Hi everyone first post here. I'd love feedback on this essay. Thanks so much everyone ahead of time! I want to submit this as soon as possible. By the way, there is a 2000 character limit.
What matters to you, and why?
CHARACTER COUNT: 1987
I feel like I have wondered "Why do we bother keep a dog?" too often. Sometimes, dog ownership does not add up. Take our dog, Lacey. We feed, walk, bathe, clean up after, and provide for her. In response, she constantly begs for food, squats and mightily resists any physical movement involving her being limited to a leash, dirties herself as she tumbles in our front garden's soil, destroys nearly every slipper and sock I own, and seemingly takes for granted the luxuries we cater her. She is also reserved and dives away from any passer-by innocently attempting to pet her - the same way victims try to evade their killers. This, others imply, results from poor ownership on my part.
Even so, Lacey means the world to me. Over our relatively short time together - about 16 months - we have developed a mutual love is difficult to describe and can only be understood through experience. Every day, I look forward to returning home from the stresses of daily life to have Lacey greet me with an unbridled excitement only rivaling that of a teenage girl meeting Justin Bieber for the first time. She then, in her excitement, trails my every step the way Lenny followed George. By doing so, she gives me with a stronger sense of security and comfort, knowing that I mean something to someone. This feeling is is a rarity these days. I also sometimes find it easy to forget to whiff in a fresh breath of air and relax. Lacey's calm and docile personality reminds me to do so. Her nonjudgmental nature and eagerness to please also makes her willing to listen to my many rambles and join me in my random compulsions to go for a jog. Time alone with her opens an invisible portal into a more imaginative and less self-conscious world, one where I do not care about making a complete fool of myself.
Yes, I understood the responsibilities and accompanying stresses of dog ownership but my family and I still chose to adopt Lacey. And that has made all the difference in her life and in mine.
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I fear that I've spent too much time talking about Lacey (my dog) and not enough about myself. I hear from others saying "Oh sure Stanford would love to consider Lacey for admission. Tell me about yourself." But I feel that I've more than sufficiently described my role in my relationship with my dog.
It definitely answers the question of "What matters to you, and why?".
p does not add up
add in "seem" between does and not, because you explain that it does add up in the end.
Adding in the 16 months together as statistical data is good, but to the reader it might not seem like a short time. You could just as easily say a little over a year, to make it seem even shorter.
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trails my every step the way Lenny followed George
to follows, because it's not like George died or the show stopped, it's still shown on some TV shows.
Again, these are all optional changes. Overall, it's a pretty good essay.
