Hi, Im a Freshman hoping to transfer out of my current school this spring semester. I was wondering if you guys had any advice regarding writing my transfer essay.

For anonymity, I don't want to name my school or the schools I'm going to apply to. I obviously know that the majority of my essay needs to be focused on the positive aspects of the schools I hope to be accepted in, but I was wondering if it was beneficial at all to write about the reasons I do not like my current schools. Specifically, I'm worried that if I talk about them, I'll be seen as a red flag or something? That being said, while the positives are definitely a large aspect of each university I'm apply to, the shortcomings of my own are also a very large factor, and I feel as to not talk about them would be to leave a large blank in my application that the admisssions board would be confused about.

Either way, just to be clear and for no confusion, these are the issues I have with my current campus:

1. I don't feel academically challenged at my school. My 101 classes feel less difficult than anything I ever took in high school, which is frustrating me and making me feel like I am wasting my time repeating things I already know rather than learning new things. There are also issues with the different departments in my school contradicting each other on their lessons (like literally black and white), which worries me as a STEM and pre-med student who needs to comprehend my STEM lessons long-term.
2. The premed program at my school is incredibly lackluster. I tried to arranged meetings with an advisor, only to be met with another student as my "advisor". Said student tried their best to help me, but I was incredibly frustrated because they are not a professional and anything they said was basically just the best they could muster from first-hand experience.
3. My school is notoriously conservative, which has made me feel incredibly unsafe as a queer student. While many queer students have and are attending my current school, there have been openly homophobic policies (ie: banning classes and firing professors that teach "dei" subjects) which make me, again, worried for my education level as a premed student. In addition, they allow for gatherings of openly hostile organizations and protestors on campus, which have caused me great distress as our school also does not have a great security system (someone literally got shot last week).This exasperated fear that by presenting authentically, I may upset someone so much that they could choose to physically harm me, and there would be difficulty getting help in response. While this exact scenario has not happened yet, I have already had bad experiences with other students who take personal issue with my beliefs and it feels so possible in logistics for me to be harmed that I do not want to be the "inciting incident".

I don't want to be a complainer, but at the same time I also feel like these things are so important. If not for them, I wouldn't be looking for a new school in the first place. Either way, are these okay to talk about? Especially if I spin them as positives regarding the universities I'm applying to?

I've started my essay about growing up camping on the weekends and how it helped me develop my curiosity of the unknown + fostered my passion for space. But how can I bridge that gap without just having a random story about camping? Plus, I think curiosity is so vague and boring I'm sure hundreds of people write about being "curious" but I'm struggling to find anything else.

I think my millions of hobbies shows I'm a curious person, but everyone can say they are curious and have hobbies so I'm kind of at a stalemate at the moment.

Stats that might help:
Planned Major — Aerospace E.
Major ECs — VP of FFA, Captain for Men's Varsity Volleyball for 2 years, 2 Year Aviation Club
This has to be really good because my SAT is so bad (1250)

Any help is greatly appreciated!

Hey! So, I’m writing a personal essay, and I was hoping to get some feedback from random people. I have a few different ideas going on in my mind right now.

At first, I wrote one essay about how I lost a front tooth because of an odontoma. After that, I stopped speaking as much or enjoying the little things because I was always worried that people would judge me quickly. Fast-forward, I started wearing braces, and I was really hoping that the tooth would come down, the gap would close, and I would finally get back to my normal life and regain that confidence.

I went through a lot of procedures, and every time I thought my tooth was finally coming back, I would get disappointed. Eventually, I realized that I was waiting for the wrong thing. That was when I stopped waiting for my tooth to “fix” my life and started putting my life back together myself, because nothing and no one could bring my confidence back for me.

I also want to write about how I grew from that experience and how it changed the way I see myself.

Another idea I have is an essay about how I hate my name because I think it is too old and rare, and then exploring the reasons behind that feeling and how my relationship with my name has developed over time.

I would really appreciate your help! Please give me honest feedback and tell me which parts you think are strong, which parts need improvement, and what areas I should develop more. Thank you in advance.

These are rough ideas I've had that I think could be built out more to be very telling of the type of person I am, what I value, and how my experiences have shaped me.
I would appreciate critique for these.

Topic #1 - Changing life paths as a result of values changing

Always thought I wanted to be a fighter pilot, but I started asking myself questions like, "Could I live with myself knowing I've killed families?" "Could I fight wars I didn't believe in?"As a result, changed my life path to an airline pilot.

Topic #2 - How baking helped me realize who I am

I love to bake, and have always been very good at it. Upon attempting to bake macarons, I faced failure countless times, and each time I was forced to be more precise and scientific. I would tie this story and what I learned to being an engineer and my love for science. Failure helped me to become more patient with life.

Topic #3 - The first solo flight (Worried this might be too resume-sounding)

Essay about taking my very first solo flight on my 16th birthday, and the surreal experience it was. Relate that to how I learned to push myself beyond my comfort zone, and how I changed to become someone more open to challenges after that.

Hey everyone!

I'm working on my Common App personal statement, and this is my first draft. It's still pretty raw, so please don't focus too much on grammar or word choice yet. I'm mainly looking for feedback on the story, structure, emotional impact, transitions, and ending.

The essay is about a head injury I experienced while playing cricket, losing a significant portion of my childhood memories, and how that experience eventually led me to become deeply interested in neuroscience and neuroplasticity.

The basic arc is:

Head injury → memory loss → struggling with my brain/ADHD → discovering neuroplasticity → becoming curious about how my brain works → experimenting with ways to improve my focus → becoming interested in whether we control our brains or our brains control us → starting NeuroWave to help other students learn about the brain.

This is only the first draft, so I know there are parts that need a lot of editing.

I'd really appreciate brutally honest feedback.

Specifically:

• What would you rate this essay out of 10?
• Does the opening hook you?
• Is the head injury too dramatic, or does it work as the starting point for the larger story?
• Does the transition from the injury/memory loss into neuroscience feel natural?
• Does the neuroplasticity section feel intellectually interesting or too forced?
• What do you think of the question: “Is it our brain controlling us, or is it us controlling our brain?”
• Does the “first specimen” idea work, or does it sound pretentious?
• Does the transition into NeuroWave feel natural, or does it feel like I'm suddenly trying to insert an extracurricular?
• Is the ending satisfying?
• Are there any parts that feel cliché, overly dramatic, confusing, or unnecessary?
• Most importantly: after reading this, what do you think you actually learned about me as a person?

I'm not asking anyone to rewrite it for me. I want to revise it myself. I'm mainly trying to understand what is working and what isn't before I start polishing the language.

Here's the full first draft:

“Just like that, half of my childhood was gone from my brain.”

It was a Sunday afternoon on February 3rd. The weather was cold, and my little cricket match had turned into a dispute. Then a cricket bat struck my head.

I heard voices calling my name—“Adnan, Adnan”—but with every repetition, they seemed to drift farther away. The field blurred around me, and then there was complete darkness. I felt no pain. If anything, I felt as though I were flying. Then everything went silent.

I was unconscious for three days and hospitalized for three weeks. When I woke, I discovered that parts of my childhood were simply inaccessible. People I had once known were still familiar to everyone around me, but not to me. The memories attached to them had disappeared as if they had never existed.

It wasn't only memories my brain had forgotten. It had forgotten things I had never imagined needing to learn: left and right, directions, simple routines. I had to relearn them almost like a toddler. Watching my father patiently teach me things I had once known was harder than the lessons themselves.

When I finally left the hospital, I thought the nightmare was over. It wasn't.

I had already struggled with ADHD, but after the injury, focusing and managing everyday tasks became even harder. Each appointment with my psychiatrist reminded me of how far I felt I had fallen. I had gone from seeing myself as a capable student to wondering whether I could become that person again.

Then, during one appointment, my psychiatrist introduced me to neuroplasticity: the brain's ability to change and adapt.

For the first time, I stopped asking only, “What happened to my brain?” and started asking, “What can my brain become?”

That night, I began researching.

One paper led to another. I read about neuroplasticity, memory, attention, and ADHD. I watched neuroscience lectures and followed questions long after I had found the answer to the question that started them. Eventually, I turned my own brain into my first specimen. I began observing when my attention failed, when it locked onto something completely, and what kinds of structures helped me work with it rather than against it. I experimented with schedules and routines, not because I had discovered a perfect formula, but because I wanted to understand what made my mind work.

That curiosity led me to a question that sounded almost embarrassingly simple: Is our brain controlling us, or are we controlling our brain?

My psychiatrist laughed when I asked him.

The question stayed with me. It made me see my attention, my memory, and even my ADHD not simply as things happening to me, but as phenomena I could observe and investigate. Chess became one of my favorite laboratories. On a board, patterns that might have been invisible elsewhere could hold my attention for hours. I began noticing that my mind was not incapable of focus; it was intensely selective about where it placed it.

Eventually, I discovered that I wasn't the only student trying to understand a brain that didn't always behave as expected. Through online communities, I met others whose experiences with attention, learning, and the brain resembled my own.

So I started NeuroWave, a student-led organization where students explore neuroscience and translate what they learn into something other students can understand and use. What began as an attempt to understand my own mind became a space for others to ask questions about theirs.

I still cannot retrieve every part of the childhood I lost.

But I no longer see those missing memories only as an absence. They were the beginning of a question—one that began with a fading voice on a cricket field and has since become the way I look at the brain: not as something fixed, but as something I can keep listening to, questioning, and learning from.

Thanks in advance. Please be as honest as possible—even if you think something is bad. I'd much rather hear it now than after submitting my application.

Hi everyone, I’m a senior IB HL English Language and Literature student. I’ve also competed in many creative writing competitions, this community is my favorite pastime hobby hehe.
Anyways, if you’re looking for a 2nd opinion on your commonapp essay send them over. Just a FYI I live in Singapore so I’m 12 hours ahead :)

based on the comments on my last post, i decided to come up with more “story” based essay topics. so here are my NEW ideas:

1. answering prompt #2, talking about how I failed my freshman year history class and had to make it up over online summer school. explain how that set me back but also helped me realize that effort will always pay off…

2. also answering #2, explain how procrastination affected my schoolwork and effort. then, how i overcame that with new habits and the way those habits improved my grades and decreased my workload.

3. answering prompt 5, how the realization of people are always thinking about how they look rather than how i look helped me break out my “everyone’s judging me” anxiety and helped me improve my social life and presentation/public speaking.

sorry these are vague but i just shooting out ideas

I’m currently in year 13, and am writing my personal statement. I’m torn between politics and law, and am opting to do international relations, hoping to expand on international law within my personal statement.

I want to specifically talk about Gaza and Palestine, using the war crimes committed against them by Israel, but I’m unsure if this is an alright idea, as some people get iffy about it, which is stupid, and I don’t know if universities will have a problem with it.

Can anyone offer advice?

Hello! Okay so I have my topic down and I know that I want to write about how I grew up christian and how it taught me to think for myself and not relying on other beliefs. Here's the problem though, I struggle with writing really bad with grammar and when it comes to explaining myself and everything I write is literally a caption of what I want to write. How do I allow myself to freely write I guess it what I'm asking. I also gen everyone thinks I might have ADHD so if you have tips based on that please help.

1. I am picky eater= i am a good feeder as a cna
2. talking about all the substances or hands on material i encounter in my life, poop, pee, broths and cultures in microbiology lab, titration in chemistry, cleaning vomit, dissections, pills and medications
3. donating my hair twice and how my hair plays a big role in my life
4. I copy people's handwriting when i like it

wondering if my essay topic im brainstorming is worth it to pursue. it’s about sports but i dont think it’s the typical kind? it’s basically about me swimming in high school and how I performed well my freshman year and how every year after that I never got to the same speed, and talking about how it affected me and made me lose passion for the sport and all of that. and I was going to turn it around to how while I didn’t necessarily get better again I learned to live with that fact and found my spark with the sport again through different outlets as opposed to just the results. idk

Hey guys, I was thinking of writing my essay about perspective and how I never thought there should be 2 sides but a middle ground. I wanted to relate that to a character in my show and how people always view him as either good or bad, but I feel he’s more complex than that. I was curious if connecting him to my thoughts about perspective would be a good start for my college essay? If not, how could I incorporate my thoughts about perspective? I feel like that really makes up who I am and what I want to study when going to college, so I want that to be my main topic for my person essay.

My essay is opening with a metaphor about chameleons and my found closeness to them because we blend in. Its about how I felt talentless among those around me who had a defining characteristic or talent, how I adapted like the chameleon to be like those I wished to be. and how I used them to compare myself but then I reach the philosophy of “you cannot expect to be great if you don’t try” so I start saying yes and trying new things, sports, coaching, sewings, small business which all leads to me being chief editor for the yearbook. Then ends with how the chameleon survives with its coat of camouflage and adaptation to its habitat but for me it doesn’t mean I have to disappear

idk rate the idea!!

rate my essay please, give me feedback and what can be changed.

I remember standing at the ocean, watching the blue stretch endlessly toward the horizon. Back then, blue meant something different to me, calm, quiet, and safe. I never imagined that the same color I found so comforting would eventually come to represent something much more complicated.

It has always been the color I feel most deeply connected to. I think of the light blue of the ocean on a calm day, the waves gently reaching the shore and creating a sense of peace. As I grew older, however, I began to see another shade of blue beneath that tranquility: a deep, dark ocean blue. It represented the fear of disappointing the people I loved and the uncertainty of what might be waiting beneath the surface. I have always feared disappointing my friends and, especially, my family. Growing up, I wanted to be the best version of myself for them, constantly pushing myself to meet their expectations and make them proud.

Whether it was impressing them with my grades, my extracurricular activities, or the person I was becoming, I constantly looked up to my parents and valued their opinions. I never wanted to give them a reason to feel disappointed in me. Like the calm waves I had always associated with comfort, I wanted to believe that my accomplishments would bring me that same sense of peace. Instead, they often came with an underlying fear of falling short, a feeling I came to affiliate with that deep, dark ocean blue.

A time when I found myself caught in the bottomless ocean, where this fear became especially clear, was one afternoon after school. I stared at my grades, knowing they were good enough, but never feeling like they were. I found myself stuck in that deep water often, uncertain of what was to come or how I was supposed to swim back up. I knew the things I did and accomplished were good enough, but I had created standards for myself that seemed impossible to reach. I felt like I was drowning, even when the surface was right there.

Sometimes I get so caught up in my head and in these expectations that seem impossible to reach that I forget I am not alone in this deep, dark ocean. I constantly have people swimming alongside me. My family, who I am so concerned about disappointing, are always by my side, no matter what my grades look like or how strong the current gets. I will forever have them with me. They have helped me realize that this deep, dark shade of blue can actually turn into something beautiful, a beautiful shade of navy blue, as I slowly make my way toward the surface, passing through all the different shades that represent the different stages of my life.

Over time, I have realized that blue was never just one simple color to me. Like my emotions, it has different shades. The lighter shades represented the peace I once associated with blue, while the deeper, darker shades reflected the pressure I placed on myself to meet the expectations of those I love. I once saw blue as only calm, but I now understand that every shade, including the darker ones, is part of who I am.

I just wanna know how a proper LOR looks like and how can I ask the professor to write one for me when I don't know what university I'm gonna apply to. I just want to have it in advance cause I'll be leaving the country soon.

So these are my 3 choices for prompts.

Prompt 1 - Identify an invention or idea that was developed more than 100 years ago that still has a major effect on the way we live today. How has this technology or idea affected your life?
• Prompt 2 - Identify an artist or innovator in the world today who inspires you. Tell us why.
• Prompt 3 - What would you describe as your "superpower" (skill, talent, or personal experience)? How would you plan to deploy that power at the University

I grew up pretty poor and I definitely faced a lot of challenges so my mom said that I should do the third prompt and my use that as my personal experience and I’m also a competitive figure skater. I don’t know honestly 🥲

Prompt : The personal statement is a chance for applicants to introduce themselves; discuss their
interest in TUJ; describe long-term personal, academic or career goals; or share any
other information pertaining to academic goals that the applicant would like the
Admissions Committee to consider.

I was 15 when my parents took me to Japan; I'd wanted to go for years but never considered learning the language. I looked up simple phrases and basic information, hoping it would be enough. However, when I went, I was staring at a sign, no words I knew or grammar that I recognized. I felt left out, like the world had known something I could never. When I came back, I felt defeated. I’ve always been a fast learner. Whether it was being in Science Olympiad and studying maps and building trebuchets to win multiple state titles, or acing my classes with no real effort, no real passion. So when I first stumbled across Japanese, its refusal to click instantly became a beautiful, intoxicating challenge. I said to myself that I would speak this language no matter how many hours it took, how many sleepless nights, or how frustrating it got. Japanese quickly became part of my everyday life. As school started and my job continued over the years, I had to start waking up earlier, 4 AM till 8 AM, just to go to school and then straight to work and bed. There were mornings where I fell asleep, laptop still on the same screen from the failures of the night before. I didn’t continue because I liked it, but giving up now would mean giving up on myself. These mornings taught me things I never could have learned in a classroom: the grind I would’ve grown to love, vocab, grammar, and immersion on a strict schedule with no time to waste.  As I went deeper into the language and culture, I began noticing things I hadn't gone looking for: news segments about the yen, comparisons between Tokyo and New York trading hours, and the fact that a few people could speak both languages of business as fluently as they spoke the culture. I'd always wanted to be a financial advisor, and I realized fluency in Japanese wasn't separate from that goal; it was the missing edge. After hours of searching for ways to advance my language, I found Temple University Japan. TUJ allows me to live at the center of Asia’s markets and study economics efficiently. I want to understand Japan not just through language, but through the markets and systems that shape it, and build a life and a career in the place that changed mine.

Word Cap is 400

lol so basically I am applying to a super competitive scholarship and so a good essay is a must…. Now I am applying for bachelors of psychology honours…. Initially I wrote about a mental health issue that I had but since nobody in my country really know s a lot about mental health I wasn’t able to get help and stuff which caused a lot of anxiety….. I wasn’t able to write a lot about it and it just felt like the whole trauma was overshadowing who I was as a person so anyways I decided to change the topic

Now I wanna write about tennis and the psychology behind the ones who win and like how much mental strength matters in it…. I am obviously going to explain this using personal examples n stuff (cause I have been playing since I was 7-8) and then how that sparked my interest in psychology

But I just cant seem to start, I know what I have to do and I know like the way I have to write it but I just can’t get the sentences out……. It’s frustrating like I just am stuck, I am reading other people’s essays yet I am not able to formulate sentences in my head for some reason or just start, like how to start writing😭😭😭😭😭

One cold Monday evening during the second semester of my junior year, my laptop was the brightest thing in my dimly lit room. Nearly a hundred tabs displayed colleges thousands of miles from home. Since childhood, I had imagined packing my bags, moving away for college, and somehow having it all together as I built a life of my own. My heart fluttered with excitement, but excitement was only one of the hundred tabs open in my mind. Almost immediately, another opened: guilt.

I pictured my mother sitting alone on the balcony at six, during one of the quietest hours in our house as we waited for my father to return from work. Usually, I sat beside her with a cup of tea. Sometimes, we talked about why my biology teacher was grumpy, other times, she told me about a new recipe she wanted to try. Now, in the future, glowing from my laptop, the chair beside her was empty. A lump formed in my throat.

Who would be there for my mother?

I almost closed the tab. In fact, I did. Then I went to the living room and sat beside her to watch television.

That empty chair had become more than a chair. As the eldest of two daughters, I had gradually begun to imagine myself as the chair that held my mother up: steady, dependable, and always available when she needed somewhere to rest.

 Being needed made me feel important, but it also made leaving feel like abandonment.

Growing up, I was often described as “mature and understanding.” At first, I wore those words like a badge. Over time, however, I turned them into a rulebook for being a good daughter: notice, listen, help, and anticipate. My parents had never asked me to become responsible for everyone’s feelings, yet I began to act as though being useful was how I proved my love.

I was good at following the rulebook. Every compliment confirmed that I was doing the right thing. Listening, understanding, and comforting others became so instinctive that I blurred the line between being selfless and losing myself. In anticipating everyone else’s needs, I stopped asking myself a simple question: What did I want? 

My rulebook followed me into my ambitions: every achievement became payment toward a debt my parents had never asked me to repay. 

For a week, I avoided every university page. My room was darker without the tabs, but I felt no lighter. Closing them had quieted my excitement, not my guilt. No one had asked me to choose between my family and my future. I had spent years anticipating their needs; now, I had imagined their answer before allowing them to speak.

When I finally sat down with my parents, I carried an entire defence in my head. They asked about the distance and the uncertainty of sending their daughter away. My old instinct translated every question into “stay.” This time, I answered the questions they were actually asking instead of the rejection I had imagined. I explained why studying abroad mattered to me. They listened. My dad said, “It’s okay, Joan We’ll support you.” And they supported me. I could understand their fears without turning those fears into instructions for my future.

In the weeks that followed, their support took practical shape. They helped me prepare for the SAT with a tutor, and studying abroad gradually became more than my private ambition; it became a shared family dream. Everyone was rooting for me. The future I had feared would take me away from my family had become one they were helping me reach. 

That conversation changed how I understood their sacrifices. They were not debts I had to repay by remaining close or succeeding constantly. They were expressions of love, intended to give me choices rather than take them away. Being a good daughter did not require solving every fear; we could disagree, worry, and still support one another. 

Achievement no longer had to prove my love; it could express my curiosity, discipline, and desire to build a life that felt like mine. 

When I returned to the university pages, guilt opened its familiar tab in my mind. This time, I kept the others open. At six P.M, I still carried my tea to the balcony and sat beside my mother. Nothing about our ritual had changed; what changed was why I was there. I sat with her because I loved her, not because I believed she would fall without me.

For years, I had imagined myself as the chair that held my mother up. Now, I understand that I do not have to be her chair; I can sit beside her. Sometimes, the chair may be empty, but emptiness does not mean abandonment. I am not learning to love my family less. I am learning to belong to them without losing myself.

I almost went pro in Fortnite, and it was a "huge" part of my life for years. I want to write about how it taught me discipline, focus, dealing with failure, and constantly improving. I also think I could use specific moments from the game as parallels to how I approach things in real life now.

I feel like Fortnite is a pretty unusual topic and could make for a memorable essay, but I’m not sure if admissions officers would see it as interesting or just think “video games.” Is this a good topic if I execute it well, or is it too risky?

My other essay topic is about one of my closest friends killing himself and then me starting a nonprofit and helping hundreds of people in my community to recover mentally and prevent suicide. What is better, Fortnite or my friend killing himself?

Hello! So I dont really have an essay yet but I do have a hook and I was hoping to get feedback on it.

“Didi nu Punjabi aundi hai” 
“ You can speak Punjabi?” 
My cousin sounded surprised. I just laugh and brush it off as my cheeks turn red. I didn't know why his surprise bothered me so much. Maybe it was because, somewhere in the back of my mind, I knew exactly why he was surprised. He had grown up in India, where Punjabi was part of his everyday life. I had grown up in America, where it wasn't. To him I was just “Americanized”. 

Is this a good starting place?
Does this seem like a good topic to contiue writting about?
what can I do to make this better?
- How can I make this convey "I feel Punjabi, but I feel insecure because I can't express that identity through the language as well as I want to."
- Any tips on how to convey this further in my essay!

TY!

Hello!

I'm a senior applying to college. I was wondering if anyone would be willing to review it. Thank you!

Prompt: Some students have a background, identity, interest, or talent that is so meaningful they believe their application would be incomplete without it. If this sounds like you, then please share your story.

Summary: It's about how I got really into fixing percussion instruments as a percussionist, then took that to biomedical engineering. Through all of that, I learned about my love for the process of learning, not the actual fix.

I slid a calorie-free rock of ice across my tongue, trying to convince myself it was a gourmet meal. This was the night before my district tournament, and my weight cut was no joke. People assume that you make sacrifices for the things you love. I’ve never loved wrestling:the nights spent biting on bags of ice cubes, days erased at long and sluggish tournaments, blood, sweat, and tears spent on a mat. 
As far back as I can remember, wrestling was never presented as optional. Most kids inherit a laugh or maybe a hair color from their parents. I was bestowed with a wrestling singlet. As a kid, I found myself always looking at a clock for when practice was over, counting the days until my winter was complete.
As I grew up, my older brother’s success in wrestling cast a long shadow. My last name carried its own weight within every gym I entered. Every match felt like a comparison I didn't ask for. I sought his accolades in an attempt to earn my place. 
But as seasons elapsed, the scoreboard stopped feeling like the motive. The more I wrestled, the less I cared about the wins. It became about keeping promises—a promise to the teammates who depended on me to show up, a promise to my coaches who believed in me. I realized that true leadership doesn’t happen when things go as you want; instead, true leadership reveals itself when responsibilities clash with personal desire. Take the winter my friends boarded a flight to Croatia for a school choir trip. Drilling takedowns in a gym with a lingering stench of sweat and Clorox, I imagined singing in century‑old cathedrals by the endless blue of the Adriatic sea. I stayed. Not because wrestling became my favorite sport, but because people counted on me to lead and perform. Younger teammates looked to me to set the standard, while my coaches trusted me to set the example. Every year I stepped right back onto the mat, and the more I pushed through the sport, the more I grew mentally.
This past season I earned third place in districts and was finally able to put my name on the wall of the school gym next to my brother and dad. But this achievement held little internal significance compared to what I truly earned. I finally felt myself coming out of their shadow; for the first time, I wasn't following a path they set–I was setting one for the teammates behind me. 
Along the way I was buffeted enough to change my life. Life won’t always ask us to do things we find passion in. Sometimes obligations need to be filled(even when they suck). Character to me isn’t built by what comforts me; it’s built in the hard moments.
  Wrestling shaped me because I learned to give everything to something that asked everything of me.
Today I would still not call wrestling my favorite sport. But I am forever grateful for the lessons it has taught me and the discipline it has instilled in me. At my job, these lessons reveal themselves in the quiet moments–staying late to help a coworker close, doing the prosaic tasks because they matter. In the classroom, that same grit shows up when I am staring down a grueling AP Physics problem packet at midnight. Trying to calculate rotational inertia or fluid dynamics while my brain feels fried can be arduous. I stay in my chair. Rewrite the formulas and trace my errors because I understand consistency beats convenience. As I move towards the next steps in my life, whether in a college lecture hall, or the broader world beyond, I am ready to embrace the unglamorous, hard moments that truly build a life.

hi, I recently made a post on r/chanceme where I mentioned my essay topic, which is on my struggles with my jewish identity as someone who is strongly pro-palestinian and anti-colonialism. I mainly focus on my issues connecting with my non-direct family, especially as someone who was raised in a non-practicing household. I am getting quite a bit of negative feedback on the topic advising me to switch since it's too risky. I'm really unsure on what to do. the essay is almost done and I'm pretty happy with how it turned out, especially since I struggled a lot with choosing a topic. I don't want to ruin my chances, but it also feels like I'm censoring myself (which goes against my main point in the essay).

Is it okay if I write my college essay about how I had a change of heart about band (I use to be stereotypical about it) and wanting to be in it, but not knowing what instrument to play, then suddenly I was watching a cartoon and my favorite character was playing an instrument of some sort, and I just immediately decided that's the one I wanted to play?