Wake up, shower, eat breakfast, brush teeth, go to school, pay attention in class, come home, do homework, eat dinner, go to soccer practice, go to sleep. Repeat. Every day is the same long schedule, with only slight variation to spice things up. Sometimes, I sit and let my mind roam; I wonder how I got where I am. As I rifle through the filing cabinet of my mind, I find happy memories and sad memories, new memories and old memories, and many memories in between, but there is something missing: something unusual about me, something interesting. I search and search, and I realize that I have led an ordinary life. I don’t have a unique talent that others might find cool – I can’t run a marathon or fly a plane or ride a unicycle. I’m just your stereotypical middle-class teenage boy living in suburbia. If only there was something to set me apart.

Juggling. I could learn how to juggle. How many people can juggle? I can count the number of people I know who can on one hand. But I don’t think it can be that hard—those people on TV do it all the time. Just toss a ball up, catch it and simultaneously toss another one. Repeat. Repeat with more balls! Practice, practice, practice. Juggling is such a unique skill to have; it would set me apart. I could be more than just a boy who goes to school, does his homework, and follows directions; it would make my life extra ordinary.

Okay. I don’t need to learn how to really juggle to be extraordinary. I realize now that the ordinary things in life are just like juggling and can set us apart and make us who we are. Getting up every day and going to school shows perseverance; juggling takes practice, practice, practice. Paying attention in class and doing my homework shows an eagerness to learn; a skill such as juggling requires a desire to master something new. Playing soccer demonstrates the ability to be a team player, and being the team captain shows leadership. Being involved in so many activities requires dedication and a desire to follow through; in order to juggle, you must be devoted to complete the goals you set. In a sense, I already was a juggler; I already juggle so much: School, work, activities, friends, family. So whether I am juggling balls or juggling my life, all these characteristics, which come from my ordinary life, make me extraordinary.

Devin Moore is a senior at Lake Braddock and will be a freshman at the College of Willliam and Mary next year. This was the essay he submitted as part of his application to that college.