<p>Hey everyone,</p>
<p>Okay, so I'm freaking out a bit. All of my deadlines are on January 15th, and I'm STILL not sure what to do about my essay. I've written two versions for my main common app essay: one about how my grandpa from England moved in with us two years ago and made me want to be an art teacher like he was, the other about overcoming my struggle with depression and how important art was in that. Depression really became a struggle for me junior year (got basically all A's 9th and 10th grade) - I was hospitalized in the middle of April and never went back to school that year, so I missed about 1 1/2 months of school and a TON of work. I managed to make up my AP Vergil, Hon. Trig/pre-calc, and Hon. Portfolio work, but I still have Incompletes for English, World Religions, and Hon. Physics, and my school hasn't helped me out a whole lot with the grades/work. I'm worried that the transcripts will be sent out and I'll either still have the incompletes, or I'll have C's, which doesn't reflect me.</p>
<p>I know the dangers about submitting an essay about depression - you don't want the admission committee to think that you're going to go crazy when you become stressed in college, or mentally unstable. The safer way would be to talk about my grandpa, but 1) I feel like talking about a grandparent's influence can be rather "cliche" and 2) the essay isn't passionate or powerful, more a superficial reason for my love of art (even though he did mean a lot to me!) The depression one would be less "safe", yet I feel like I'm actually expressing my true self there - but I don't know if that's what the admissions people want to hear. I have gone through a lot of therapy to recover and did well my first semester this year to show that I've gotten better. </p>
<p>SO. Which topic would you recommend I write about? PLEASE BE HONEST. My parents and guidance counselor haven't given me great advice.</p>