<p>Like the title says, what does one do when he has nothing to write about? I looked at some of the Common App topics and I honestly don't know what to write about. I have never had a "life-changing" event, and I'm not really sure how deep I should dig to come up with some profound personal experience that will "wow" colleges.</p>
<p>It doesn’t have to be life-changing. Write about something that is meaningful to you, and show what you learned from it. For example, my friend didn’t have any hardships or “life-changing” events. She wrote about being exposed to different cultures through different people she met. She still got into good schools. </p>
<p>Just try some different prompts, do little drafts. You really never know what you have until you put pen to paper and do the hard work, often something will emerge that you can latch onto. Try one of the Chicago prompts. Maybe some juices will get flowing and you can modify it for other colleges. My daughter used her Chicago essay elsewhere. Her prompt was something like “What do people do with the giant containers of mustard that Costco sells?” She got a whole essay about that because she used to go to Costco and buy giant sized of stuff to make cookies to earn money for a summer activity. She wouldn’t have thought of writing that angle without the weird prompt that made her think of it.</p>
<p>I wrote about going to comic con and how I help out my family and how I’ve also learned a lot from them. I don’t think you need a really unique event, you just want to express it in an interesting and honest way. That’s just my take, though.</p>