<p>I know the essay is a time to truly express yourself, and that anything can be done provided it's done well.</p>
<p>I'm curious as to, if I'm a kid who goes to summer camp every year (like thousands of others), would writing my college essay about its effect on me be cliche? If I were Jewish (I'm Catholic, but for arguments sake) would writing about my bar mitzvah make my reader yawn?</p>
<p>Essentially, I'm looking for insight on topics that will make my admissions officer's eyes glaze over. I think I'm a better writer than most, but with a cliche topic you're saddled in with everyone else who wrote about that.</p>
<p>If you think your topic is going to make your reader roll his/her eyes, it’s probably going to do just that. While what ADad says is true, at the end of the day, his comments are more relevant for experienced narrators than for students. </p>
<p>Don’t start with a topic that doesn’t inspire YOU to begin with. You need to be able to feel excited about writing. That enthusiasm will find its way into your writing, and ultimately, make the right kind of impression on your reader.</p>
<p>ADad hit the nail on the head.
what you write about only needs to be significant to you. there are no other criteria. it’s how you write it that’s important</p>
<p>the only things you must avoid are your personal beliefs about politics or religion (e.g. abortion, whether God exists, etc.).
however, in terms of religion, you can write about things like bar mitzvahs or visiting temples if you keep it focused on yourself and don’t mention controversial religious beliefs</p>
<p>Of course the topic has to excite the writer. But if camp or bar mitzvah excites the writer, they should write on that and not worry that others may also have written on it.</p>
<p>The problem with thinking about subjects this way is that it puts you into a dangerous frame of mind. </p>
<p>Are you writing a story about the bar mitzvah? Or something that happened at the bar mitzvah? In that case, is the story even about the bar mitzvah at all, or is that simply the setting for your actual story? </p>
<p>If you decided your topic was ‘my bar mitzvah’ and ended up writing about it, chances are, you, like 99% of of the students out there, would end up spending way too much time talking about the event and not the actual story that goes along with it. </p>
<p>When this happens…bloop. You’ve done what everyone else does - write a boring story on a boring, overdone topic. </p>
<p>So be careful in thinking about how you want to set things up before you begin writing.</p>