Never work alone
I used this common application essay on my applications to colleges. Personal information has been modified.
Common application prompt #1
Some students have a background or story that is so central to their identity that they believe their application would be incomplete without it. If this sounds like you, then please share your story.
Never Work Alone
The first night of summer, the sky swelled with clouds, thunder booming ominously. Raindrops burst from the heavens, buffeted by wind. Waves of water lifted my handcrafted raft, a ramshackle collection of shelves and crates. Suddenly, everything froze. Despite reprogramming my rain module, my game had crashed again.
Click. I reset the world.
I sighed. I had promised myself this game would be finished before summer, when I’d work again at Camp Tiriaq’s Lakefront. I couldn’t develop games when I’d be lucky to even get cell service. And although I worked with programmers and entrepreneurs at Tiriaq, topics like Roblox, game development or programming — anything from our offseason lives — by some unspoken rule, would not be more than mentioned. Tiriaq was a refuge from the perpetual storm of life.
I do have peers on Roblox; there’s a close-knit community of makers. One day we found ourselves no longer consumers, but innovative producers. Of these developers, I often trade techniques with Emma, from the UK. Emma watched for months as I grew frustrated developing sails. As we often swap prototypes, Emma showed me her own prototype. Instead of sailing boats, you built rafts out of shelves and crates. I played for hours. Two months later, her game never completed, she let me continue development. The developer community watches promising projects, so two weeks later it was no surprise to see a competitor. Unfortunately, this team had all summer to compete, and I had one week.
The skies swelled, then burst. Droplets fell, as numerous as my projects throughout the years. “Perhaps,” I mused, “an efficiency problem. Why recreate what is already made?” I recycled rain droplets like I recycled code modules from each project. Yet, everything still stalled, and then inevitably froze.
Click. Frustrated, I reset the game.
I often code my own modules, but this rain was different. Trey — a stunning mathematician and animator — happily helped me understand the math behind… well, anything. Trey worked magic. In 140 lines, Trey’s cryptic particles module not only overrode Roblox’s physics engine, but also hijacked the 2D interface to display 3D particles. Trey idly noted his particles could create rain. One request later, and delightful game-freezing raindrops fell.
This was not our first time collaborating, but it was profound. For the first time, I found myself programming with someone. Although rewriting the particles failed to fix freezing, I wasn’t disappointed. It made something clear — working together worked. A day later, we finally solved the problem.
Rain fell over the desert once more, thunder booming. Then the world flooded. Buffeted by waves, my raft rose. Success! It would be June, after a long, difficult sailing merit badge session at Scout camp, when I first discovered 3,000 players simultaneously playing my game.
One cornerstone of Scouting is doing your best. My experience with Roblox development challenged this idea. Why had my best always been met with such disappointing results until now? In hindsight, teamwork was vital. I had unknowingly applied to development what Scouting taught from day one: leadership and collaboration. By working towards Emma’s idea, relying on Trey and the developer community, I created something I never could have alone. Doing my best will never again be limited to my technical ability, but what I can accomplish with a team. Scouting has shown this again and again. As a BSA lifeguard, I could never reset the world when things went wrong. I never needed to — teamwork didn’t fail.
I’m often asked for advice pertaining to development. I once said, “Never be bored.” Never stop making, discovering, learning. However, today, whether I’m collaborating on Roblox’s default 3D model set, finishing the latest chemistry lab, engineering a better shelf, or even studying calculus with friends, I’m excited that I’m doing something greater than my best. I still advise, “Never be bored.” Then I always add this:
“Never work alone.”
