UW Madison Application. My parents' divorce. Let me know what could use improving or corrections.

Prompt: Consider something in your life you think goes unnoticed and write about why it's important to you.

It was the first Friday in April of my fourth grade year. It was 1:50 in the afternoon when my teacher gave me a note sent from the office. It said that my mother was waiting to pick me up outside and I was to go right away, so I packed my things and went to the front of school. I got there and I saw my two brothers sitting under a tree with my mother, I walked over and took a seat on the cool ground. My mother began telling us how she and my father were going to separate and no longer live together. This was the most important event in my life that goes unnoticed. I was at the age of nine when my parents got divorced, at that age I really didn't know what was happening or what it meant, but eventually I learned that my childhood would change drastically. The divorce had more of an impact on my younger and older brothers than on me since I was oblivious to what was going on around me. This caused both of my brothers to follow the way I had dealt with the situation, so I was volunteered as the role model. This caused me to cut my childhood short and mature much faster as I had to learn how to take better care of my brothers and myself. This not only affected me at home but also at school, since my parents' divorce was unnoticed by my peers and the majority of my peers had not gone through what I had. Since I matured faster than my peers I did not act nor think like them. At times I felt as if I was a social outcast since I did not understand childish acts that would be normal for my peers to commit at their maturity level. This was very important to me because as school went on and my peers matured I stared to fit in with more of my peers. The more I fit in the more I realized that my peers did not judge based on my parents being divorced. This caused me to slowly forget about my parents' divorce as it seemed to be just another subconscious part of my life that I learned to live with.

Luke, I believe that you misunderstood the prompt. The essay is asking you to look for something about you, as represented by your life. It could be a character, a trait, or anything unique about you that other people mention to you as something that makes you special to them. The divorce of your parents is not a character or trait that represents something unnoticed about your life. It is something that other people did not notice either because it is practically a normal part of married / family life in the United States. So I don't think that you should use this particular event as a representation of something about you that you have not noticed about yourself.

I would like you to reconsider the topic for this essay. Consider your relationship with other people and ask yourself if there were ever instances when you would do something and that person or people would tell you "That is what I / we like about you." Is it an instance when you did something without even thinking about it and it resulted in something positive for you or the people around you? Such events are the typical themes for this essay. You have to be conscious of what you are doing but think that other people do not notice that trait in you. When you figure out what that is, you can then discuss why you feel that this particular activity, character or trait is important to your life.

The aim of this essay is to give you an opportunity to present something about your activity (activities) that places you in a unique position. It could be your sense of empathy, your inborn helpfulness, your willingness to help those in need, or some trait along those lines. The reviewer will be looking for a part of your personality that will tell him how you can be an asset to the university as a student or member of the student body. This essay will tell them how you can enhance the university experience and if you will be a fit for their student community. Try to present yourself along those lines by using the most relevant part of your life as the topic of the essay. It is not about an event, it is about something you did in your life that you think people did not notice. So the opinion of other people about the matter will also be as important as everything else you have to say in the essay. My advice is to find something other than the divorce of your parents in this essay.

- It was the first Friday inof April..
- ofin my fourth grade year ( did this happen in high school or primary school, in this sentence,it will help if you're a bit specific) .

- ...in my life that goeswent unnoticed.
- I was at the agedof nine when...
- ....so I was volunteered as the role model.
- ...since my parents'( the apostrophe is not necessary in the word "parents)
- ...the majority of my peersthem had not gone through what I had.

Divorce is a serious issue and for this issue to go unnoticed is an act of denial, I believe that the best way to deal with problems or issues such as divorce is to deal with it,face it and find solutions to overcome it.