Aguayo 1

Kristopher Aguayo
Ms. Emily Ehrlich
English 131
23 January 2015
College Essay (Revised)

Aldous Huxley, my favorite author, once stated that We are

simultaneously the subjects of Nature and the citizens of a strictly human
republic. When I read these words my outlook on life broaden by at least a
mile. I realized then that we are simultaneously the subjects of thousands of
things under the disciplines of nature and society. I came upon the notion
that our uniqueness is a result of our subjectivity to different things. Consider
the fact that as whole humanity is subject to a few shared things, such as
nature, each other, and us. Then go on a smaller scale, consider a country.
People in any country are subject to the laws of nature, each other,
themselves, their government, economy, and culture. Now zoom into the
scale of the individual, consider yourself perhaps. Eventually through
magnification you will realize that you are not subject to the same things as
the person next to you. They may not be subject to the same people, culture,
or ideas. Being subject to different things means getting information
pertinent to those things and having unique outlook; after all we are in part
shaped by what we are exposed to. Because we each have a unique
outlook, we each have unique information to share one way or another. This
is an idea I came upon when I realized the value in diversity.

Aguayo 2
I remember the conversations I had in AP United States History with a
group of classmates. We were discussing if gender inequality was still an
issue in America. For me the topic hits home. I was raised in the United
States but in a Mexican household. My parents raised my two siblings and I
with a set of traditional principals, sadly sexism was prominent in them. For
example my mom wasnt allowed to go to school; instead she stayed at
home and helped raise her brothers. Another example is that my sister isnt
experiencing the same privileges I had growing up, for the simple fact that
she is a girl. Because of my background I gained perspectives on gender
inequality. I gained a perspective that led me to notice things in society,
what I noticed led to believe that gender inequality was still an issue in
America however for some of my classmates it wasnt.
They argued that their where laws set in place to inhibit sexism for
example the Equal Pay Act, a law we had learned about in class. As soon as
they brought it up, a girl sitting next to me sprang into action and brought up
the economic gender gap. She explained that for every dollar a man makes
women makes 23 cents less , to prove this she brought up her parents and
how her mom gets paid less for the same job her dad does. Another
classmate brought up how women are sexualized in media; especially
women of color. Slowly but surely, they began to realize there was a clear
issue present.
Before this conversation, I didnt realize the complications of things.
We are each subject to different things based on the background we

Aguayo 3
inherited when we were born. Sometimes we dont choose what we know, we
only know because of where we are positioned in the socio-economic scale. A
person high on the socio-economic scale will know things relevant to their
activity space, same goes to someone on the low end of the spectrum.
Clearly the activity spaces will be different.
I consider myself fairly diverse; Im Hispanic, Im a first generation
American, my parents came from poor families then moved to America and
now own two businesss. Im a writer, a photographer, an athlete, a
musician, environmentalist, feminist, and an active community. I would
contribute to western by bringing my unique outlook. To create a diverse
campus, outlooks on life have to be shared so that ideas are transmitted
between the students; I consider that to be the purpose of a diverse campus.
At western I would participate in clubs and the various activities the school
has to offer in order to learn about different outlooks and share my own.
Growing up diversity enriched my education; I hope it will do so at Western
as well.