The Dreaded 650 Words: Writing Your College Essay
Healley Saltz | Editor
I hate it. As I read my college essay the next morning, I was overcome with disgust. Reading the words that took me weeks to put on paper made every bone in my body cringe. While this may be an exaggeration, I know countless students face this struggle.
Whether they are planning to transfer to a 4-year university or entering their senior year of high school like me, the common application personal statement has become our common foe.
We are expected to boil down our character into a dainty 650 words, showcasing our values or our passions or our triumphs or our tragedies or some minuscule memory that connects to who we are. But this begs the question: who am I? What significant moment from my life is worth the coveted 650 words?
These questions have plagued my mind this entire summer. It took countless hours to decide my topic, then it took even longer to create something I was proud of. But then I scrapped it all the next morning and started from scratch.
Yet it wasn’t from scratch. The new draft practically poured out of me, so that in two days my rough draft was complete. Currently, I am still refining my essay, but I feel I’ve won a battle.
Though I anticipate many more over the next few months, I know this is not our greatest collective foe.
College is just the start of our journeys, and one essay does not define us. Wherever we each end up, is just another opportunity to continue growing.
Our lives do not end at 650 words.
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