Your Common App essay doesn't need a trauma dump. It needs a moment.

[Wilkinson]

To the user yesterday who asked about writing an essay on failing to make roti (bread) perfectly round: THAT IS A PERFECT TOPIC. .

So many people think a "challenge" has to be life-threatening. It doesn't.
The Formula:

1. Specific, tangible task (making round bread).
2. Failure (it comes out square/weird).
3. Initial reaction (gave up/avoidance).
4. Realization (avoidance = future failure).
5. New approach (asked grandma/watched tutorials).
6. Broader meaning (perfection is isolating, community enables growth).
   Don't worry about the topic being "too small." Worry about the insight being too shallow.

 

[Tommy]

Wilkinson coming through with the TRUTH.

The number of students who think they need to manufacture trauma for college essays is actually heartbreaking. Like, no!! Admissions officers can tell when you're being fake!! They'd rather read about your weird roti-shaped bread than another "I survived [tragedy] and now I'm strong" essay that sounds like everyone else's.

The formula you laid out is perfect. Specific moment + failure + learning + meaning. That's it. That's the whole thing.

Also "perfection is isolating, community enables growth" would literally be an amazing thesis for a whole paper. Just saying.