I want to write about my adoption and hardships in life but I do not know how to set it up or good transitions. I do not know anything about my father and some stuff about my mother. how do i present it? Is this even a good topic?
You want to choose a topic that speaks to who you are as a person and your strengths. You want to ultimately convey why you would be a good fit for the schools where you are applying. You can get that across with almost any topic.
Typically when students want to write about a hardship, the background of that should just be a very small part of the essay - a couple of sentences. The rest needs to be about YOU.
Good luck!
Consider starting it out with a quick attention-getting paragraph rather than going into detail right at the beginning – as momofsenior1 said, the majority of it should be about you after you’ve introduced the topic. Dave Berry has some good tips for ways to catch attention of essay readers from the start. Good luck to you! https://www.collegeconfidential.com/articles/common-application-essay-make-strong-start/
Be sure the emphasis of the essay is on displaying attributes that will make an admission officer want to have you on campus. I would focus on the impact your adoption has had on your personal growth, personal attributes, hopes for the future and things along those lines rather than making it a “woe is me” type of story.
I would write a good draft and then ask an English teacher in your HS to review it with you.
The opener doesn’t need to be rousing. It does, however, need to be good. And the whole essay relevant. You aren’t writing for the English teacher, who knows you and wants to see how you dig into self revelations. You’re writing for adult strangers who review you for the class.
Nor does this require a thesis statement/defense or hint at profound.
Ask yourself if your adoption is what will make adcoms want you in the class. And understand they want to see how you triumphed. Not just what you endured.
lookingforward has some good tips.
I would add to that the following; It might help if you focus on one anecdote. One event in your life that highlights adoption, that stands out to you.
By focusing on one event, that will help you mold the essay’s form (See OUTLINE below.)
To find the right anecdote this is a good exercise. Write down 10 possible anecdote topics that have something to do with your adoption even if it’s tangential. Don’t censor yourself. All roads lead to Rome. Just brainstorm 10 things or events you could possibly write about. Not knowing you at all, examples might be:
- getting braces
- finding the car in the parking lot that one crazy night
- how we organize the fridge
- getting our new cat
- getting lost on Rte 66
- my audition for West Side Story
and so on. Once you’ve listed at least 10, start crossing off the ones you know aren’t going to work. That will help narrow down topics. Maybe one won’t work because you just don’t want to really write about it. Maybe the next one won’t work because it’s too personal and won’t reflect well on you. But maybe the 7th one will work because it will highlight your strengths and yet show some of the complications in your life because of adoption.
Once you have your anecdote, tell it like a story. For example, “getting braces” might be about going to the dentist and you know getting braces, but then the dentist asks you about your allergies and medical history. You don’t know that, maybe, because of your adoption. That allows you to discuss adoption and how it figures into areas of your life that you may not expect, for example – or whatever your personal story will be. Probably not this one! This is just a random example.
OUTLINE
One strong outline might be–
BEGIN STORY/ ANECDOTE – start showing your story: I sat in the orthodontists chair. The smell of the mouthwash made me run my tongue over my teeth wondering if they were clean enough — and so on.
DROP BACK TO THE INFORMATION ABOUT ADOPTION – can be very short. You just need enough to inform the orthodontia story.
END STORY/ ANECDOTE – finish the orthodontia story – with whatever change you experienced because of the challenge you faced. Or however the story resolved itself. Ideally you will be able to show how resilient you are and how capable you are at finding creative solutions to problems.
Best of luck.