This essay responds to prompt #1: “Some students have a background, identity, interest, or talent that is so meaningful they believe their application would be incomplete without it. If this sounds like you, then please share your story.”
The grace and precision of a metal beast dancing across the asphalt, the perfect connection between man and machine, the intricately engineered violence of an engine pulling in air and fighting against physics to cover ground, and the thrill of riding the knife’s edge of traction as the g-force mounts are all reasons why cars have fascinated me since birth. My love for cars and speed is absolutely visceral, and I cannot possibly understate how much it has guided my life thus far. Of my few early memories, the majority in some way involve cars. I remember the countless hours spent racing toy cars across my room at three years old. I remember flipping through the pages of Road & Track magazines long before I could read, just to, figuratively and literally, drool over the pictures. I remember all too vividly the 15 painful years of longing to get behind the wheel of my own vehicle, staring into the traffic out of the rear window of whatever my mom happened to be driving. I do not remember learning and reciting the make and model names of all of the cars owned by my parents’ friend, as I was only two years old, but the story is brought up at the dinner table with enough frequency that I might as well recall it perfectly. This theme of automotive obsession ran rich through my entire childhood, and has not disappeared as I approach adulthood at an increasingly exciting, while terrifying rate.
This same passion is why I chose in 2015 to transfer from the assigned Hough High School to North Mecklenburg High School specifically to participate in North Meck’s Automotive Technology program. I completed that program with flying colors over the 2015-2017 school years under the fantastic real-world teachings of Rolls-Royce master technician Mr. Jarod Brown. In the process of completing this program I became a member of the National Technical Honor Society in 2016, competed in the SkillsUSA North Carolina state conference in 2017, and gave a speech in front of Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools board members in 2017 advocating for further funding of vocational programs. I very often apply the skills I learned in the Automotive Technology program in my free time on my own vehicle, as well as in my work as an apprentice in a local auto repair shop.
My passion for cars is still unwavering, and although I certainly don’t mind working with my hands, I wish to continue my career in the automotive industry through writing, journalism, marketing, and the production of car-related media after I graduate from college. It is not obsession, perfectionism, or a need to be more accomplished than my peers that drives me to do my very best in academic settings and pursue university education, but rather a burning desire to work with the inanimate objects I have loved the most for my entire life: cars.
Will Washburn's Portfolio 