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My response to [[w:Harvey Mudd College|Harvey Mudd College]]'s essay prompt: ''Tell us about yourself. We know which activities you do and what your academic record looks like, but what don't we know? What fun, cool or interesting things about you won't fit into the categories on the application? Feel welcome to be clever or funny, or write in a way that reflects your personality.''
Ever since I was a young child, I have had an affinity for and a fascination with trains of all kinds. While growing up in Russia, train travel was a regular part of my life. Often, I would travel with my grandmother or my parents into the park suburbs [[w:Template:Cities and towns under jurisdiction of Saint Petersburg|suburban parks]] by taking the [[w:elektrichka|short-distance trains]], which also took people out to their country houses, "[[w:dacha|dacha]]s." While to most people, these trains, which were often filthy, would appear as nothing more than a means of transportation, I saw something special in the approaching machine. While waiting on the platform, I would peer into the direction from which the train would come, listening to the rails. As the nearly imperceptible speck in the horizon came closer, I would hold my breath, thrilled as the train slowed and passed me on its way to the end of the platform. Occasionally, the approaching train would blow its whistle, a shrill, piercing noise, which called of loneliness and adventure.
During the ride itself, I would always look out the window to watch the passing countryside. However, I would also watch the rails running alongside the train. Sometimes, there would be switches and the tracks would branch off; there would be a depot, perhaps a yard, or just a sidetrack with an idling locomotive, waiting for its next assignment. As the train passed by, I tried to follow the split-offs as far as I could see them. Sometimes, I would see long freight trains, and wonder about what they were carrying and where they were going. There was a platform, which was the future site of a railway museum; as numerous railway cars were retired to this site, I remember wanting to make the train go slower so that I could marvel at all of the different train cars standing on the side. Often, I would spend my summers in [[w:Crimea|Crimea]], before I moved to the US in 1996; the trip involved numerous trains. Looking out the window, I would love when an opposing train rushed by at such a fast speed that it was just a blur, and the pitch of its whistle went down as it passed. Ten years later, I have only a few memories of these trips, and most of them involve trains or train stations that we stopped at and not the countryside through which we traveled.
This fascination has also led to involvement in another hobby, model railroading. I enjoy spending hours constructing various track layouts and afterwards setting up trains to run on them. While I lack a permanent space for this activity, this does not stop me from making layouts in my room on the floor, even though I know that I will have to dismantle them only a few days later. I even did some research to find the company that made my models, which were all bought in the [[w:USSR|USSR]] in the 1980's, to check out its current production models. Sadly, the high cost of model railroading is preventing me from fully devoting myself to this hobby.
Just a few weeks ago, standing on the platform of the [[w:Summit (NJT station)|Summit train station]], the approaching train's signal and rhythmic flashing of its [[w:ditch lights|lights]], combined with a rush of displaced air as the train moved past me, instilled both a slight tinge of fear and a sense of excitement in me. I thought of how the train would rush through the [[w:New Jersey |New Jersey]] suburbs and [[w:Transportation in New York City|take me ]] to [[w:New York City|New York City]], which I had not visited for months. The adrenalin rushed through my body as I prepared for the adventure ahead. The train, even though a childhood fascination, has always been more than just a child's curiosity. It is a symbol, a pathway to the mysterious, unknown, and unexplored destinations, a vehicle that takes me on new adventures, and serves as a key to remembering the old.
