<p>When you look at my transcript, you'll see a whirlwind of beautiful A's in rigorous classes, suddenly broken by a semester of four B's. To your average student, this may be perfectly acceptable, but the prestigious classes that I'm planning on applying to won't think so. When I was talking to my college counselor, she explained that the perfect place to "explain myself" for this semester of my sophomore year would be in the "Additional Information" section of the Common App. However, I'm not really sure how to explain my whole situation at the time, how much detail to include, and how engaging to keep it. Please help!</p>
<p>The reason for this dreadful semester is that my biological father was diagnosed with brain surgery and had to be put into emergency surgery within 4 days of finding out about the cancer. He flew me out the very next day to help take care of him and be there for his life-threatening surgery. I had to abruptly miss school for 2.5 weeks. Because of the timing of the surgery, by the time I got back to school and tried to make up all of my missing work, it was too late to regain my grades. I had simply missed too much. </p>
<p>How can I phrase this appropriately for colleges?</p>