Well, I neglected the advice of all the upperclassmen who told me to finish my essays before the end of summer, and now I’m growing a little anxious. I’m an uncreative and shaky writer, and my lack of confidence has contributed to my procrastination up until now. My senior year will start in a week, and while I don’t want to rush, I aim to finish brainstorming by the time I return.
I think a particular weakness is my wordiness and lack of structure. I also have absolutely no clue how strong or weak my current ideas are, so I would appreciate any serious and blunt advice. I’m particularly worried that my ideas don’t showcase how I’ve grown or how what I’ve learned will help others… Anyways, I have 2 vague concepts (that relate closely) at the moment.
Common App Prompt #1 (meaningful interest)
I have been planning an “excursion” for about a month now. I want to walk to and then sketch my favorite place in the whole city: a magical little private greenhouse that I usually pass by on jogs and to volunteering. Due to vacation/work/practice/general embarrassment, I haven’t yet made the trek yet, but I plan to execute this vision and write about it before the end of summer.
In my essay, I specifically would like to address how art has changed the way I view the world. I will incorporate this theme by describing the details of my walk as I make my way to the greenhouse. Some examples: As I pass by my city art museum, I remember all the times I’ve taken my little sister there to admire the various styles and periods of art. I will describe the way the sun shines, and the way the docks float on the water (in hopefully slightly better imagery than what I just used…). I see art in the way people smile, in the energetic rush hour blur, in the way people smile and sing and dance. I basically want to show how studying and trying to improve my art has made me see the world in unexpected ways and notice wondrous silly details. I find that art is everywhere and everything, and it always makes me smile. I especially want to show how when I first moved here, I absolutely hated it. I hated the stench, the business, the noise, the people, and just the entire city. In contrast, I now admire the diverse feel of the city, the interesting murals and graffiti, history, etc. I truly feel as if I’ve evolved into a more accepting and open minded person due to how I learned to consider unique perspectives with art.
[I also could throw in some dumb puns about learning values through new perspectives haha]
So this essay would basically be a little narrative about my stroll through the city and either ending with or after I finish sketching the greenhouse. I am stumped on how I can demonstrate how art has made me accepting of people’s differences and different ways of thinking though…
Common App Prompt #2 (overcoming a challenge)
This idea is embarrassing, and perhaps childish, but I’ll own up to it because it’s what I really enjoy. This is sort of a series of failures leading up to a final success. I’m not sure if that counts as one challenge, but maybe the endless times I’ve been rejected could count as one big challenge.
I love those geeky things that some teens secretly love and others openly make fun of, from my experience: things like anime, cartoons, video games,hatsune miku, etc. Online I can openly share my interests and connect with thousands of others who feel the same way. I know this can be viewed negatively/as wasting time by many, but the experience has been very enriching for an introvert such as myself. My favorite part about online fandoms is how people are always organizing and participating in collaborations, countdowns, fanzines, etc. I admired the lovely art that people made, and I wanted to be like them and contribute to something more significant than doodles in a notebook… that inspired me to start drawing. I wanted to express my emotions and love of my interests through art, and I practiced when I could.
I’m not sure what compelled me to do this (what was I thinking?), but around 6 months after I started learning how to draw, I decided to apply to those things I’ve always admired (the countdowns, collabs, etc). It was a harsh slap of reality when I received my first rejection letter. And then another. It was frustrating and humiliating. After I finally got over myself, I used the rejections as motivation. I kept the emails in my inbox and would refer to them when I didn’t feel like drawing, or when I was stumped on what to improve on. Another 6 months passed, and I was feeling a little confident in my art once again. I struggled, got frustrated, and practiced and practiced to get to that point. So I started applying to fanzines, etc again. I tried not to take it personally this time. But as rejections piled up again, I felt as if they were criticizing not only my art, but all of my efforts, my emotions, my soul. I felt dejected and inadequate once again… but I got up and kept drawing, reminding myself of how I made art to have fun and express my feelings for what I love.
And on a day when I really, really wanted to stop applying, finally, I got an acceptance for a zine. I was elated. I continued to apply for others and rejections kept on coming, but that once success was enough to motivate me for another year at least. After a few months, a year had passed since my very first rejections. Applications had just opened up for one of the first collabs I had applied to, the one that had simultaneously discouraged and motivated me to keep drawing. I applied… and was accepted! I went back and looked at the first time I had applied and compared the differences. It was frighteningly obvious how much I had improved, and while I was freaked out by my old self, I was proud that I had kept going and actually made it.
I’m not sure how to fit this in, but those countless (actually, I have most of them still in my inbox as a reminder) rejections have toughened my skin a bit. I was and still am pretty sensitive, and I’ve realized it’s impossible to take critiques on my art, which is so close to my soul, impersonally. Even so, I’ve learned how to deal with even the most crushing rejections and to use my spite as fuel. This summer, I’ve thrown myself into so many things that I was afraid of (starting a club/asking to shadow/leadership camp/submitting my gold award proposal), all because art has made me personally experience the meaning of “you miss all the shots you never take.” [I do want to avoid using actual cliches, even if my essays themselves are already cliche ideas…]
Hopefully these ideas make some sense. But are they significant and expressive enough about myself? I’m trying to write my essays without looking at too many others, however, because I can accidentally write in the same style/about the same things as what I was last reading…
Which essay, if either, seems like an interesting and revealing enough topic to expand into my essay? Any advice is greatly, greatly appreciated. Thank you
