I come from an extremely religious family. However, to keep things short, in high school I soon became very interested in the topic and research in the question if a god exists, and have lost my faith in any god. One of the new common application essay topics is to discuss a change in ideals you’ve had - and I thought this was a perfect response, being that non of the other prompts seemed doable for me.
However, I have many hours of community service from altar serving - I have not, and can not, tell my family that I am not longer religious.
Because of this, I must not only hide my common apps essay from my parents, but explain how I have hours of community service for religious service, when I wrote an essay explaining my gradual decline in religiosity.
Is this feasible, or should I choose another essay prompt / topic?
On a purely practical level, writing a common app essay on a topic you feel like you have to hide from your parents would add an unnecessary additional level of stress to the college application process. I would advise not doing it for that reason alone. But setting that aside, it certainly would be feasible for a good writer. Your experience and dedication in performing faith based service is not completely erased by your doubts. It’s all part of your journey.
There have probably always been a number of people who lose their own belief in a deity or in the literal truth of a particular belief, but who still feel of that the practice of a faith tradition is beneficial to themselves and/or others (i.e. the beauty of the rituals, the community spirit, the stability afforded by religion, some of the underlying ethics of the religeon, etc.) I imagine quite a few priests, ministers, rabbis etc. have themselves lost faith (maybe sometimes gotten it back again) or made some kind of paradigm shift in their ideas) all while continuing to serve their congregations while they evolved inwardly. If they decide to leave the religion, it’s probably after a long process.
You’re a young person, and you have the right to change your mind slowly as you develop. I think it’s really not hypocritical at your age to change inwardly while keeping course outwardly, especially when your family environment makes it hard to show who you are just yet. In terms of an essay. I suppose it depends on your writing skill and whether you can impart a posiitive (while honest) snapshot of yourself and your process through this essay. I think it could show you to be a complex, thinking person. But I also agree with the above, it might not be worth causing you a lot of stress hiding it from your parents.