College Entrance Essay: Juan Castro Riefkohl

A character development exercise in the voice of the charming bad-boy co-lead of our premium serialized epic urban fantasy technothriller. Are you Team Juan?

This week we’re sharing one of the character development exercises written as background for the novel, this one from the point of view of our co-lead character, the rascally bad boy Juan Riefkohl. For more on this project overall, please see “This Year a Serial Takes Root.”

Photograph by Sarah McEwan from Bigstock

In 300 words, please tell us what you would expect to gain from your time at our institution, and what you would uniquely bring to it in exchange.

Hi, my name is Juan Castro Riefkohl.

What would I expect to gain from my time at your institution? The question ought to be what would I NOT expect to gain from my time at your institution. Because that would be easier to answer.

But I’ll give it a try anyway, here goes.

Two words—Escape Velocity.

See, gravity holds us all down to this Earth pretty good. That’s where most of us end up living our lives. Crawling around in the dirt and the muck. Only able to look up at the stars in confusion and dream.

Even with an education at an institution as fine as yours most people would only learn to scurry a little faster or to build a slightly higher anthill than the next guy. They don’t have enough Imagination or Ambition.

Then there are the few, the proud, the people like me. I’m not ashamed to say I already move pretty fast on my own. To people like me the education you offer would be more than just a toolbox and a pat on the head.

It would be like the powder that propels the cannonball. It would be like the magnets that launch a bullet train down the tracks. It would be like the fuel that propels a rocket.

To someone like me—a Body in Motion—it’s the acceleration I need to break free of Earth’s gravity and soar amongst the stars.

I know you’re probably thinking this all sounds poetic enough. But what does it mean in the Real World?

It means maybe someday I can give something back to my Uncle and Aunt and my cousins.

And what do you get out of it? I’ll tell you. You get my commitment that I’ll do my very best at all times, and not embarrass you. You get my dedication and eternal gratitude.

Best of all, you get the awesomeness that is Juan Riefkohl.

Juan Castro Riefkohl √