College Essay

Quinten Yonkers

College Essay

April 22^nd, 2014

A Time of Reconsideration

                When I was 12, I thought I was ready to get my black belt. I had been taking Tang Soo Do for six years and knew all I needed to be able to get my black belt. One Saturday morning, I woke up much more confident than normal, ready to tell Master Lee when I was determined to take my black belt test. I walked into my karate school and sat down with Master Lee. I told him that I was ready to take the long awaited test which included performing different tasks to my best ability. I needed to punch, kick, and break boards as quickly and proficiently as I could. However, my overwhelming confidence was cut short. He quickly told me, without hesitation, that I was not ready to achieve the greatest achievement I would have had yet to attain. However, insistent upon following through with what would be my greatest achievement yet. I insisted that I was able to do everything I needed to do. I had spent those past two months or so going to class and practicing nearly every day. I knew I was ready. Then, to my astonishment, he said that he was wrong and that I did seem ready to become the youngest person in the history of our school to get a black belt. So the next week, I took my test. Master Lee called me up to perform the requirements for my test. As soon as he told me to do the first form, I froze. I completely forgot how to do it, and I learned it when I was eight. Master Lee looked at me the entire time. When I looked at him after standing still for a few minutes, he laughed and said “You said you were ready.” Needless to say, I didn’t come even close to getting my black belt. But I wasn’t even the least bit upset. I walked away with a new confidence I didn’t have before. Four years after my failure, I asked Master Lee again. This time, he said yes right away. An hour later, I had become the youngest person in our school to have a black belt. I knew I wouldn’t have been able to fail again.

How the events in Ukraine are precedented by the Twentieth Century Wars

For the past century or so, wars have been fought for the sole purpose of getting resources. President Obama is still pulling troops out of a 15-year-long war in Afghanistan that was fought solely for America’s gaining of oil. Natural (and man-made) resources are, and have been forever, in very high demand. Every country wants to be able to have an abundance of every kind of resource so they never run out. The problem with this is that if a country doesn’t have a resource that they want, they try going to another country and taking the resources by force. Resources can also be used as leverage or even a form of bribery. Japan’s bombing of Pearl Harbor in 1941 was done mainly because America refused to continue supplying Japan with resources; mainly steel. So since Japan was being denied resources, they retaliated with a bombing that killed hundreds of people, and became the cause of America’s involvement in World War 2.

I feel that this is what’s going to happen between Russia and Ukraine. Russia is controlling one of the world’s largest natural gas transport pipes in the world. It passes right through Crimea, Ukraine, and supplies the rest of Europe, including Ukraine, with the natural gas that they need. Now the Ukraine needs an ally. They can either join the European Union and become allies with most of Western Europe, or they can join Russia, the largest and possibly most powerful country in Europe. Ukraine seems like it wants to join the E.U., but if they do, Putin, the leader of Russia, will not supply them with their share of natural gas. Like I said before, this is the basis of what happened between America and Japan in the beginning of World War 2. America used resources as leverage to get Japan to do what they wanted. So my point is if this keeps going on, someone is going to snap. It seems like it would most likely be Russia and if they start a potential World War 3 nobody is safe, including America, but it might also be the countries of the E.U. It could even be Ukraine. I worry, though, that America is going to try to step in and do something.

That’s what happened in Syria last year and in Somalia during the Battle of Mogadishu in 1993. A self-proclaimed leader named Mohamed Farrah Aidid was killing all of the innocent civilians and took all of their food that was air-dropped by the Americans. The Americans saw that this was happening and decided to “help”. This 18-hour long battle resulted in the deaths of 18 American soldiers who would have lived if America hadn’t gotten involved.

So ultimately, I feel that if what is happening in Ukraine continues to happen, it will definitely escalate. It may turn into a political upheaval in which the rest of the Ukrainian Government could be overthrown, or the other way around: the government could just keep killing more and more civilians like Mohamed Farrah Aidid did. But the worst that could possibly happen is that this “war” could result in World War 3. I think that if this happens, Russia would become a huge threat, and could possibly result to using their nuclear weapons that they have. America would also have to get involved, even though it doesn’t need to. It will become allies with the countries of the E.U. and possibly Ukraine. We will basically have the three top militaries (U.S., England, and Russia) fighting in one huge war.