College Essay #22 - Chewing Gum

158) What do you think people who know you would be surprised to learn about you? Limit your response to one page.(Rice University)

I simply love chewing gum. Without chewing gum I would not be able to live.  Chewing gum is something that was always part of my life since I was little.  When my parents traveled abroad without me, I remember asking them to bring me all the different flavored chewing gums.  

As I was looking ahead to my future, deciding which colleges I should apply for, something struck to me. I came to know that chewing gum in Singapore is banned for XYZ reasons. I didn’t bother looking up what the reasons may be, but just knowing the fact that I wanted to get into Singapore Management University annoyed me.  My hopes of going to that college went down the drain. Now I don’t bother giving a closer look to universities in Singapore, as I know that I wouldn’t be able to survive there.

My friends in school know that, if they require gum the best person to look for is, ‘Srishti Golechha.’ I always seem to carry gum with me where ever I go. It’s a habit that will never fade. For some reason I always need chewing gum after every meal. My entire family at first seemed to be in a shock as they came to know that I need gum in order to survive but however, they got used to it fairly quickly. At times when my dad sees me chewing gum he gets a little annoyed and asks me to spit it out especially, when guests are home. He believes that chewing gum in public is very shabby therefore he doesn’t like it when I chew gum.

By chewing gum I seem to take off all the frustrations that is in my mind.