<p>The prompt is to elaborate on an extracurricular/ work experience so I was considering writing about my summer job and the ''real world'' values I learned.</p>
<p>I was going to focus on the fact that I was never trained to do anything so I had to learn everything on my own. It caused a lot of distress and made me want to quit everyday but I stuck it out and made sure that when there were new employees, I showed them the ropes and helped them as much as possible so they wouldn't feel lost like I did my first few weeks there.</p>
<p>Would this be okay or would it sound like a complaint about the management?</p>
<p>It all depends on how you write it, really. If you blatantly write how you “wanted to quit everyday” just as you did in this post, then yeah, it will sound whiny. But, if you angle it and use the “show, don’t tell” strategy, you can be much more subtle with your language in illustrating your struggles against an obstacle and how you overcame it and thrived.</p>
<p>@capitalamerica I definitely wasn’t planning on writing it so blatantly. I wasn’t going to focus so much on ‘‘overcoming obstacles’’ (my main essay focuses on this) but more on the actual experience and what I learned from it.</p>
<p>Another qualm: Would this actually be answering the prompt or are they really just looking for a description of an extracurricular and not necessarily what I gained from it?</p>
<p>Ex: Describing my role as president in a community service club, the kind of volunteer work I do, etc.</p>