WRA college essays 13 v4_Summer reading 04.qxd 6/5/2013 2:23 PM Page 8
TXU001174912: The Rewards of Persistence Nick Sovich ’13 (Third place)
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ncredibly, store owners had the audacity to think people would pay fifty dollars for a piece of paper, but even more remarkable was the fact that they were right. I was in third grade, and children my age were lining up to pay merchants these impossibly high prices for “rare cards” in a then popular trading card game called Pokémon. I remember asking my mom why I could not develop a game of my own. To this she humorously replied, “Why can’t you?” Although my mom viewed our conversation as nothing more than a trivial exchange, I interpreted it quite literally and set off to develop my own product. I began drafting rulebooks, designing cards, and ordering materials as my unknowing parents carried on with their lives. Determined to create something suitable for market, I personally contacted printing and packaging companies, and my mom recalls receiving strange phone calls from Hewlett Packard inquiring if Mr. Nicholas Sovich were home. She would hesitantly respond, “Yes, but he’s eight years old.” It had never occurred to me that there was anything odd about the situation. I only knew that I needed more ink. After nearly two years of work, I applied for a copyright, and later received notification that my game entitled “Ragie” was granted registration number TXU001174912 and would be under the protection of the US Copyright Office. I ran promotional advertisements in the paper, and ultimately achieved my goal by convincing local retailers to carry my product. While I did not become a millionaire as a result of my pursuit, I 5