Common Application

"Please write an essay (250-500 words) on a topic of your choice or on one of the options listed below. This personal essay helps us become acquainted with you as a person and student, apart from courses, grades, test scores, and other objective data. It will also demonstrate your ability to organize your thoughts and express yourself."

   250-500 words. The fate of my future will be judged upon these words. Under a thousand words make or break my admittance into my dream school. Any admissions officer I've spoken with has told me that a really fantastic essay can set a college application apart from the others; it can even turn a denial into an acceptance. However, it goes both ways. A truly awful essay can deter the university from allowing you to attend their prestigious institution. 

   So, with this enormous amount of pressure weighing on the 500 words I choose to submit to the Common Application, I begin to go through my options. I could decide to use one of the topics provided by the Application itself. There are the typical prompts: explain a significant event in your life, discuss a person who has had a large influence over your life, etc. Seeing as I really don't know what the admissions offices are looking for, going off of one of the provided topics is a safe bet. It's safe, it's easy, it's...common. I want to do something new. Something these admissions officers haven't read a million times before.

   Deciding against the given topics, I'm left with one option: "Topic of Your Choice". While it sounds like I've narrowed it down, I've really done just the opposite. There are infinite possibilities. I could talk about anything. I could discuss how my sister's illness impacted my life early on, and inspired me to want to enter health care. Maybe I could write about how my privilege of travel opened my eyes to how different cultures of the rest of the world live besides my own. I could talk about how Swedish Fish are arguably the best movie theater candy there is if I wanted to.

    My mind swims with ideas. With no specific direction to take, my brain just shoots all over the place. I jump from topic to topic. I don't want my essay to be boring. I want it to be different...almost quirky. However, I can't have it be too weird, or controversial, or irreverent. Eventually, with all of this worry, and how much pressure weighs on this essay, I just get frustrated. What do I write about when I don't know what I'm trying to write about?

   My mom advised me to start with something I'm passionate about. She said that if I wrote about something I care about, something about which words will flow freely from my fingertips, that my passion and interest would come out in my writing. She said that's what makes a piece of writing come alive. Never underestimate the power of passion.