<p>I was trying to guess. Hanna hasn't posted an answer yet...</p>
<p>I started mine off with memories of my father's USMC deployments when I was younger, and then turned into how growing up in a family of service has made me want to dedicate my own life to service. I concluded with stating my goal of being a Marine Corps officer, since I feel that this is the way I can best serve my country and family. It wasn't cheesy, but it definitely gave a very accurate picture of who I am. I got in EA.</p>
<p>Just a few themes off the top of my head:</p>
<ol>
<li>Despite Racial/Religious Differences, We're All Alike Inside</li>
<li>I Have Grown To Understand That There Are Poor People In The World</li>
<li>If You Work Hard, You Can Achieve Your Dreams</li>
<li>My Sports Team Has Taught Me So Much/Basketball Is A Metaphor For Life</li>
</ol>
<p>Etc...</p>
<p>Hey, what happens if you expose a major, major weakness in your essay, but on purpose? Mine addresses mental instability, which perhaps treads the line between "artistic" and "alarming." But it's who I am, or was, so I wrote about it. Was this a mistake?</p>
<p>tum tum tum TUM.</p>
<p>how about "my life is past its peak, so take me out to the pasture and shoot me"?</p>
<p>Now those tums: they were to mimic the beginning of Beethoven's ninth?</p>
<p>And by Beethoven's 9th, you mean Beethoven's 5th :)</p>
<p>Indeed. Totally not a Beethoven person.</p>
<p>Oh right, the 9th is that Ode to Joy one, right?</p>
<p>i think so. the one with chorus. Oh man i love the guy who sings the lead in one the cds i have. 5th symphony is eroica i think hero sort of about napoleon at first but ended up not becoming about him.
THat reminds me i saw a movie on Beethoven and his superabusive father who came drunk home and beat him up everyday and how he ran away to the forest every night to avoid it by climbing to the roof and escpaing outside.</p>
<p>I don't know the movie, but I know Beethoven's father was the cause of deafness later in life. Scar tissue in the ears....ouch</p>
<p>I think that a lot of essays that are considered cliche can actually be pretty effective when approached cleverly or originally. i mean, come on, how many great poets have written poems about nature?</p>
<br>
<p>how many great poets have written poems about nature?</p>
<br>
<p>If you're the next Walt Whitman, then you can write your essay about How Volunteering Helped Me Understand The Poor and still get in. Most of us aren't, so avoiding cliche is a good habit to practice.</p>
<p>"It is not until you realize that you are nothing more than a pretentious plagarist, that you are free to write anything."
-martinibluex-</p>
<p>...aaaaand it comes back to Locke, as always :)</p>