<p>Should I make my essay personal if what happened has made me the person I am today? Would that count as a "background story"?</p>
<p>Um, depends on how personal… if it’s something that a stranger or your grandmother could possibly feel uncomfortable reading, then probably not. And, yeah, something that shapes you as a person is a background story. That prompt is basically a “write something [anything] about yourself” prompt.</p>
<p>Haha no I don’t mean uncomfortable personal I just mean something that a lot of people probably haven’t gone through. Thank you for your response 
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