2 short answer essay critiques please!

Here are two short answer “essays” that I wrote to address two topics. I tried to make them interesting, but don’t know if they’re good. Please critique.

“Tell us about a talent, experience, contribution, or personal quality you will bring to this school”

To learn to juggle decently requires no special skills. For me, it was just three tangerines, a friend, and a little perseverance. Learning how to juggle can not only bring more “oohs” and “aahs”, but also reveal and instruct how one ought to live life productively.
Each of the three objects must be treated with equal care as they are sent into the air. Doing this ensures an accurate beginning and end. At first, almost everyone makes the mistake of concentrating on all three objects at the same time. Failure will continue until one recognizes that everything in life must be taken one step at a time.<br>
Juggling insurmountable monsters, such fiery objects or ones that are slightly oversized, can, even to an expert, be disastrous. I, an expert wannabe, tried my hands at juggling seven irregularly shaped objects my senior year. Of course, these irregular objects sometime collided, but through long hours of humble practice into the wee hours of the night, I will prevail.<br>
Many problems in life spring from our taking too many steps at once. If we concentrate on the immediate object in our hands, we will live a higher quality of life and ultimately, juggle better.

Here’s the second essay:

“How have you taken advantage of the educational opportunities you have had to prepare for college?”

My Best Friend: An Introduction
Six years ago, I realized that succeeding in high school would be difficult. I needed a friend who was willing to endure daily tribulations of Mr. A’s physics homework, AP exams, and countless hours of editing articles for my school newspaper. Therefore, without delay, I spent some money and bought my friend, a Pilot Dr. Grip .05 mechanical pencil. He likes exactly what I like to do. Ever since then, we are 18-0 in tackling most of the hardest courses offered at my school.<br>
I am glad that I have such a diligent friend- he even complied to give up his summer before his junior year to take notes with me at the Rural Health Scholar’s Summer Program at the University of Alabama. There, we spent five weeks together doing what we like best- biology and creative writing.<br>
While we are not taking notes or writing stories, I would spend time cleaning and checking my pencil. Once, I even did a health check for possible bacteria growth on my friend to culture bacteria for our Biology Lab experiment. Imagine the relief I had when no bacterial colonies grew!<br>
Life in high school is tough. In college, it is only going to become tougher. However, through our six-week foretaste of college residential life and many conquests of college-level courses during high school, I feel that we are prepared to take on the college life at (University name).

<p>I like the topic of the first one it tells me a lot about you. But you did not reallyy tie it into the question "what will you bring" it sounds a bit more like a preface to a juggling manual.</p>

<p>The second one is humorous and I like the take on it. The only danger is that the reviewers read it too fast and do not catch on that you are sarcastic. They might think of you as a loner who has only a pencil as a friend. lol</p>

<p>thanks, anyone else?</p>

<p>I found both to be creative and well written. Great job!</p>

<p>thanks. So is it pretty much flawless other than that? (haha I'm sure these essays are terrible in someone's eyes) any more suggestions before I send them off?</p>