<p>In my essay, I'm thinking about including an anecdote. Basically, in 8th grade, my family was poor and I never had new clothes. I was so desperate for a pair of $60 shoes that I lied to my mom by telling her that they were required for P.E. Do you think I can include this in my essay? Or is it not a good idea to tell the college that I had lied?</p>
<p>Well to me it's fine, as long as you mention the importance of that event, and that you've learned something from it, and that you've changed since then.</p>
<p>i agree with corgonin.... make sure you learned something</p>
<p>Agree with other posters. OK if you learned something, and potentially interesting if the lesson and accompanying emotions were vivid. When you saw what your mom had to give up to buy those shoes, did the guilt and shame eat you up inside so that you resolved never to lie again? Did the shoes turn out to be cheap crap that fell apart after the first month and made you wonder, isn't my integrity worth more than this? Did you hate the shoes after you got them, but feel like you had to wear them constantly -- your own personal albatross? Did you ultimately tell your mom that you had lied? Or do you now just have a different perspective, looking back on this incident, and wonder how your younger self could have been so short-sighted and vain over a thin layer of rubbery stuff between your feet and dirt?</p>
<p>(Edit: I'm not excoriating you for lying over the shoes, just brainstorming. In case that wasn't clear. ;))</p>