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Sean Menker

Professor McGrew

Writing Assignment 1

11 June 2021

The Remarkable Race

Greetings! It is an honor to be able to apply to the Remarkable Race and be considered! I

grew up in a family of three older brothers and a younger sister and everyone of us loved the

show. I cannot remember a week that would pass that we all were not passing around the

popcorn strategizing with the contestants on the race. We often thought I would be best suited for

the Remarkable Race. The first reason and most clear would be my frame. I am six feet and two

inches, with a strong muscular build since I have been working out for a little over three years

with basketball. I have great hand eye-coordination along with being fast, an amazing vertical,

and quickness. All these traits encompass me being athletic. Other than my gender traits, I am

blessed to grow up in a diversified family and culture. I grew up the second youngest in a

household of seven people. Growing up with a big family, my top priorities were unnecessary

my families’ top priorities. This experience taught me to be independent, but help was always

provided if I truly needed it. I also learned to work through problems on my own because a

peaceful household was always better than at war with each other. Outside my direct family, my

brother’s wife grew up in Sau Paulo, Brazil and grew up speaking Portuguese. Over these past

years, she has willingly taught me Portuguese and I feel I have gotten quite excellent at

speaking and understanding the complex language. Along with the language, she has taught my

family and I her Brazilian culture. She has taught us her food, her party games and her customs
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which might help with my trait of understanding with different cultures. The reason everyone

believes I would be great is because I have been told I am extremely creative and a outside-the-

box thinker. I have blown away my family with my perplexed Lego creations since a young age

of two and a half. I have also been told I am helpful when people do not understand something. I

have helped my family with schoolwork and life advice. My family also thinks I am one of the

smartest. I was always great in school, maybe not as good as my brothers, but they claim me the

smartest because of my problem-solving ability. Another trait is I am the most competitive in

my family. My family has always believed this and explained sometimes I am not even fun to

play games with because I am too competitive. Out of these ten traits that make me a great

candidate for the Remarkable Race I believe if I had to narrow the ten to four, I would select the

traits of being athletic, understanding, creative and smarts.

The trait I would select for the self-concept of gender would be the trait of athletic ability.

On page 113, “Sex refers to biological characteristics of a male or female, whereas gender refers

to the social and psychological dimensions of masculine and feminine behavior.” Gender refers

to the fit or mold of what a female or male is. It deals with the idea of a male being muscular and

strong as a female being small and nimble. The trait to best describe gender would be my athletic

ability. I fit the strong and tall mold for a male defined by gender. Being athletic would help with

challenges that deal with running, lifting, carrying or any speed. I feel I would do great in these

areas with this trait.

The trait I would use to refer to the self-concept pathway of culture would be my trait of

understanding. Now defined by the Foundations of Interpersonal Communication, it states, “the

language, values, beliefs, traditions, and customs people share and learn (page 38).” Culture is

our background of where we come from and experiences, we have lived that influence who we
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are and our character. I got the opportunity to travel and experience many different cultures

around the world. However, the greatest impact of culture has been the impact of my brother’s

wife. She has taught me her language of Portuguese which has been extremely rewarding. Also,

she has created many dishes of Brazilian backgrounds, brigadeiro being my favorite. I believe

understanding of this difference of culture would help on the remarkable race. I was able to

understand a new language along with try new foods. I think if it weren’t for the trait of

understanding that I would have never dove headfirst into learning about different backgrounds

of other cultures. Understanding would help on the Remarkable Race because you travel all

around the world and experience many different backgrounds. In the past, many contestants are

reluctant to try activities or foods of these cultures. I on the other hand would be understanding

and eager to try these matters.

My creativity would be the clearest when discussing the self-concept of reflected

appraisal. Reflected appraisal is loosely defined as, “a mirroring of others’ judgements. (page

72)” Reflected appraisal is what people think you are or traits that describe you identified by

people you deal with. I have always been told I am extremely creative. A story my family tells is

an experience in kindergarten when we were giving Knex, and told to build anything to our

imagination. I built a complete 3D model with a working motor while others built ladders and

other two dimensional objects. I had earned the praise form my teacher when she sent and email

to my mom explaining in 20 years no has built anything with a motor and to that scale. I had

been blessed with my creativity in the eyes of my peers and I believe this trait would be the best

trait when tackling the Remarkable Race. I believe my creativity would help with thinking

outside the box in solving problems and even reducing the risk of getting lost, which seems to be

a bigger problem than the challenges sometimes.

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Social Comparison is the final self-concept and I believe the trait of being the smartest is

best defined under social comparison. On page 72, Social Comparison is described as,

“evaluating ourselves in comparison with others.” Social Comparison in the phenomenon that we

compare ourselves to others to help better understand ourselves. I compare myself often to my

family and I believe I am the smartest out of my family because I am the most understanding and

have the want to learn. I can say I am the smartest because I have just as well in school but also

school is not the most telling factor of one’s intelligence. I believe I am the smartest because I do

the most research to understanding topics I enjoy. I often teach my older brothers about the

complexities of engineering. I have the best memory which helping introducing facts which

helps with being identified as smart. This trait would help with the Remarkable Race because I

am able to remember facts that are important but also, I can use my intelligence to solve

problems in challenges and directions.

In conclusion, my traits of my athletic ability, my understanding, my creativity and my

smarts would put me at an edge in competing for the coveted one-million-dollar prize. I believe I

greatly explained why these traits would best put me at and edge against my contestants. With I

believe I have the best chance of competing on the Remarkable Race but if selected I can’t wait

to experience all the race has to offer.

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Work Citied

Adler, Ronald B., et al. Interplay: The Process of Interpersonal Communication. Oxford
University Press, 2021.