My College Application Essay

This blog post also appears on Medium.

I recently came across an essay I wrote in high school and used for my college applications. I’m very glad to have found it because I thought it was lost forever. It is probably the most personal writing I’ve ever done, but I’ve decided to share it here anyways because I think it’s really well written. Here’s the essay that got me into the Ivy League school I attended…

College Essay Final Draft

When I began my high school experience, I had very few close friends and was ready to take on the challenges ahead of myself. I wanted to have newfound success in athletics and academics that I never knew before. I wanted to be adored by my peers and cast into popularity. Now I am nearly a quarter into my senior year of high school and I am in the same situation I was in 3 years ago—only a few close friends and ready to move on to the next phase of my life.

When I began high school, I was a total loner.

All the things that seemed the most important to my 15 year old self are now meaningless annoyances. So much wasted effort could be saved if freshmen came into high school not with the goal of popularity, but with the goal of happiness. For many 14 and 15 year olds, the two concepts seem synonymous. After all, being a part of the popular crowd is practically the same as being a celebrity, right?

My first taste of popularity was my sophomore year after a group of my friends on the football team decided I had a good sense of humor and began campaigning for me as the sophomore Homecoming court representative. My teammates prevailed and next thing I knew I was walking with my family on the football field with the rest of court. With this victory came the attention of people who would not have glanced at me before. I recognized this as happiness at the time. Even though I became genuine friends with some of these kids, I did not realize I never would have existed to them if I had not become popular.

The rest of my sophomore year, I was empowered with confidence that I never had before. I finished my final season of wrestling and then moved on to my favorite time of the year: lacrosse season. I was leading the JV team as a captain and found myself surrounded by a great group of sophomores who became my best friends. Times spent with my handful of friends having a blast while playing our favorite sport are my favorite memories from high school.

Through sports, I found the confidence to branch out and make friends.

But that’s all they are—memories. I watched helplessly as my group of friends slowly grew apart going into my junior year. They each found their own paths separate from each other. I grew very distrusting of my remaining friends throughout my junior year because I realized that it was not the same kind of friendship that it once was; it had become a loosely bound group of kids who shared a few interests but were not concerned with each other’s best interests. As our junior year ended I retained only a few friends from the original group; the ones who stuck around throughout our junior year had flocked to the next kid they believed to be popular. I almost consider them enemies now.

The most important thing high school freshmen need to know is that none of it lasts forever. They will have best friends and girlfriends or boyfriends and they will have great times with them but in the end the only people who will always be there are your family. My brother being in high school and on the same sports teams as me for the past year and a half is one of the single best things that has happened to me, simply because it has taught me the value of family. I could not be happier to find such a great friend in my brother.

Reflecting on my time in high school, I consider myself blessed. I am blessed to have been capable of dealing with the great distraction of interpersonal relationships and still managing to excel in my academics. Many kids are not this fortunate. Many kids forget that they are even at school to get an education.

Looking back at my high school years, I would tell freshmen that popularity is not something to strive for, happiness is. If you can be happy with the situation you have, then that is all that matters. You can strive to be the most popular, but eventually someone more popular will come along and you will be left in the dust. No one can become happier than you and leave you behind.

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