Hi all!
Like most students here, we are struggling to come up with essay topics and doubt if our idea is good.
I wanted to discuss how my parents owned a small restaurant, and how I despised working there as a child. I hated the disparaging customers and how chaotic it was for (6th grade me). Then, around the late middle school to early high school, I enjoyed the adrenaline rush of customers and made me feel like I was “in the real world.”
Suggestions? I’m a little afraid that I may be jumping around too much or if this is a good “first impression.”
I like it. The one paragraph you wrote shows self awareness and growth. Be sure you don’t stop with early high school though. Tie it in to the person you are today.
What colleges? Hating the reataurant and then enjoying an adrenaline rush may not easily show how you fit into their campus life and contribute qualities they want and need. It’s also risky to hint you either didn’t know the real world or the restaurant is your main provider of this persepctive.
If you want to use this for context, a springboard to show how you evolved as an individual, or some other points, that’s one thing. But just a few lines about the restaurant can set it. Make the ultimate point relevant to life at the college and the qualities you bring. Eg, how you enjoy new people more, have expanded your interactions in school and the community and have taken on some new challenges. Show, not just tell.
Thanks for your suggestion.
I really wanted to point out how when I was young, I was an EXTREME introvert. That was the main reason why I couldn’t handle customers criticisms that well or why I didn’t it when it was busy.
However, after investing more years into it, I became more comfortable talking to strangers, and being more open (not sure if I should include this, but at heart, I’m still an introvert)
So from your perspective, my “theme” should be how I changed, and use the restaurant as an anecdote.
My issue is that I don’t have a specific day/moment that was a realization or aha moment It just naturally happened over time. So, I’m unsure how I go about summing it up.
Any suggestions?
but I’m not sure if that is even possible. It is impossible to go from talking to no one to suddenly interacting with customers.
I simply just toughed it out and eventually, it got better.
I think it is an intriguing focal point. Perhaps you can use both insights you gained from your time working in the restaurant (both about yourself, other people and the “real world”) as well as how your view points and perceptions have changed over time using the restaurant as the stage/source of anecdotes/examples.
This may or may not work for you, but you might want to write a draft essay with this theme to see what direction it takes. No point in worrying about refining an essay that doesn’t exist yet.
You don’t need “a day” or an incident to mark your change in attitude. This is more “that was then, this is now.” You can give a few lines explaining the prior feelings, then move to the present. That contrast. Explore it. Have a little fun with it.
You realize, this is also a topic in which you can show family closeness, appreciation, etc. It’s not the point but a “between the lines” thing. “Grounding.” Or your flexibility, ability to laugh at yourself, whatever bits, on top of the growth, the evolution in attitude.