My Bold Ambition

The following prompt was required for a summer internship application I completed. It had a 500-word maximum.

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Prompt: Our ambition is bold: to become the best growth platform on the planet. As you step into this important moment of your career, what is your bold ambition?

I am someone who likes to feel busy. I can sit in the same place all day and do my work if I have nowhere else to be. While that’s comfortable for me, the deaths of a relative and a friend have helped me develop a bold ambition for myself; I want to make an impact in people’s lives. I want to deliberately make time for others and make them feel seen, heard, and above all, loved.

My cousin Alex was going to rule the world. He was the guy who always found a way to be good at everything. He was ranked highly in his class, skilled with a paintbrush, a master of wits, and a born competitor. He also battled cancer for 17 years, but you would absolutely never know it. I didn’t, except when I visited him in the children’s hospital at an age too young to fully understand the weight of the situation, when he shaved his head as a teenager for chemotherapy, and when I saw him for the last time at Thanksgiving dinner two years ago. Even at these times Alex was joking around in the hospital bed, talking smack to my cousins while they played basketball in the driveway, and making plans for the upcoming holidays. He was fine, he would tell everyone, which is why at the time I never felt guilty missing Thanksgiving gatherings to compete in field hockey tournaments.

I met Alden in Mr. Mahoney’s tenth grade calculus class. We were assigned to sit together in the center seats in the second-to-last row. He wore a contagious smile and matching laugh with his dress shirts, listened to Britney Spears on repeat, could out-dance anyone on the planet, and patiently re-explained entire math lessons when I didn’t understand. He knew that taking advanced classes while playing for six teams across two different sports kept me busy, but he made sure I had fun outside of all the craziness. Alden was the most genuinely compassionate person I’ve met. After high school graduation we fell out of touch. I thought about reaching out a few times but decided against it. A month or two later I found out he had been hospitalized and passed away unexpectedly.

Lesson learned: life is short. Alex and Alden deserve so much more than a word limit could allow, and I completely missed out on connecting more deeply with two unbelievably incredible individuals. The legacies they have left on my life and so many others in such a short time have inspired me to reflect on what I want in life and who I want to be. When I have goals, I stop at nothing to reach them, but sometimes my tunnel vision inhibits my time with those around me. As I start a career and set professional goals for myself, my path may change, but my boldest ambition to make time for the people I love is one thing I never want to lose sight of.