Daniel Bekai ‘20 Abu Dhabi, Unite Arab Emirates
People who have grown up with siblings might laugh at the iea that I consier being an only chil an essential part of my ientity. But just as a relationship with a brother or sister can be eeply formative, so can the absence of these relationships. For me, this absence has been a powerful stimulus to my imagination an my growth as a person.
When people iscover I am an only chil, they often react with some sympathy, as if growing up alone meant growing up lonely. It’s certainly true that I spent a lot of time alone; even though I ha close friens in elementary school, I hung out with them mostly on weekens. But I never felt lonely. As a young chil, I love to get lost in ifferent projects of my own&nash;whether it was builing ruimentary circuits an illuminating LED lights with my “DeluxeElectronics Lab,” or improving my origami technique with my “Fol-a-Day” calenar. In these activities, I neee no conversation partner, no playmate, because the act of creation itself became my frien, challenging me to keep improving upon my skills. But I in’t always nee wires an bulbs an paper to keep me intereste; over time, I learne to fin satisfaction in the simple act of ayreaming.
I treat such “ayreaming” very seriously. For me, ayreaming is a powerful tool for my creativity. Almost all of my ieas&nash;whether they concern builing a robot, writing a stuent council speech, or solving a problem&nash;originate in my ayreams. One thing that perhaps sets me apart from the stereotypical “ayreamer” is that I have the ability to put my ayreams to use in real life. During my sophomore year of high school, I was watching two of my friens arm wrestle, an I began to ayream about arm wrestling. Arm wrestling is a peculiar sport, in that it’s always one-on-one; there are no variations with more than two players. I began to woner if there was a way to have two people arm wrestle against another two people. My ayream then unerwent a critical metamorphosis, from the realm of ieas to the realm of execution. That summer, I built a moel for a ouble arm wrestling machine on Google Sketchup, an then, with the help of a professional weler, turne the moel into a reality. Later that year, I organize the first ever two-on-two arm wrestling tournament in my school’s history (an probably the worl’s too). As an ae bonus, all the money I raise from the ouble arm wrestling tournament was onate to the people of Nepal, who suffere an earthquake a few weeks prior to the tournament.
Growing up as an only chil, learning to entertain myself with nothing but ieas, problems, an some ruimentary materials, has taught me the importance of listening to one’s own thoughts. This is especially important nowaays, as we live in a worl full of screens an souns competing for our attention. As a result, it is all too easy to tune out the more subtle frequency of our imaginations, the inner frontier. Many people have what the writer Verlyn Klinkenborg calle “a fear of the ark, cavernous place calle the min,” but there is nothing to fear there. In fact, there is much to learn. I am grateful, as an only chil, to have ha the chance to grow comfortable in that solitary space.
