Must I choose one of the five suggestions, or can I write about anything?
I’m pretty sure you have to choose one of the 5. They’re pretty broad topics so you can spin them in many ways.
They’re not suggestions. They are your only options, lol.
They’re all pretty broad it’s pretty hard not to have an essay that answers at least one of the prompts
You need to pick one of the 5 prompts listed. Two years ago, I believe, the common app got rid of the “topic of your choice” prompt. My oldest D, who was in the 2012-13 cycle, used that prompt.