Banishment. Self-Control. Indulgence. These words come to my mind when I think of an apple (never mind million-dollar company). Adam and Eve took a bite from the apple and were banished. They didn’t follow instructions, and they lost self-control.

The distinction between an orange and an apple extends further than the difference between a simple fruit without a past and a fruit with a long history. An apple and an orange are two separate formations. If we follow in Aristotle’s footsteps, an apple and an orange have the same basic “telos”: to be eaten. However, these two formations are perceived differently by each one of our senses.

When I look at oranges and apples, I see two different spectrums of sunlight. You can only find the pink colors in an apple that are reflected in the sky when the sun rises. The bright light that is reflected outside when you cut an apple is similar to a state of rebirth. The color of an orange represents the same warm color as the sky when the sun sets. While our eyes perceive one as the beginning, the other represents an end. This beginning and end do not necessarily have to correlate with age; they could also represent two separate personalities. An apple is more of an extrovert while an orange is an introvert.

If you focus hard enough, you can hear a tinkering coming from the inside of an apple, at least, if your apple is organic. That is the sound of a little worm trying to pave its path. While an apple contains life, an orange is bare. There is no way a living being can survive inside an orange. While the seed of an apple creates life, the seeds of an orange are thrown into the trash. Also, the seed of an apple decides on its colors, which serves much like gender among fellow apples. The seeds remind me of X chromosomes, which will make the apple like a mother who has the capability to give life. Life, in this case, could be ideas, ideas that cannot survive inside an orange.

When you touch an apple, and then an orange, you’ll get different sensations. While an apple is silky and flawless, an orange is lumpy and chapped. We’ve already established that an apple represents life while an orange represents death. In that case, the exterior surfaces of these two formations would represent the skin. While you can eat the skin of an apple, you have to peel the skin of an orange. An apple has a thin skin that welcomes everyone. Birth is easy. An orange has a hard cover that doesn’t peel easily. It tries hard not to disappear; it’s stuck in its stubborn ways. Because an apple represents young age or a more open-minded and persistent personality, it has no skin to protect itself. As you get old or if you’re timid and stop taking risks, you surround yourself with walls that must be broken for you to feel young again. People tend to play with the skin of an orange to make more sophisticated food, just as people play more with their skins for aesthetic purposes as they get older.

An apple and an orange have very different tastes from each other. An apple contains more pectin than oranges, which could be used as a gelling agent. While an apple can ferment, an orange cannot. When an apple ferments, you can taste different flavors and degrees of sweetness; however, an orange is a constant. You can find an extremely sour or an extremely sweet apple, but you will usually get the same flavor in an orange.

An orange has a rejuvenating smell, while an apple has a more comforting smell. When your personality is that of an apple’s, you already have the idealism necessary to pursue your dreams, while when you’re afraid to pursue your dreams, when you’ve been jaded, the smell of

an orange will remind you that you already have what it takes to be an apple. You only need a push to break the shells that are surrounding you. In the vein of the old “nature versus nurture” argument, there are ways to modify yourself to pursue your dreams.

I started my educational journey as an orange, but with time, I learned to break my skin little by little, and now I am an apple with a little worm inside of me. Hopefully, that little worm will lead me to UChicago.