Some people celebrate May Day on May 1, dancing around a pole to celebrate the beginning of summer. Some observe International Workers’ Day, honoring labor and workers’ rights. For me, May 1 is decision day.
Unsurprisingly, given the tens of thousands of applicants
answering the same essay prompts, certain topics popped up over and over. Overcoming
a sports injury. Lessons learned from a service trip. The loss of a
grandparent.
There is plenty of advice out there about writing personal
statements, including how to avoid such clichés. A Google search of “how to
write a college essay” yielded 744,000,000 results. Then there are the high
school guidance counselors, university admissions officers, editors for hire, and
private college counselors ready to chime in. And nowadays, AI can enter into
the equation as well.
I don’t remember most of the thousands of essays I read, but I remember my favorite. It was about grocery bags.
A kid in Texas worked as a bagger in a grocery store, and one
day they ran out of bags. The assistant manager had failed to order them; and
some of the customers did not respond well to the situation. Some of them even
took it out on the kid.
The A story, as we say in writing, was what happened the day
the bags ran out. The B story, the parallel narrative that explores the themes
of the main storyline in more depth, was how the teenage writer learned that
adults have their own limitations, and that he could hold his own when dealing
with them.
He had a terrific, sincere authorial voice, and I not only
checked the “admit” box on his application, I also checked the box for
“exceptional essay.” That kid would be long out of college by now. I hope he
had a wonderful time, and I hope he’s still writing.
The book that brought it all together for me in its storytelling and its name: Damned if You Do, Damned if You Don’t.
ReplyDeleteA new meaning for May Day! It brought back lots of memories of completing college applications. I remember vividly the struggle of deciding what to write about...
ReplyDeleteI have two.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was a child who was struggling to learn to read, I picked up "Snow Treasure" by Marie McSwigan and realized I could read it! An entire world opened to me.
"A Secret for Two," about a milk delivery man in Montreal who goes blind and depends upon his horse Joseph to make his rounds, introduced me to the poignant world of short stories.
I love this so much! As a former high school counselor who gave such advice on essay topics, I can relate. Hope that "kid" is doing well! I imagine he is.
ReplyDeleteOn a related topic, I wrote letters of recommendation for fictional candidates as part of a scholarship workshop. One was about a young woman named Daisy who was a skilled soccer player, but instead of competing, worked 20 hours a week at a local vet. Daisy was a dog and cat whisperer, loved by her animal clients and their owners. How would Daisy finance her college and vet school education? A member of the audience broke down and sobbed. Daisy was real to her, the objective of a letter of recommendation.
ReplyDeleteI am so glad I'm at the stage in life where I don't have to write an essay to get anything I want. Grant applications are bad enough.
ReplyDeleteWhat a wonderful blog. I would love to meet that young man. I'm wracking my brain here, I know I wrote college admission essays but I'm danged if I can remember the topic! Does anyone else remember theirs? It would be a fun question.
ReplyDelete