<p>ok a little background. hard worker. love sports. last man to be cut from JV bball in grade 10. started tennis in grade 9. worked my ass off and was initially last man cut from tennis team in grade 10(our tennis team is really good), but then was offered another chance. made the tennis team. continue to work my ass off. Most Improved Player the next year.</p>
<p>obviously, this was one of the more impacting experiences of my high school experience, and i wanna put it in my essays. The problem is this, it is such a stereotypical feel-good sport story that i think it might be too predictable (even though it really happened!). Also my family thinks that writing about sports is not good because anyone can write about it then. but my argument is that i really poured my soul out into this thing, and not anybody go through this, albeit a little stereotypical, experience.</p>
<p>The Jock: “Through wrestling, I have learned discipline, determination, and how to work with people… .” Written by many types of students, not just neckless mouth-breathers, this isn’t a subject but a formula: Through X, I have learned Noble Value A, High Platitude B, and Great Lesson C. (You know you’ve written this essay if you can substitute “my career as a mugger,” “hard work,” or “cooking meals at the soup kitchen,” for “mugger *[typo? s.b. wrestling?],” and it still makes sense.) In essays, and in life, attempts to force people into choosing what to think of you don’t work. You just have to be yourself; they get to decide what to think.*</p>
<p>By Harry Bauld, author of On Writing the College Application Essay (HarperCollins, 1987), and has been an admissions officer at Brown and Columbia. He is currently chair of the English department at the Putney School in Vermont. Posted on Reed College web site.</p>