What are you most passionate about ?

The great mathematician Blaise Pascal said that "Clarity of mind means clarity of passion, too; this is why a
great and clear mind loves ardently and sees distinctly what he loves." I believe in what Pascal says and
that is why I love the study of language. There is lucidity in my passion because there is clarity in my
motives for loving language. I see the understanding of tongues as the understanding of humanity. What
lies beneath a noun, a verb, a phrase, has the power to move people. It can create and unite the same way
it can divide and destroy. The power of language is limitless.
As a Hispanic, my love of language is nourished daily from the transition I make from the English that I
speak in school to the Spanish that I speak at home. Long ago, in my childhood, I realized that certain
words in one language did not carry the same power in the other. I would find myself translating things
literally and finding that its power died on my lips once I spoke them. While in my younger years, I did not
give much thought to the reason why certain words in certain languages carried a different weight in them,
it was not until I was a teenager that I began to see the significance of my discovery and the graveness.
The significance of what I had uncovered helped me throughout my foreign language classes and even in
my daily life. When I read books from Spanish to English I finally realized why translators did not translate
the words literally. They translated based on the weight of the words used, what was meant to convey, and
how to impact the reader the same way the original language did. The graveness of this discovery fell on
me when one day I called someone 'stupid' in Spanish. Up until then, I had not given the word much
thought because I often used it in English. However, once I had uttered those words, I could not take them
back. They were more powerful in Spanish than they were in English. The word 'estpido' sounded much
more insulting than simply saying 'stupid.'
In my innocence, it dawned on me how many people must have fought because of a misinterpretation of
a word? How many people must have feuded because of a certain tone? How many nations must have
gone to war because of a misunderstanding? I realized then that I wanted to learn languages. I wanted to
speak to be understood. I wanted to voice my opinions, my feelings, and my ideas for everyone. Language
was a barrier of vowels and consonants that had the ability to annihilate but also had the power to create. I
saw language as a way to help humanity. Through language, I saw a cure to prejudices, war, and the
differences among the human race.
Today, I still firmly believe in the supremacy of language. I believe in it almost as if it were a faith a faith
that is made up of grammar, spelling, fluency, and pronunciation. In believing this, I decided that in order
to begin mastering language I had to start by mastering my own first. That is why I decided to continue
taking Spanish in high school. I want to perfect my form of expression in Spanish. I wanted to avoid the risk
of being misunderstood. And it is now that I feel I am close to attaining that goal. With my studies of
Spanish in high school coming close to an end, I feel I must take up another form of expression to stay true
to my belief in language. I know very well that my college experience could grant me my wish of taking up
a new linguistic ambition Arabic. My passion for the flow of words in a sophisticated combination of vocal
cords with moving lips and articulating tongues would only be intensified if I had the opportunity to learn
Arabic.
Like the sciences, I believe the arts especially the art of communication, can be beneficial to humanity.
There could be so much disagreement that we could avoid if we understood each other. We can learn so
much from someone just by the way they speak. Imagine how well we could understand a culture by
understanding their language. Perhaps my linguistic aspiration is an idealistic one but it is sufficiently
tangible enough for me to work for it and to desire it. Language is something so interdisciplinary that in
understanding one, there is a chain reaction where many other things are understood in the process.
Everything is tied to communication, so there is no reason that I should stay tongue-tied when it comes to
my dreams.