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Caroline Harrington
Self-Examination Paper

Who are you?

I would describe myself as kind, hardworking, driven, and empathetic. Throughout my

life, I have always been kind. Ever since I was little, I have been taught to be kind to others and

I have always taken this to heart. I have found that being kind is not only the right thing to do

but it helps make life easier because you are not wasting your energy by purposely trying to be

mean. I am hard working because I apply myself into my work. Whether it is schoolwork or life

in general, I do not just do it quickly and carelessly, I try take my time and make sure I

understand what I am doing. I am driven because I have a plan of what I want to do in my life

and that plan is what makes me try so hard. Once I see myself losing focus of my goals and

aspirations, I recenter my focus. Even if the goal is simple, such as getting a good grade, I want

to achieve it, so I put the effort in and try to make it come true. I am empathetic because I care

about others, especially my friends and family. I always make sure I am there for my friends and

family and give them the necessary advice. Whether it is something simply such as just being

there for them by giving them a hug or bringing them to get their favorite food, I make sure to

put the effort in and help them get better with whatever they are dealing with.

I stress about a lot more things then I would like to admit. Some stressors I have is

pleasing people. This stressor is prevalent in both my personal and professional life. I have

always been a people pleaser and over time I have realized how exhausting and unsatisfying it is.

This causes me to go out of the way to make sure my friends or anyone I know gets what they

want. This people pleasing causes me to stress about if the people I am helping like me or not.

Another stressor of mine is how I overthink everything I do. By overthinking, I can make a

simple situation a million times more stressful then it has to be. There are times where I will go
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to bed and play a situation or conversation I had from during the day and think about what I said

and if what I said or did was weird. In my professional life, I will sit and look at a test

overthinking my answer to a question. Not only does this have me stress about the right answer

but then I start to worry about how I am losing time to take the test and that I will not be able to

finish. My major stressor is just my professional life in general and making sure that I get good

grades and prove to my parents that I can do the work well. Some ways to tell that I am stressed

is I will get very bloated and get a lot more acne. To cope with this stress, I will make sure I

have a balanced diet to deal with the bloating and make sure to get sleep because it helps me

calm down.

Life experiences and influences

One significant experience in my life is going to China for a school trip. I went because I

have taken Chinese at my school for six years and my parents thought it was a good idea to

experience the culture. Once I got there, it was nothing like how I expected. I went into the trip

thinking it would be a vacation but right when I got off the plane, I felt like I was being

constantly being watched. Throughout the trip, I had this constant feeling of being watched,

making me calculate every move I make and everything I say. When I was there, all I could

think about was America and how privileged I am to live there. Once I got home, I had never

been more relieved, not because I wasn’t grateful for the once in a lifetime trip I had the

opportunity to take but because it was a weight off my shoulders. I could say and do anything I

wanted to. On my trip, I realized the biases that I have formed throughout my whole life that all

countries in the world are like America and have freedom and the aspects that contribute to the
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“American Dream”. Ever since that trip, I have never spent a day not being grateful for the place

I live in and the freedom I have being an American citizen.

Another significant experience in my life is when I had to put my dog down. I have had

my dog since I was in kindergarten and during February of my senior year, he started to act a

little different. We found out he had brain cancer and a tumor that was pressing against his eye,

preventing him from seeing and causing him to periodically seize. Knowing that we would

rather have him live a happy life then a long tiring life, we decided that putting him down was

the right thing to do. By doing this, I formed a whole new perspective on life and the living

things in my life. I never realized how valuable life is, whether it is a human or an animal, and

how important it is to be aware of everything in my life. This experience led me to constantly

reflect on my life. I have been putting more effort in talking to family and friends and living in

the moment. Due to this experience, I am more focused on living in the moment and doing what

I want because life is too short to only do what you think people want to do.

My family is my everything. Throughout my life, we have always made sure to have

time for each other. We love to hang out with each other and always end up each other laugh. In

my family, I have a mother, father, and younger sister. I have always been told that I am just like

my mother and my younger sister is just like my father. My mother’s side of the family (the

Dziekan’s) came from Poland and France, whereas my father’s side (the Harrington’s) is from

Ireland. The Dziekan’s were a typical middle-class family with my grandpa being an engineer

and my grandma staying at home. The Harrington background was completely different, where

my father grew up in a divorced house with no money, leading my father to be completely on his

own at age 18. My mother had the opportunity to go to college and have it be paid for but my

father had to pay for college all on his own, leading him to dropout and join the union. The
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bringing up of my parents have helped me grow as a person because I have the loving, caring

side from my mother and the hardworking, determination from my father.

My salient aspect of my cultural identity is my national origin. Being born and raised in

America is something that many people in the world dream of having. Having the freedom to do

and say what I want is something that I am beyond grateful for. I never realized how important

my national origin was to me until I started taking Global Politics my junior year of high school.

Reading about global situations and how people in other countries are treated, I recognized the

freedom I am blessed with and how lucky I am to be living in a stable country where I can

vocalize my opinions.

Your Bucknell Journey

I first heard about Bucknell through my mother’s coworker. At quick glance, it had

everything I wanted, it was liberal arts, smaller sized, and had a great science program. Right

when I walked on campus to tour it, there was no doubt it was beautiful. As the tour progressed,

I fell more and more in love. At the time, I was obsessed with another school but looking back at

it, during the time I know I liked Bucknell the most. As college applications began, I applied

Early Decision to Villanova University but got denied. After realizing that everything happens

for a reason, I refocused myself and after looking at all my other options I thought Bucknell

would be the best choice for me. Going out on a limb, I decided to apply Early Decision 2 and

got in. After going through the college application process and finally being on campus, I know

that Bucknell is the best choice for me and I honestly cannot see myself at any other school.

At Bucknell, I want to get the most out of it, educationally and socially. I want to accel

in school, not just by trying to get good grades but having a good understanding of what I am
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learning about. I also want to try to get involved with campus activities because in high school I

just rolled through the motion of go to class, do homework and sports, and repeat. At Bucknell, I

want to do more than just class and homework, I want to be in clubs and internships that help me

develop and become a more well-rounded person. Socially, I want to be more friendly and

talkative to everyone to meet. I love how college does not have a lot of “clickiness” that is seen

in high school. I only want to be friends with someone because they would be a great friend not

because they are in my group of friends.

My biggest struggle this semester is having the constant fear of being sent home and not

having the traditional college experience of being in person and on campus. I struggle with the

idea that even if how helpful it is that I am following all the rules set up by the Bucknell

community and being aware of the actions I make, there will be other people on campus that

might. Knowing that the bad actions of others will most likely overshadow the good is hard for

me to process because I know most people are being careful but from certain standpoints it looks

like people are being selfish and doing what they want to do.

When starting my collegiate journey, all I have to tell myself is to know why you are

here. First of all, you got into the school for a reason, the admissions people know the students

that go here and accepted me because they knew I could handle it. Now that I am here, I need to

acknowledge that school is my main priority. Of course I believe it is important to have fun, but

I want to make sure I get everything out of this experience I can and put the effort in because

college is expensive.