WRITING THE COLLEGE ADMISSIONS ESSAY: DIARY OF AN ADMISSIONS ESSAY #4

July 27th, 2013

I am so proud of myself! Starting my admissions essay early was pure genius because once I realized that my original topic was not what I wanted to say, there was no problem throwing it out. I still had plenty of time to come up with another one!

Oh, first let me back up… The more I thought about my “canceling my FB account” essay, the more I realized it wasn’t right. But instead of panicking because of time, I stayed cool (for me!) and let my new topic “come to me.” The only problem was that the new topic wasn’t in much of a hurry and it wound up taking two weeks to get here.

Here’s how it happened… I was sitting on the edge of Rachel’s pool, relaxing after a day as the Arts and Crafts Instructor at Sky Lake Camp, which I do enjoy but if I never see another spin art painting it will be fine with me. A couple of our friends were there and everyone was talking about Kate Middleton’s new baby, which is not a conversation I am ever going to have with anyone. I have never understood that whole “royal family” thing, what does Kate actually do, other than show up on the cover of People every two weeks?

Anyway, I started brainstorming to myself about my admissions essay, and all of a sudden I knew exactly what I wanted it to be. I had been thinking about the Common App question “Discuss an accomplishment or event, formal or informal, that marked your transition from childhood to adulthood, etc.” and I realized that it had actually happened to me last year, when I stood up to Aunt Rowena for the way she acted when Grandma died. I mean, no one else was saying anything about her lies, her greed, her selfishness, and general bad behavior. Everyone in the family kind of went… oh, well, what can you do, that’s Ro. But I spoke up. To her face. In front of everyone. Right after Grandma’s funeral when we all went back to Josie’s house to eat and remember.

From that day on I had a different way of looking at myself, sort of a cross between YOLO and “Girl, you rock.” I felt like I had taken a step toward adulthood (still not quite sure what that means) and there was no turning back.

So now that I’m good on my essay topic, all (all???) I have to do is get my outline in shape and then write it. I’m back on schedule, right where I like to be. People thought I was crazy for starting my essays so early but so far, it’s working out just fine.

For personal help with the college admissions essay, contact Craig Heller at 818-340-1276 or [email protected].

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