a citizen of the world, one must first understand their context within the whole of the human race.

However, it isn’t enough to simply understand the world that we live in: one must temper their understanding with empathy. I personally have always had a soft spot for animals, and since freshman year have been volunteering twice a week at the animal shelter. The work is challenging, varied, and never boring. I have done time as a receptionist, intake assistant, dog walker, kitten socializer, kibble distributor, and occasionally as an unofficial veterinary aide.

This is in fact where my interests lie: I have set my sights on Dartmouth because of its reputation in both the liberal arts in sciences, a school where I will be able to continue my study of global politics while also completing pre-veterinary requirements. I hope to someday become a veterinarian, or perhaps a zookeeper, and to work in conservation, combining my interest in animals with my interest in global politics.

I am ready to belong to a place that is so much more than Destiny City – while I have extolled its virtues here, the fact is that the place carries a stigma. I long to help my hometown, but in order to do so I need to leave it first, and Dartmouth seems to be the perfect place to go.