Hi all-- I am applying to Georgia Tech and Purdue via the common app. I chose to write about prompt 4: Describe a place or environment where you are perfectly content. What do you do or experience there, and why is it meaningful to you?
I have the opening two sentences of my essay, and I fell like they describe me well and also reflect what the admission officers are looking for. Here they are:
"Most people think that being "content" means being completely satisfied. However, I am most content when I am moving forward, both figuratively and literally. "
I was planning on writing one paragraph on the figurative interpretation, and one on the literal. What I am struggling with is how to fill these paragraphs. I would like to include anecdotes from my life, but I can't come up with any anecdotes that apply to progress and the idea of moving forward. Similarly, for the second paragraph, I know I want to write about running and cycling (sports that I do that aren't otherwise reflected in my application and that deal quite literally with moving forward) but I am having trouble coming up with information to fill and entire paragraph with without being redundant.
Thank you so much for all your help!
I think with a prompt like this what the admissions people are looking for is a lot of detail. I expect that the best essays to come out of this prompt will take a very small and perhaps meaningless place: the attic where the student likes to read, the swing by the river, and the like, and they will describe this place with the utmost detail and feeling. These essays will describe every single sight, sound, smell, and especially feeling evoked in the author in that place.
With that in mind, I would suggest for you to cut down on the two different environments you are going to talk about, since the prompt does ask for "a" place and describe that place, which in your context might be running on a hidden trail, or biking through the city or something, and describe everything you sense and feel as you are there. This should also make your writing quite easy as all you need to do is go running/cycling, try to remember everything that you felt, and write about. You could also look for examples of great imagery like you need in a lot of classic works of fiction.
If you really want to describe two different places, then I guess you could apply the same imagery filled writing to those two places, but I personally think that would just dilute your message unless you do it just right.
