Get to Know Andy

As Andy prepares his applications for MBA school, I have thoroughly enjoyed reading his essays. Andy is a great writer! I didn't know that when we got married. I am learning new things about Andy everyday as he writes these essays. This essay i am including has been his first kind of "fun" essay to write and I wanted to share. It's a bit embarrassing having our writing next to each other. For mine is much more simple minded than his. I'm so proud of my husband, and am grateful he has some skills to pass on to our children.

What song would you be and why?

written by Andrew Kinji Watanabe

I recently read Malcom Gladwell's book "Blink" which explores how people make split second decisions. One of the ideas discussed by Gladwell is that the mind has a remarkable way of intuiting the right path before our logical processes arrive at the same conclusion. It stands to reason then, that I should write this essay about the first song that came to mind, MMMBop, by the Nineties boy-band Hanson. Fortunately for both of us, I finished the book which goes on to explain that our intuitive responses can also be completely wrong. As such, I pick Aaron Copeland's "Fanfare for the Common Man" instead.

Admission: I am Copeland’s common man, or in other words my endowments are average. This is not just self-effacing commentary; I graduated in the middle of my high school class, I am five foot ten and I am biracial (which is essentially the average of two races). I have long believed that if I ever amount to something, it will be proof that the average man can become great. Despite my average skill set I have camped a few thousand feet from the crater of an active Ecuadorian volcano, climbed Yosemite’s Half Dome in the middle of the night and scored in the 92nd percentile on the GMAT. I fully plan on proving to the world and to my children that an average man can achieve greatness and hope that Berkley will be a part of that.

You should listen to the song while reading, it makes it even more exciting.