<p>So I've (finally) decided on a topic for the CA.
Prompt 4: Describe a place or environment where you are perfectly content. What do you do or experience there, and why is it meaningful to you?</p>
<p>I'm going to write about Baking and the kitchen. I want to talk about how it's really stressful to multitask or have things not go my way, but how I still love being able to design a cake and create it.</p>
<p>I'm wondering, first, is this a good topic? And second, how should I go about writing it? I don't really think it's a good idea to just describe the place, so should I tell a story about it or what?</p>
<p>To answer your first question: it’s a good topic if you can write a meaningful essay on it. You can count on many other applicants writing about the kitchen, so make sure your essay stands out by making it extremely personal. </p>
<p>Now for your second question: your essay should center around an anecdote from the kitchen. Try beginning at the climax to draw the reader in.</p>
<p>I’m getting really worried that every topic I have isn’t original enough. For this topic, I was going to talk about one of 2 stressful projects that I baked in the kitchen (3 wedding cakes, 200 cupcakes), but I feel like this prompt is just ughhh. I’m worried that my essay will be boring or cliche</p>
<p>So, the trick here is to pick something you love to do and find an experience doing it that you want to share. Don’t talk about baking or theater or watching TV, but instead write about an experience you had doing one of these things: maybe you dropped a cake, found yourself on TV, or forgot your lines on stage. Just pick something you learned from, and go from there!</p>
<p>I think talking about one of your projects sounds like a very promising start. I’d be interested in what led you to these projects, how you gained competency to do it, how you handle stress, how you organize yourself. Just start writing and see where it goes. Don’t just think about topics. Make some drafts of different ideas to see what you are able to develop as you write. My daughter did write about cooking baking but it was woven into a story that talked about other things too. </p>
<p>PM me if you want to know more, I don’t really want to post about it here for all eternity.</p>
<p>Oh and you write about it by putting pen to paper. Not by thinking about how to write it. Get some of your story out and shape it up later. Don’t just describe things, let the reader into your internal thought processes as you do.</p>
<p>Careful has a lot of good advice, so does BrownParent. </p>
<p>Just hearing what you’re interested in makes me think you could write a really neat essay that starts with you, in the kitchen, working on a wedding cake (just because a wedding cake is more emotionally loaded than cupcakes). And you can talk about how your hands know what to do, and the first time you made one it was a mess, and you’ve had the chance to see photos of a happy couple slicing into the cake, and you realize that the bits of butter and sugar and flour have come together to be part of their memories, and the cake itself has taken on an almost magical quality. And then you can make a connection with your interest in chemistry and chemical engineering, how you can combine two elements and make something entirely different, and something happens in the combining process.</p>
<p>I’m free associating and it may be getting muddled, but do you see what I mean? Then it’s not just an essay about why you feel at peace in your kitchen – it’s about something very authentic and real and unique to you, but also tells the reader about your interests.</p>