<p>What have people been writing about for the "pick one of the quotes below as a jumping off point and use it to describe an experience you have had that helps you define a value"?</p>
<p>I finished mine (I wrote about how when i was 11 these two [drunk] teenage girls started a fight with my mom and swore at her in a parking lot. my mom basically told them that they shouldnt be wasting words on swears when life is too short. since then, i have never said a single swear in my life, even though my friends call me a prude.
so basically, i wrote about how this experience helped me realize that i should stay true to myself (even tho people pressure me to swear i shouldn't) and also made me realize that people are hypocritical for using swears as a way to be "cool", even though swears are vulgar and encourage hate...
any feedback??? i feel like my value is too trivial, but i just havent had many life-changing experiences (compared to my friend who wrote about how when she was nine she wanted to help kids in the philippines and so made her parents adopt her younger sister -- which is completely MADE UP)</p>
<p>I did basically what angelutza did, but I was wondering - how long are your essays? Mine was written for a 500 word limit, and it hurts me to think of cutting any bit of it out. However, I'm afraid that Princeton will see that I did not write this essay specifically for its 300-word limit, so I'm in a quandary as to whether I should cut it down or not..</p>
<p>I too wrote it for a 500 word limit. It ended up at 460, and I just left it at that. I had originally had it at about 900, and cutting it almost in half made it as condensed and succinct as feasibly possible.</p>
<p>I'm an atheist, but I was raised in Hinduism with influences from a flurry of other Eastern ethics and belief systems. I wrote on a crude translation of Siddhartha Gautama's 'First Noble Truth.' [It was genuine, and I suspect it will be a major undertaking to fabricate it in my graphic but realistic and brief detail.]</p>
<p>i tried to stick to the 300 word limit. it is 412 but it is succinct.
Geeknerd, your upbringing sounds very similar to mine--except i am Hindu but was raised with influences from other belief systems. Your essay sounds very interesting (-and very challenging!)</p>
<p>gooo..i just finished a killer essay about all the ways in which my spunky 65 yr old Latin teacher influenced me...but it's like 700 words....any advice/anyone want to read it and help me out...please.....ahhhhh</p>
<p>I'm writing about how I came to label myself with the term atheist, even though I was raised in a really religious family... It fits the given quote about questions, I think. I keep forgetting where I'm going with it.</p>
<p>@ the OP: if I were you, I'd make sure you focus more on how you don't swear because you value being yourself instead of moralizing too much on the use of swear words. Some swear words are just words to express anger with and don't encourage hate, though others are derogatory and insulting terms for people, so it depends. I'm sure your essay rocks, though. : ) Cool topic.</p>
<p>Actually, I wrote my original Princeton supplement a few weeks ago, but after today I felt compelled to write a new one. And this one is definitely a lot better. Should I write that as a note on my application anywhere, so they don't think I'm a procrastinator?</p>
<p>So, my essay is on atheism, because...I'm an atheist. However, a ton of my community service hours come from helping service activities involved in church, because my family (especially my mother) is very involved and I am dragged into the whole thing. I like to do the church stuff because it's largely secular (painting houses, helping organize things), I don't disagree with the message the church is sending out, and they do a LOT of work in our community, but will Princeton give me a weird look for having opposing forces going on here? I don't have a place to explain all that in my essay; do I need to?</p>