One of the four questions I picked for my UC app was the significant challenge question.
The thing is, I’m worried my most significant challenge would make admissions officers uncomfortable? I was comfortable writing it, until I saw all the warnings signs against these essays called “sob stories”. Then I also see the same people saying to not leave out an important tragedy or situation in your life.
Basically, my father was both abusive and verbally abusive to my sister, mom, and I when we were younger. We lived in fear of him and he was manipulating our guilt. We were also a really low income family, having to live in a rented room from a stranger’s house from time to time (and that only angered my father even more). After my mom finally divorced my dad, he managed to start a bad custody battle that ensued for years that really affected my concentration in school and activities all throughout my school years until high school, not to mention my younger sister and I were afraid of him whenever it was his turn to have us.
Of course, this left a mark on me. Even throughout high school, I had some leftover pieces from that history. I went through a lot of therapy, being diagnosed with PTSD and treated for it (I’m good now). However, through it all, I managed to excel in school work. I got mostly straight As with two Bs in high school, and my mom and I live in a well-off neighborhood and go to a privileged school. We managed to rise above everything that happened, and I am a participant in many school activities. I am going to be the first in my family in America to go to college (I am a first-generation American, all of my family immigrated), and I was even able to finance on my own from airfare to spending money a study abroad program.
But again, it’s a pretty touchy subject, and I really don’t want to resemble a sob story, because that’s not who I am now as a senior in high school. Thoughts? Should I change to something else?
