college essay about childhood toy

Describe a Toy You Got in Your Childhood - IELTS Speaking Cue Card Model Answer

Describe a toy you got in your childhood..

Please tell me:

when you got the toy

who gave it to you

explain how you felt about the toy.

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Model Answer 1

One of my most cherished childhood memories revolves around a special toy I received, a vibrant red remote-controlled car. This remarkable gift found its way into my life on my seventh birthday, presented to me by my uncle. The car, with its sleek design and glossy finish, was a miniature replica of a sports car I'd always admired in magazines.

The moment I laid eyes on it, a wave of excitement rushed over me. It wasn't just any toy; it symbolized adventure, speed, and the thrill of technology, all packed into a small, tangible object that I could control. My uncle, aware of my fascination with cars, had chosen this gift with utmost thoughtfulness. His gesture deepened our bond and made me feel incredibly valued and understood.

Operating the car was an exhilarating experience. I spent countless hours maneuvering it through the hallways of our home, creating obstacle courses, and even engaging in friendly races with neighborhood friends. This toy was more than just a source of entertainment; it was a tool that ignited my imagination and fostered a sense of innovation and creativity in me. The joy it brought was immeasurable, often transporting me to a world where I was the driver of my destiny, navigating through life's challenges with the same ease and confidence with which I steered that car.

Reflecting on how I felt about this toy, it's clear that it was an integral part of my childhood. It wasn't just the physical aspect of the toy that mattered, but the emotional connection and the life lessons it inadvertently imparted. It taught me about the joy of exploration, the excitement of learning something new, and the importance of cherishing the thoughtful gestures of loved ones. Even today, the memory of that red remote-controlled car brings a nostalgic smile to my face, reminding me of a simpler, yet profoundly joyful time in my life.

Why this is a High Scoring Answer

The sample answer to "Describe a toy you got in your childhood" beautifully exemplifies what a high-scoring response in the IELTS Speaking test looks like. Let's delve into the specifics that make this answer stand out.

1. Detailed and Vivid Descriptions:  The response paints a vivid picture of the red remote-controlled car, using descriptive language that brings the toy to life. Words like "vibrant," "sleek design," and "glossy finish" are not just visually stimulating but also demonstrate a wide range of vocabulary. This richness in description shows an ability to use varied language effectively, a key criterion in the IELTS Speaking test.

2. Personal Connection and Reflection:  The answer goes beyond mere description by reflecting on the emotional significance of the toy. Phrases like "symbolized adventure, speed, and the thrill of technology" and "deepened our bond" showcase the candidate's ability to articulate personal feelings and connections, a skill highly valued in the test.

3. Use of Narrative Style:  The response is structured like a short story, with a clear beginning, middle, and end. This narrative style makes the answer engaging and demonstrates the speaker's ability to organize thoughts coherently and cohesively, an essential aspect of the test.

4. Varied Sentence Structures:  The answer employs a mix of simple, compound, and complex sentences. This variety in sentence structure indicates a high level of proficiency in English grammar, which is crucial for scoring well.

In addition to these points, you, as a learner aiming for a high band in IELTS, can benefit significantly from our exclusive IELTS books (download pdf) . These resources are tailored to enhance your understanding and provide in-depth strategies for excelling in each part of the test.

Model Answer 2

In the tapestry of my childhood memories, one particular toy stands out vividly – a charming, handcrafted wooden puzzle, gifted to me by my grandfather when I was around six years old. This unique toy, composed of various geometric shapes, was not only a plaything but a gateway to a world of imagination and learning.

The day I received this puzzle, my grandfather explained its significance – each piece represented a vital aspect of life, symbolizing harmony and balance. The warmth in his voice and the sparkle in his eyes as he handed me this gift is a memory etched in my heart. It was more than a mere toy; it was a token of love, steeped in wisdom and care.

Engaging with this puzzle was an adventure in itself. Each piece, with its distinct shape and texture, offered a tactile experience that captivated my senses. I would spend hours fitting them together, forming patterns and shapes, reveling in the sense of accomplishment each completed puzzle brought. It wasn't just an activity; it was an exercise in patience, problem-solving, and creativity. The joy of discovering multiple solutions to a single puzzle fostered in me a love for challenges and an appreciation for diverse perspectives.

Reflecting on my feelings towards this toy, it's evident that it played a significant role in shaping my early cognitive and emotional development. It wasn't just an object of amusement but a tool that nurtured my curiosity, honed my analytical skills, and taught me the value of perseverance. The emotional bond I formed with this puzzle goes beyond mere nostalgia; it symbolizes the enduring lessons of my childhood and the timeless wisdom imparted by my grandfather. Even today, the memory of those quiet afternoons spent solving the wooden puzzle serves as a reminder of the simple joys of learning and the enduring power of heartfelt gifts.

The sample response to "Describe a toy you got in your childhood" is a model answer that would likely achieve a high score in the IELTS Speaking test, and here's why:

1. Rich, Descriptive Language:  The response is laden with descriptive details that paint a vivid picture, like "charming, handcrafted wooden puzzle" and "each piece represented a vital aspect of life." Such descriptions demonstrate an extensive vocabulary and the ability to use language effectively to describe objects and emotions.

2. Personal Engagement and Emotional Depth:  The speaker connects deeply with the topic, sharing personal feelings and memories. Phrases like "a memory etched in my heart" and "the emotional bond I formed" exhibit the ability to reflect on and articulate personal experiences, a skill that is highly valued in the IELTS Speaking section.

3. Coherent Structure:  The response is well-organized, narrating a story that begins with receiving the toy and explores its significance. This coherent structure, moving seamlessly from one idea to the next, shows excellent organizational skills.

4. Varied Sentence Construction:  The use of a mix of simple, compound, and complex sentences, like "Each piece, with its distinct shape and texture, offered a tactile experience that captivated my senses," demonstrates grammatical range and accuracy.

5. Demonstrating Critical Thinking:  The candidate reflects on how the toy influenced their development, using phrases like "nurtured my curiosity" and "taught me the value of perseverance." This reflection demonstrates critical thinking skills, adding depth to the response.

Now, if you're aiming to excel in your IELTS Speaking test, enhancing your preparation with our exclusive IELTS books (download pdf) could be a game-changer for you. These resources provide comprehensive strategies and practice materials to help you articulate your thoughts as effectively in your test.

Model Answer 3

Among the myriad of toys that colored my childhood, one remains particularly close to my heart – a classic, blue teddy bear, a gift I received from my parents on a cold winter morning of my fifth birthday. This cuddly companion, with its soft fur and comforting embrace, instantly became my cherished treasure.

I remember vividly the day I got it. The skies were gray, but the room lit up with joy when my parents surprised me with this bear. It was more than just a toy; it was a symbol of love and comfort. Holding it in my arms, I felt a sense of security and warmth that only a child can experience in the presence of a beloved toy.

This teddy bear was my constant companion. It was there during long car rides, family vacations, and even under my pillow during thunderous nights. The bear was not just an object for amusement; it was a source of solace and a listener to my endless childhood stories. Playing with it, talking to it, and even pretending it could talk back, nurtured my imagination and emotional expression.

The emotional connection I had with this toy was profound. It represented the innocence of childhood and the unspoken bond of familial love. It taught me the value of companionship, the joy of imaginative play, and the comfort of having something constant in a world of change. Even now, when I reminisce about this blue teddy bear, it evokes a sense of nostalgia and a reminder of simpler, carefree days.

Looking back, I realize how this toy was not just a part of my playtime, but a vital piece of my childhood that helped shape my understanding of affection and comfort. The memory of this teddy bear is a cherished chapter in the story of my growing years, symbolizing the unwavering love and security provided by my family.

The response to the topic "Describe a toy you got in your childhood" is exemplary for several reasons, all of which contribute to its potential for a high score in the IELTS Speaking section:

1. Rich Descriptive Language:  The narrative begins with evocative language, describing the toy as a "classic, blue teddy bear." The use of adjectives like "cuddly," "soft," and "comforting" paints a vivid picture for the listener, showcasing the candidate’s ability to use a wide range of vocabulary effectively.

2. Emotional Depth and Personal Connection:  The speaker's deep emotional connection with the toy is evident throughout the narrative. Phrases like "symbol of love and comfort" and "a sense of security and warmth" illustrate the speaker's skill in expressing and reflecting on personal feelings and experiences.

3. Storytelling and Coherence:  The answer is structured as a narrative, taking the listener from the moment of receiving the toy through the various experiences associated with it. This storytelling approach demonstrates the candidate's ability to organize ideas logically and coherently.

4. Grammatical Range and Accuracy:  The narrative employs a variety of sentence structures, from simple to complex, exemplified in sentences like "This teddy bear was my constant companion." Such diversity in sentence construction demonstrates grammatical proficiency.

And, if you're preparing for your IELTS and seeking comprehensive guidance, our exclusive IELTS books (download pdf) could be the perfect aid for you. They offer in-depth strategies and practice exercises designed to enhance your speaking skills.

In summary, the provided answer to "Describe a toy you got in your childhood" is a sterling example of how to effectively communicate a personal story with emotional depth, descriptive language, and a coherent structure – all of which are key to achieving a high score in the IELTS Speaking test.

• Speaking Cue Card Answers

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Describe a toy you liked in your childhood (Score 8+)

IELTS Speaking Part-2: Describe a toy you liked in your childhood cue card and follow-up with band 7-9 answers

You should say:

What kind of toy it is?

When you received it, how you played it, how you felt about it.

9 Band Answer

Let’s dive into the ‘ Describe a toy you liked in your childhood ’ IELTS cue card (2022) with Band 7-9 sample answers & Follow up questions:

Introducing a toy

I was very  fond of toys in my childhood . It was my favourite activity to spend time with my collection of cars, dirt bikes, toy guns etc.

Here, I would love to describe a toy that made my childhood memorable.

• My best-loved toy is a PlayStation which has lots of free video games.
• My fondness and love for gaming started when I was only 3 years old.
• This is when my life was filled with an obsession with computers, consoles, puzzles and toy games.
• I received this toy on my 14 th birthday.
• I had always wanted a video game ever since I saw it at the supermarket.
• So my parents fulfilled their promise on that day.
• When I woke up, I got the gift on by my bedside.
• I must tell you, it was the best birthday present ever.
• I still remember how crazily I called my friends to play with it.
• I invited a bunch of friends over and had a video game party.
• After my father made the necessary connections, the first video game was ready to play.
• It was Pitfall . This was a wonderful game where I played as a little man in green pants known as Harry.
• I spent my time jumping over scorpions, using vines to swing over logs, and trying to avoid being eaten by crocodiles.
• I felt super excited on that day.
• One could see the expression of happiness on my face every time I was holding my toy.
• I loved being able to play whatever games I wanted and spent hours doing so.

Concluding the cue card

In the end, I would say that it is one of the childhood memories that I would never let go of. Even as an adult, I still think about my favourite toy.

7-8 Band Answer

I had many toys in my childhood. My favourite childhood toy, without a doubt, has to be a remote-controlled car. I got it from a McDonald’s restaurant under their “Happy Meals” campaign. In fact, I desperately wanted to collect all the toys from each series in Happy Meals.

I vividly remember it was packed in a beautiful yellow box when the restaurant staff gave it to me. The toy was red in colour and I used to spend hours playing with it. I liked this toy because I could take it with me everywhere and slept with it too. There was also a music system in my car which played my favourite rhymes.

The car was so fascinated that I discharged the batteries in just a few hours. I called my friends to play with it. They all cherished playing with the car. As I recall, once I took it to school and my mother yelled at me when I came back home.

Also, I was very possessive about my car and never used to let anyone touch it. I have never considered offering it to my younger cousins. I remember playing with it non stop for days and it has always been my favourite of all time toys.

However, now it’s lost somewhere, but neither lost in my memories nor my heart.

Also Read: Describe a person you only met once and want to know more about IELTS Cue-Card

Follow-up (9 Band)

IELTS Speaking Part-3 Describe a toy you liked in your childhood follow up questions :

1. What is the difference between girls’ and boys’ toys?

The girls’ toys are differentiated with physical attractiveness, nurturance, and domestic skill such as Barbie dolls, ballerina costumes, makeup, jewellery etc. Whereas, boys’ toys are rated as aggressive, exciting, and somewhat dangerous such as wrestlers, soldiers, guns, etc. As boys and girls play with different kinds of toys, it is interesting to see the impact of these differences in their play experiences.

2. Do you think toys really help in children’s development?

Toys play an important role in the lives of young children. They stimulate the development of cognitive skills and nurture their creativity and imagination . Educational toys specifically can help  develop problem-solving skills and teach about conflict resolution.

3. Does modern technology have an influence on children’s toys?

Technology always has a deep influence on the type of toys children play with. Most toys now have computer chips, memory, voice recognition, and interactive connectivity that has completely changed the landscape of play. 

4. Have we lost our hand skills such as sewing?

In the race of modernisation, we’ve certainly lost our Sewing hand skills. Today, there are college-educated, smart women who have no hand skills whatsoever. I think people lack the patience and self-discipline to make any progress in learning skills such as sewing.

5. What toys are popular with kids in India today?

Following toys are most popular among kings in India:

• Convertible Robot Car
• Thanjavur Dolls
• Funskool Jenga
• Hot Wheels Car Track Set
• Rubik’s Cube
• Classic Chess

6. In general, do children today have many toys?

Most families have too many toys in India . Children are easily overwhelmed with choice, and generally, a child who is unsure of what to play with often ends up playing with nothing at all. From my perspective, I think fewer toys allow children to love books, music, colouring, and painting. They can spend more time outside the house and engage in physical activities.

7. Do you think playing with electronic toys has a good influence on kids?

Indeed, electronic toys acquaint kids with new technology. I think good quality electronic toys do more than just entertain – they make learning fun by captivating children’s attention with colours, sounds and interactive elements.

8. Do you think there are some toys that are only suitable for girls and some that are only suitable for boys?

Some toys such as slot car racers, radio-controlled cars, electric trains, wrestling figures and video games are only suitable for boys. Whereas, Barbie dollhouse, Bellarina costume, Pink ice skates are some of the toys only suitable for girls.

9. Which do you think is better, for children to play with toy alone or with other kids?

I think playing alone is preferably better than playing with others due to the following reasons:

• Playing alone fosters imagination .
• It develops a strong sense of independence in children so that they don’t need anyone around to be happy.
• Playing by themselves brings a sense of calmness .
• Playing alone allows children to be creative without criticism from others.

10. Do you think parents should encourage their children to share their toys with other kids?

It is very important for parents to encourage the habit of sharing amongst their children. Sharing teaches children about compromise and fairness . They learn that if we give our toys to other kids, we can get their toys to play with in return. I feel that when parents  model good sharing  in the family, it gives their children an ideal example to follow.

11. How are toys today different to toys of the past?

There are many differences between toys from the past and present. Earlier toys were usually made from wood, metal, or cardboard and they were mostly handmade . Modern toys are made from plastic, nylon or foam and are produced in large factories. Toys from the past were often unsafe as some had sharp edges and were made from unsafe materials. But nowadays, there are strict rules in place to make sure toys are very safe to play with.

12. How do you think toys will change in the future?

As we imagine the future of play, there are plenty of factors that will influence its evolution. I think Artificial intelligence, 3D printing and augmented reality   are changing the ways new toys are being made and how we interact with them . I feel that smart toys will learn from children and provide an adaptive and more responsive play experience in the future.

Describe a toy you liked in your childhood #IELTSCueCard : Q. How do you think toys will change in the future? 👉In the next decade, toys could foster early childhood development through holograms and other immersive, personalised experiences. — Canadian Immigration Channel 🇨🇦💬 (@cic_talks) January 30, 2022

13. If you were going to give a present to a child, what would you give him?

I would give a child an interactive globe as a present. It would let them explore more about the world while sitting at home. They would download the app to learn fun facts about the planet, cultures and ecosystems on the planet, play games and go on scavenger hunts around the globe.  

14. What kinds of gifts do parents give to their young children?

RC Cars, Barbie dolls, Storybooks, T-shirts, Shoes and Watches are the kind of gifts that parents give to their young children. They anticipate the desires and act in a way that serves the child’s best interests.

15. Is it good to give children too many presents such as too many toys?

I think for children, an overload of playthings and toys can be overwhelming and distracting . They pick up one toy, drop it, and move on. So they don’t learn to appreciate their possessions or feel a responsibility towards them. I believe the children can be too much creative when they have fewer toys to play with.

Describe a toy you liked in your childhood Follow up (7 band)

Also Read: Describe your experience when you changed your school/college IELTS Cue-Card

I hope it gives you some realistic idea on how to carry a conversation around Describe a toy you liked in your childhood IELTS Cue card topic. However, it is strongly advised not to reproduce the same answer during a speaking examination , as it may be used by many of our readers on the site. You should rather reformulate and personalise your answer.

If you still have any doubts, post them in the comments.

ALL THE BEST !

• Describe a famous person that you are interested in (Score 8+)
• Describe your experience when you changed your school/college IELTS Cue-Card

Rajit is the co-founder and an active blogger at 'CIC Talks'. He is best known for his rich expertise in IELTS & Canadian Immigration. Feel free to connect with him on Instagram & Twitter .

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My Favorite Toys as a Child

Reflect on the personal significance of favorite childhood toys. This nostalgic piece will recount memories associated with specific toys, their role in childhood development, and the emotional connection formed. It can include a broader perspective on how toys reflect cultural values and technological changes over time. PapersOwl showcases more free essays that are examples of Child.

How it works

Reflecting on my childhood, I remember how a marker and a whiteboard used to be my favorite plaything. I recall myself pretending to be a teacher and scribbling words on the whiteboard to teach my imaginary students. Little did I know what a teacher was and how they impacted the lives of so many young people. But as I grew up, went to school and earned my educational experiences, I began to appreciate the immense contribution they made in molding the being I am today.

Even now that I am enrolled in college, I truly cannot express the value of the skills and knowledge I have acquired in classroom that was only made possible through the hard work of my school teachers and college professors.

This is what has inspired me to take teaching as a profession in the future, because just like my teachers I desire to help my students learn and think critically and also instill the same positive thoughts into them that they had the ability to make positive contributions in the society. Hence, I believe that the Pathways to Science Teaching Program would be a wonderful addition to my experiences in order to develop myself as a future teacher.

Keeping my interests in mind, I have never ceased to miss an opportunity for teaching students. At present, I work as a Learning Assistant under WMU Student Success Services responsible for helping college students with their gateway courses by facilitating extra study sessions after class and also preparing activities that would enable students to understand the material better. This is serving as my first step towards preparing me for the teaching profession that awaits. As much as I enjoy talking about science and explaining concepts to my students, I also take pleasure in answering any sort of thought provoking questions that they pose. This not only helps me learn new information but also creates a platform for me to share my ideas and opinions on a subject.

I am confident that the Pathways to Science Teaching Program will further grant me the opportunity to explore my interests, giving me an insight of how my future job could look like. By being able to work alongside experienced mentors, I would have the chance to access from their pool of knowledge and put my learning into practice by applying them into teaching middle school students. More importantly, it would strengthen my skills that are necessary for me to have as a potential future educator, helping me to identify areas in which I still need improvement. As a result, I would be able to accomplish my passion through my exposure to both learning science and teaching simultaneously.

I feel that this summer program would be a perfect fit for my interests and my future as a science teacher provided that it accommodates all the aspects that I had been looking for in a program; learning, thinking practicing and teaching science. If I am given the opportunity to be a part of it, it would not only be a rewarding experience, but would also take the “childhood teacher” in me a step closer to her dreams.

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Inspiring essay about stuffed animal helps teen get into 20 schools

ENGLEWOOD, New Jersey (WABC) -- A high school senior in New Jersey who got into 20 colleges has drawn strength from a very important stuffed animal in his life.

He's worn and tattered but don't judge a book by its cover. Chris Butcher says his stuffed animal played a huge part of him getting into 20 colleges -- including six Ivy Leagues.

But more importantly, it helped the 18-year-old come to terms with his Blackness.

The Dalmatian actually belonged to Butcher's older brother, Taylor, who died when he was only a few months old.

The delicate toy, named Bigdog, has been with Butcher since day one.

"When I had negative encounters, I would come home and if I'm sitting in my bedroom, Bigdog was there for me, a reassuring object," Butcher said.

Butcher is a senior at Dwight Morrow in Englewood but felt he never fit in. He wrote about it in the essay part of his college application, admitting race was the source of his inner hatred.

He felt so defeated, he broke down and once again turned to Bigdog, but then had an ah-ha moment, writing, "if I did not let Big Dog's decaying structure define his worth, I was not going to let my Black skin, define mine."

"He's old, neck is falling apart and I use that to show how his outward appearance brings about judgment to how my Black skin brings judgment when people see me," Butcher said.

A major turning point for Butcher, who went on to start the Black Student Union at school, is he is now soaring and heading to Princeton in the fall.

And it's no surprise that Butcher has already decided he wants to major in Molecular Biology and also focus on African American Studies.

"I want to be a doctor, not sure of my specialty, maybe cardiology or emergency medicine," he said.

As for Bigdog, he wont be making the trip to Princeton but will stay home with Butcher's mom in his new role.

TRENDING: 'Winnie the Pooh: The New Musical Adaptation' coming to the NYC stage this fall

Read Butcher's moving essay below:

One would think a stern warning from my pulmonologist, multiple emergency room visits due to triggered asthma, and an allergy to dust mites would resonate that I cannot have stuffed animals. However, I could never get rid of my stuffed Dalmatian, Bigdog (yes, his name is Bigdog). Bigdog has been through a lot. His spotted ashen gray torso, which was once white, reveals crevices where stuffing seeps out regularly through his fur. These deformities are just a few of the several that permeate his decrepit body. By examining his external appearance, anyone would think that he needs to be thrown out as there is no reason for me to keep this battered relic from my childhood. Yet, if one inquired about his significance, they would realize why he is so precious to me. Bigdog often gets judged at first glance. His essence is determined by what people observe in two seconds, which is something both of us have in common. Like Bigdog, my outward appearance previously served as my only form of identity. As a Black male in a predominantly Asian high school magnet program, I felt I did not belong. My racial identity was always at the forefront of my mind. I did not speak up in Socratic seminars in fear of being labeled as the "dumb Black kid." When I did participate, I always spoke two octaves higher to make my presence less threatening. I even cut my hair believing it was nothing more than an ugly, nappy nuisance. I attempted to escape the identity that was inescapable: my Blackness. It was my ultimate hindrance, the source of my inner hatred and envy. By the time I reached junior year, I was losing the war I waged within myself. Chasing my dream of becoming an emergency medicine physician, juggling intense coursework, all while trying to reject my blackness was unbearable and emotionally taxing. One late night after spending hours studying and contemplating my situation, I was defeated. I ran to my room and cried into Bigdog, wondering how I could ever be confident if no one ever looked beyond the color of my skin. My hopes and dreams were dashed, until I looked at Bigdog, and reminded myself: this is the same deteriorating stuffed animal whose identity is so much more than what meets the eyes. I realized that although people may not see his intrinsic value, I know his worth, and that is all that matters. In that moment, I made the choice that if I did not let Bigdog's decaying structure define his worth, I was not going to let my Black skin, define mine. My wish to change the skin I am in never came true, and I am glad it did not. My internal struggle created a blueprint for me to discover my own sense of individuality. From that winter forward, replete with my newfound outlook, I embraced my identity and started living with purpose doing things I was once afraid to do. I founded the Black Student Union to help Black students going through similar identity crises navigate through their defeating and isolating high school experiences. In addition, I overcame my fear of public speaking by organizing and speaking at BSU's own Black Students Matter protest, maintaining contact with community leaders, and working closely with the Bergen County NAACP. I no longer feared what others would think of me, beginning to unapologetically be myself. I stopped trying to prove I belonged and demonstrated why I belong. Bigdog, my beloved stuffed dog, helped me learn to re-write my own story, appreciate Blackness in my own terms, and challenge the stereotypes placed upon me. I am endlessly comfortable and confident with who I am. I can be myself in my own skin because my Blackness does not define me; I define myself.

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5 Eye-catching Introductions for College Application Essays on Childhood Memories

• college application essays
• essay topic
• northwestern

Memories from childhood make up some of the most popular topics that students like to write about on their personal statement. Partly because they tend to be moments that offered a new perspective or a time they look back to for clarity. Regardless what the reason is, it can be difficult to approach the topic because it’s intimate in nature. Here are a few examples from Northwestern , Yale and UPenn students on how they approach the topic:

University of Pennsylvania ‘17

“Marco”. . . . No reply.

And that was the genesis of a true life lesson.  A game of Marco Polo that gave me a new vantage point on life.

Summer 2012, sixteen years old, long overdue on learning how to swim. In the words of Lao Tzu that “A journey of a thousand miles begins with one step” so too did my journey begin with one step. A step backwards as I tried to escape from Omar shouting “Marco.” A step backwards that would send me plummeting from the placid 3 feet water in front of me to the engulfing 10 feet of water behind me. View full profile!

Stanford University ‘17

The day our house caught fire I chose to accept my role as the leader of my household and assume its inherent responsibilities.

In the still and frigid hours of the night, I woke up to the stench of burnt plastic and the scorching pain of my smoke-filled lungs. Before I could fully comprehend the dangers of our situation, I was already dashing across the room, dragging younger siblings out of bed while sternly urging them to crawl outside through the back door. Read on . 

Yale University ‘17

To the outsider, the chain-link and barbed wire fence enclosing the field did nothing to enhance its appeal. Save for a few trees and a couple of patches of grass that lay around the edges, the field was flat, brown, and dusty. On some days, when the wind was blowing just right, I could chase the dust twisters. I imagine that it resembled the sort of fields my Midwestern ancestors encountered during the Dust Bowl. Back then, more of life was about living with what was available. That the field was a barren, infertile place did not limit its usefulness. To me, that field was the perfect canvas. Continue reading . 

Northwestern University ‘16

John, Paul, George, and Ringo.

These four names, out of all others, are the most recognizable to me. When I was six years old, on one of the first few days of first grade, a kid who would eventually become my closest friend asked me if I liked them.

“Who?” I asked.

“The Beatles! What’s wrong with you!” View full profile .

Northwestern University ‘17

I was born with everything: not five personal TVs and a butler, but happily married parents, a home, and a big golden spoon clutched in my sticky little fingers. Better yet, I didn’t even need to share. Growing up as an only child, “daddy’s little angel” and “mommy’s personal food critic”, I was a concoction of spoiled, spice, and everything not-so-nice—reflecting all the stereotypes of an only child. Keep reading .

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About The Author

Frances was born in Hong Kong and received her bachelor’s degree from Georgetown University. She loves super sad drama television, cooking, and reading. Her favorite person on Earth isn’t actually a member of the AdmitSee team - it’s her dog Cooper.

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Your chance of acceptance, your chancing factors, extracurriculars, writing about childhood experiences for a college essay - good idea or too elementary.

I've got a bunch of neat stories from my childhood that really show who I am today, but I'm a bit unsure if that's suitable for a college essay. Do colleges expect more 'mature' topics, or can childhood anecdotes work well if they relate to my current goals and personality?

It's fantastic that you're reflecting on your life stories and considering how they connect to who you are now! When it comes to college essays, admissions committees are primarily looking for a piece that reflects self-awareness, depth of thought, and personal growth. Childhood experiences can indeed be powerful and revealing if they've had a substantial impact on your development or if they illuminate key aspects of your character.

For example, if you helped lemonade stands flourish in your neighborhood and that sparked a lifelong interest in entrepreneurship, that's a compelling story! The key, however, is to ensure that your essay doesn't simply recount events but rather ties those experiences to your present self. The arc of your narrative should provide insights into how those formative moments have shaped your aspirations, values, or passions. Childhood experiences can be the seed of the story, but the mature reflections are the fruit that colleges are eager to see. Just ensure that your essay's focus remains on your current goals and personality to demonstrate your readiness for the college environment. Good luck with your writing!

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CollegeVine’s Q&A seeks to offer informed perspectives on commonly asked admissions questions. Every answer is refined and validated by our team of admissions experts to ensure it resonates with trusted knowledge in the field.

IELTS Speaking Cue Card

Describe a toy you liked in your childhood.

What it was?

When have you got it?

Who gave it to you?

And explain why you like it.

I would like to speak about the most favourite toy, I enjoyed playing with in my childhood and that is my set of Lego. Though my parents bought me a model aero plane, train and superheroes, I rarely played with them. 

Lego is a set of building blocks and a child of any age can build any shapes or structures with it. I vividly remember staring at a Lego set on display in a mall when we had gone for an outing. My father might have noticed it and to my surprise, he gifted it to me on my sixth birthday and I have been a proud owner ever since. 

Building different structures with Lego became my favorite pastime. Basically, you have blocks of different shapes that need to be interlocked together to build something. No sooner, I learnt to build structures, then I saw my dreams taking shape. I discarded all my other toys. I’d build all kinds of things, from towers to trucks. On weekends especially, I would proudly show off my building skills to my cousins who would come over to my place. I am pretty sure that this obsession led me to develop my creativity. In fact, I can proudly say that my engineering skills got wings from my Lego adventures. I consider myself fortunate to have spent my childhood playing with such creative toys and pity the modern-day kids who tend to become couch potatoes by spending their free time playing video games.

Vocabulary:

• Interlock - To join some parts firmly together, especially by fitting one part into another
• Set - A group of similar things that belong together, or are needed for a particular activity, particularly a game. 
• show off- (phrasal verb)- display someone or something that is a source of pride.
• Vividly- in an intensely deep or bright manner.
• Discarded- get rid of (someone or something) as no longer useful or desirable. 
• Obsession- an idea or thought that continually preoccupies or intrudes on a person's mind.

Part 3 Follow Up - Questions & Answers

1. what kind of toys are suitable for different age groups.

Toys are more than just playthings, though, and while they should be fun, they should also be age-appropriate, stimulating, and safe. Parents, I think, should set a limit on buying electronic toys and video games. Irrespective of age, the toys should inspire the child to be creative and spontaneous and not be passive.

2. How are toys beneficial for children?

As I mentioned, the most beneficial toys are the ones which stimulate the child’s creativity. It is through toys that children get their first opportunity to create, build and even destroy. The hidden talents of children can be identified by giving them the right playthings.

3. What are the differences between toys that girls like and the preference of boys?

Well, I believe that children below the age of six do not show much preferences when it comes to toys. After this phase, I would say boys mostly prefer to play with action toys and girls go with dolls. For instance, most of the boys love cars whereas girls would grab a Barbie doll if they are given a choice.

4. Does technology have an influence on toys?

Almost all modern-day toys have technology integrated in them. Just as we have smart gadgets, we see smart toys like miniature robots and sensor-controlled toys. These toys have speech recognition software, touch sensors, and can be networked together with other smart toys or a PC or mobile phone.

5. Parents don’t spend much time with their children and instead give toys. Is it good enough?

Parents, in my opinion, should realise that no smart toy can replace the love and bonding that only a parent can give to a child. They need to make time in spite of their busy schedule to be with the chid, develop a strong bond by taking care of the child’s needs.

IELTS Speaking Cue Card - Questions

Describe a person you admire the most...

Describe a plan in your life that is not related to work or study..., describe someone you know who has started a business..., describe a gift you would like to buy for your friend..., describe a course that impressed you a lot....

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What the Research Says: Impact of Specific Toys on Play

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NAEYC asked two researchers about what their work tells us about toys, children, and play. Jeffrey Trawick-Smith is Professor of Early Childhood Education at the Center for Early Childhood Education at Eastern Connecticut State University in Willimantic, Connecticut. We talked to him about the impact different types of toys have on play. We also spoke to Judith Elaine Blakemore, professor of psychology and associate dean at Indiana University−Purdue University in Fort Wayne, Indiana, about gender-typed toys .  

Tell us about your toy research.

Professor Trawick-Smith : Studies have looked at the impact of peers, teachers, families, and classroom and home environments on play interactions. But few studies have looked at the effects of individual toys on play  activities . This is surprising, since about 90 percent of preschool children’s play in the United States involves a toy. So, our center conducts an annual study in which we observe children playing with a variety of toys-nominated by teachers, parents, researchers, and even children—in a free play setting in preschool classrooms. We code children’s use of the toys in three areas, using a coding instrument that we have developed: thinking/learning/problem solving, social interaction, and creativity.

What message do you think early childhood teachers and other educators could take from your research?

Professor Trawick-Smith : The most important finding emerging from our studies is that different toys impact children’s behavior in different ways. Some toys have a powerful influence on children’s thinking, interaction with peers, and creative expression. Other toys do not. Some of the toys that look most interesting to adults are not particularly effective in promoting development. This suggests that teachers can make decisions about toys as thoughtfully as they do when making decisions about any other area of the curriculum. Once toys are selected, teachers can carefully observe their impact on children’s play. Do toys elicit a good balance of play behaviors, across social, intellectual, and creative areas of development?

What message about toys do you think families of young children could take from your research?

Professor Trawick-Smith : We are cautious about recommending specific toys to families. This is because play interests vary greatly across cultures, children and families. However, one trend that is emerging from our studies can serve as a guide to families as they choose toys:  Basic is better . The highest-scoring toys so far have been quite simple: hardwood blocks, a set of wooden vehicles and road signs, and classic wooden construction toys. These toys are relatively open-ended, so children can use them in multiple ways. Also, they have all been around for a long time. There may be a reason these toys have been enjoyed by children over the generations! Simple, classic toys would be our recommendation for families.

What's the most surprising thing you think your research tells us about children, toys, and play?

Professor Trawick-Smith : We have found some surprising gender differences in our study. Many of the toys nominated by parents and teachers were used most often and in the most complex ways by boys. This included items that seemed gender-neutral from an adult perspective. What set the highest-scoring toys apart was that they prompted problem solving, social interaction, and creative expression in both boys and girls. Interestingly, toys that have traditionally been viewed as male oriented—construction toys and toy vehicles, for example—elicited the highest quality play among girls. So, try to set aside previous conceptions about what inspires male and female play and objectively observe toy effects to be sure boys and girls equally benefit from play materials.   

Professor Trawick-Smith directs the TIMPANI toy study, which looks at how young children in natural settings play with a variety of toys.

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Childhood by Design contains a variety of essays that investigate the reasons toys exist. The design of childhood itself is examined, as well as the ways toys have helped form (and reform) our ideas about children. Commercial factors including manufacturing, marketing, and distribution have influenced toy creation and as a result the creation of children. The book also offers diverse topics, points of view, writing styles, and ideas about what an academic essay can be. In the introduction to the collection, editor Megan Brandow-Faller writes, “ Childhood by Design seeks to fuse socio-historical studies of childhood (examining the tension between adult representations of childhood and the lived experiences of ‘real’ historical children) with art-historical and design-based studies of the material culture of childhood (typically prioritizing issues of authorship, technique, and style), drawing from the disciplinary methods and preoccupations of both fields” (3). However you choose to interpret this mission statement, seeking fusion proves a more achievable goal than arriving at it. Brandow-Faller announces that in this volume, toys will be “given agency . . . actively performing and constituting shifting discursive constellations surrounding childhood and children in the modern era” (3).

Any collection of separate entries, each written with different goals, different language use, and different levels of abstraction, risks having no cohesive core. The introduction promises entries “relating to the subversive thrust of postmodern doll studies.” But the authors seem to have delivered their contributions without knowing that was the assignment. Much of the writing is so academic that it tips into the unreadable, being full of more references and connections to other scholarly publications than original ideas and useful information. The twenty-one-page introduction alone has sixty-five notes.

An idea does not gain validity based on how many people have touched it before it lands in your hands. This is not a problem unique to the book or the authors; it is an industry-wide problem. Still, the range of approaches makes it difficult to know who the intended audience for the book is, and how to inhabit that intention while reading.

Entries include a wide range of ideas: Toys have been used to teach moral values as well as practical skills (Serena Dyer). Children play with dolls in subversive, exploratory ways (Ariane Fennetaux). Toys are educational and commercial (Sarah A. Curtis). Children’s books also have an adult audience (Andrea Korda). Play was an interdisciplinary practice at the Bauhaus (Michelle Millar Fisher). Expensive doll houses communicate architectural aspirations (Karen Stock and Katherine Wheeler). Miniature kitchens in Nuremberg promised play but delivered commerce (James E. Bryan). Toys made by children help us understand play (Lynette Townsend). Toys build (and will continue to build?) tomorrow’s colonialists both in the colonies and “at home” (Jakob Zollmann). Representations of folk-art toys marginalize traditional crafts and peasant cultures (Marie Gasper-Hulvat). The function of toys in China, and the play they allow, changed from fun to educational and then to state-building (Valentina Boretti). In addition to these, three entries stand out as achievements more nuanced and more complete in the information and interpretations they offer. They deliver new ways of considering existing interpretations, new interpretations, and even new information.

Colin Fanning’s “LEGO and the Commodification of Creativity” is both locally thoughtful and informative, while also being useful in advancing the larger book-wide themes. He investigates how the building blocks were shaped by both manufacturing limitations and consumer interests. Fanning offers his own firsthand reading of material culture, and does not rely on recycling and repackaging previous academic interpretations glued together with footnotes, as several other chapters do. He offers observations that link LEGO’s history to the introduction of plastics, changing ideas about gender, the presence of marketing as a design force, globalization, and the shift from the encouragement of abstract play to the mania for collecting. Even with all of the other published investigations about LEGO , Fanning’s observations venture into new territory.

Bryan Ganaway’s writing is immediate, clear, and effective. He explores the tensions between dolls functioning as commercial ventures and as tools to empower children, allowing them to develop their own play narratives. He adds layers of additional thinking (about consumer culture fueling the dissemination of feminist ideas, about doll making as a way toward financial independence for female doll makers, about the conflict between machine production and handcrafting) without complicating the clarity of his main points. Ganaway uses his introduction and conclusion not to announce his intentions and then claim success in achieving them, as so many academic papers do, but to expand the ideas about history developed in the body of the essay, and attach them to today’s world, making them useful in larger discussions about material culture.

Cathleen M. Giustino’s chapter on toys in Socialist Czechoslovakia is a beautiful piece of writing. It balances novel information, used to offer thought-provoking interpretations, with a clear point of view, and does so in an academically solid way that is also enjoyable reading. That toys can represent political ideals, leading to play that supports them (collective versus individual), seems like the kind of discussion, exciting to encounter and consider, that justifies the efforts of publishing. Giustino attaches obscure information (noncanonical designers and products) that deserves exploration and illumination alongside more familiar themes, allowing readers to appreciate the topic on its own or easily weave it into existing narratives.

Much of the book, in focusing on material culture, ignores the other factors involved in toy production (designers, manufacturers, materials and manufacturing methods, cost, distribution, commerce). These omissions cause the discussions to creep away from a balanced investigation toward opinion or fiction. Material culture studies are at their most effective when they start with objects and use an examination to reveal links to theory, abstract thought, academic investigation, and information. But they are less effective when they work in the other direction (start with an idea, find some sources, identify objects that substantiate them). This book includes scholarship that works in both directions, but too many entries seem to take the latter approach. There is scant conversation in this book about why any of the realities investigated might have happened. For a book anchored in material studies this seems surprising, especially when dealing with manufactured items that span so many materials and manufacturing advances. Did toys become more durable as consumers realized children are brutal? Or did they become more durable as we added plasticizers to PVC to make flexible dolls instead of brittle celluloid ones?

As a collection, Childhood by Design examines toys but detaches them from other adjacent and important realities in a way that undermines its authority. The book takes on the umbrella idea that the modern era invented manufactured toys, and with it, childhood. But we also simultaneously manufactured everything else, creating a new kind of adulthood. To leave this out implies that designing childhood was an intentional and independent effort.

Many of the flaws in Childhood by Design are not the fault of its publisher, editor, or contributing authors. Ours is a profession with expectations of the performance and publishing of research that force it to become ever more effete and disconnected from external audiences. If our goal in publishing is to fill the shelves of elite institutions, well done. This book will enrich many library collections and be consulted occasionally by academics looking for opportunities to fill their own work with ever more references. Considering the prohibitive cost of these limited-volume academic books, it can have no other future. But if we are trying to produce a legacy of research and thought that stays alive and meaningful, it needs to be read. Not by the occasional researcher, but by students and strangers and people out in the world. Can both happen at once? Of course, but only if we want it to. There is nothing wrong with this book. It just establishes a goal for itself, like many, many other similar books, that is limited in ways that seem unfair to the authors, the publishers, and the larger public. The flaws in Childhood by Design are not in the assembling, writing, and editing of the book. They belong instead to the world that created it, and the pressures that world exerts on its inhabitants.

Matthew Bird Rhode Island School of Design

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Toys College Essays Samples For Students

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Over the course of studying in college, you will certainly need to pen a lot of College Essays on Toys. Lucky you if putting words together and turning them into relevant content comes easy to you; if it's not the case, you can save the day by finding a previously written Toys College Essay example and using it as a template to follow.

This is when you will definitely find WowEssays' free samples catalog extremely useful as it embodies numerous expertly written works on most various Toys College Essays topics. Ideally, you should be able to find a piece that meets your criteria and use it as a template to compose your own College Essay. Alternatively, our skilled essay writers can deliver you a unique Toys College Essay model written from scratch according to your personal instructions.

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Describe A Toy you liked in your Childhood: IELTS Cue Card Sample Answers

Updated On Feb 08, 2024

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This article contains the Describe A Toy you liked in your Childhood Cue Card Sample Answers.

During Part 2 of the IELTS Speaking test, you will have exactly one minute to prepare and speak on a specific topic. This is the IELTS cue card task. You can learn how to communicate clearly and successfully by reviewing sample answers.

This IELTS cue card gives you an opportunity to share one of your memories of a toy you liked in your childhood.

Practise IELTS Speaking Part 2 by referencing the Cue Card Sample Answers below.

Before you start, improve your IELTS Speaking test skills and fluency with the guide below!

Check more Child – Cue Cards .

For more Cue Cards, take a look at IELTS Speaking Part 2 | Topics, Questions and Samples Answers .

Describe your favourite toy./Talk about a toy you liked in your childhood

You should say:

• what it was
• who gave it to you
• how often you played with it (or, how you played with it)
• and explain why it was special for you.

Sample Answer 1

Here is the sample for “Describe A Toy you liked in your Childhood” topic:

When it comes to toys I had in my childhood, the collection was humongous. Everything about my toys makes me nostalgic. In my point of view, childhood is definitely a golden phase and the memories we create during this time hold a special place in our hearts. On top of that, there is nothing more precious than a favourite childhood toy.

Since I was the only girl child in my entire clan, my family had bestowed me with a plethora of toys, including dolls, building blocks, stuffed animals, puzzles, and many more. However, out of all, the one that was close to my heart was a barbie doll set that my father gifted me on my 5th birthday.

I vividly remember I had gone to somebody’s birthday party with my parents. There, I saw a Barbie doll, which looked attractive and enigmatic. I was fascinated with her clothes, shoes, hair, and everything else. I went to my father and told him that I wanted the same set on my birthday.

After a few months, when my birthday arrived, my father stepped inside my room with a large box that was gift wrapped. I was awestruck at the idea of receiving a barbie set. When I opened it, it was nothing similar to what I had seen but even more charismatic and bigger. Also, this barbie set came with more accessories than what I had seen at that house.

This house set became my pride possession. From thereon, whenever my cousins and friends would come over, we would play with this barbie doll. When I look back at that time, I realize how simple toys used to be our valuable things. I had a whale of a time playing around with my barbie. And, I am proud to say that I still have it intact at my house.

Sample Answer 2

I remember when I was young, I was keen on watching the cartoon called “The many adventures of Winnie the Pooh”, so much that I kept pestering my father for the stuffed bear Winnie the Pooh. Finally, my father gave me one as a present for my 6th birthday. When I got this toy, I jumped for joy and paid no attention to my other presents.

This stuffed bear was, incredibly, identical to the character in the cartoon I had watched. He also had a short red shirt and was holding a jar of honey which was his favorite food. Therefore, I felt as if he had come from the movie.

Since then, I considered him my closest friend and I couldn’t go anywhere without him, even when I went to sleep. Every day, I talked with the bear and told him about my daily routine. Unfortunately, I lost the bear at an amusement center, which made me cry for almost a week. At that time, I felt like I had lost a good friend who I could share everything with. At present, whenever I watch this cartoon or see any photos of Winnie the Pooh, all the wonderful memories about him are brought back. Thanks to the bear, I experienced a happy childhood.

Here are the vocabularies for “Describe A Toy you liked in your Childhood” with examples:

• Was keen on: [phrasal verb] was eager to/was enthusiastic about Eg: He was keen on fishing when he was a boy, and he still loves to go fishing at weekends.
• Pestering: [verb] annoying someone by asking them many times. Eg: In the shop, some children were pestering their mother to buy ice-cream.
• Stuffed bear: [noun] a toy in the shape of a bear, made of cloth and filled with soft material. Eg: Stuffed bears have always been popular as toys for young children.
• Identical to: [adjective] exactly the same as someone or something else. Eg: His sports bag is identical to mine, and as a result one day I took his bag by mistake.
• Amusement center: [noun] a center which has a lot of things which you can play on and many different activities to enjoy. Eg: Our city has a huge shopping mall, and it has a fantastic amusement center for children to play while their parents are shopping.

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16 Strong College Essay Examples from Top Schools

What’s Covered:

• Common App Essays
• Why This College Essays
• Why This Major Essays
• Extracurricular Essays
• Overcoming Challenges Essays
• Community Service Essays
• Diversity Essays
• Political/Global Issues Essays
• Where to Get Feedback on Your Essays

Most high school students don’t get a lot of experience with creative writing, so the college essay can be especially daunting. Reading examples of successful essays, however, can help you understand what admissions officers are looking for.

In this post, we’ll share 16 college essay examples of many different topics. Most of the essay prompts fall into 8 different archetypes, and you can approach each prompt under that archetype in a similar way. We’ve grouped these examples by archetype so you can better structure your approach to college essays.

If you’re looking for school-specific guides, check out our 2022-2023 essay breakdowns .

Looking at examples of real essays students have submitted to colleges can be very beneficial to get inspiration for your essays. You should never copy or plagiarize from these examples when writing your own essays. Colleges can tell when an essay isn’t genuine and will not view students favorably if they plagiarized. 

Note: the essays are titled in this post for navigation purposes, but they were not originally titled. We also include the original prompt where possible.

The Common App essay goes to all of the schools on your list, unless those schools use a separate application platform. Because of this, it’s the most important essay in your portfolio, and likely the longest essay you’ll need to write (you get up to 650 words). 

The goal of this essay is to share a glimpse into who you are, what matters to you, and what you hope to achieve. It’s a chance to share your story. 

Learn more about how to write the Common App essay in our complete guide.

The Multiple Meanings of Point

Prompt: Some students have a background, identity, interest, or talent that is so meaningful they believe their application would be incomplete without it. If this sounds like you, then please share your story. (250-650 words)

Night had robbed the academy of its daytime colors, yet there was comfort in the dim lights that cast shadows of our advances against the bare studio walls. Silhouettes of roundhouse kicks, spin crescent kicks, uppercuts and the occasional butterfly kick danced while we sparred. She approached me, eyes narrowed with the trace of a smirk challenging me. “Ready spar!” Her arm began an upward trajectory targeting my shoulder, a common first move. I sidestepped — only to almost collide with another flying fist. Pivoting my right foot, I snapped my left leg, aiming my heel at her midsection. The center judge raised one finger. 

There was no time to celebrate, not in the traditional sense at least. Master Pollard gave a brief command greeted with a unanimous “Yes, sir” and the thud of 20 hands dropping-down-and-giving-him-30, while the “winners” celebrated their victory with laps as usual. 

Three years ago, seven-thirty in the evening meant I was a warrior. It meant standing up straighter, pushing a little harder, “Yes, sir” and “Yes, ma’am”, celebrating birthdays by breaking boards, never pointing your toes, and familiarity. Three years later, seven-thirty in the morning meant I was nervous. 

The room is uncomfortably large. The sprung floor soaks up the checkerboard of sunlight piercing through the colonial windows. The mirrored walls further illuminate the studio and I feel the light scrutinizing my sorry attempts at a pas de bourrée, while capturing the organic fluidity of the dancers around me. “Chassé en croix, grand battement, pique, pirouette.” I follow the graceful limbs of the woman in front of me, her legs floating ribbons, as she executes what seems to be a perfect ronds de jambes. Each movement remains a negotiation. With admirable patience, Ms. Tan casts me a sympathetic glance.   

There is no time to wallow in the misery that is my right foot. Taekwondo calls for dorsiflexion; pointed toes are synonymous with broken toes. My thoughts drag me into a flashback of the usual response to this painful mistake: “You might as well grab a tutu and head to the ballet studio next door.” Well, here I am Master Pollard, unfortunately still following your orders to never point my toes, but no longer feeling the satisfaction that comes with being a third degree black belt with 5 years of experience quite literally under her belt. It’s like being a white belt again — just in a leotard and ballet slippers. 

But the appetite for new beginnings that brought me here doesn’t falter. It is only reinforced by the classical rendition of “Dancing Queen” that floods the room and the ghost of familiarity that reassures me that this new beginning does not and will not erase the past. After years spent at the top, it’s hard to start over. But surrendering what you are only leads you to what you may become. In Taekwondo, we started each class reciting the tenets: honor, courtesy, integrity, perseverance, self-control, courage, humility, and knowledge, and I have never felt that I embodied those traits more so than when I started ballet. 

The thing about change is that it eventually stops making things so different. After nine different schools, four different countries, three different continents, fluency in Tamil, Norwegian, and English, there are more blurred lines than there are clear fragments. My life has not been a tactfully executed, gold medal-worthy Taekwondo form with each movement defined, nor has it been a series of frappés performed by a prima ballerina with each extension identical and precise, but thankfully it has been like the dynamics of a spinning back kick, fluid, and like my chances of landing a pirouette, unpredictable. 

The first obvious strength of this essay is the introduction—it is interesting and snappy and uses enough technical language that we want to figure out what the student is discussing. When writing introductions, students tend to walk the line between intriguing and confusing. It is important that your essay ends up on the intentionally intriguing side of that line—like this student does! We are a little confused at first, but by then introducing the idea of “sparring,” the student grounds their essay.

People often advise young writers to “show, not tell.” This student takes that advice a step further and makes the reader do a bit of work to figure out what they are telling us. Nowhere in this essay does it say “After years of Taekwondo, I made the difficult decision to switch over to ballet.” Rather, the student says “It’s like being a white belt again — just in a leotard and ballet slippers.” How powerful! 

After a lot of emotional language and imagery, this student finishes off their essay with very valuable (and necessary!) reflection. They show admissions officers that they are more than just a good writer—they are a mature and self-aware individual who would be beneficial to a college campus. Self-awareness comes through with statements like “surrendering what you are only leads you to what you may become” and maturity can be seen through the student’s discussion of values: “honor, courtesy, integrity, perseverance, self-control, courage, humility, and knowledge, and I have never felt that I embodied those traits more so than when I started ballet.”

Sparking Self-Awareness

Prompt: The lessons we take from obstacles we encounter can be fundamental to later success. Recount a time when you faced a challenge, setback, or failure. How did it affect you, and what did you learn from the experience? (250-650 words)

Was I no longer the beloved daughter of nature, whisperer of trees? Knee-high rubber boots, camouflage, bug spray—I wore the garb and perfume of a proud wild woman, yet there I was, hunched over the pathetic pile of stubborn sticks, utterly stumped, on the verge of tears. As a child, I had considered myself a kind of rustic princess, a cradler of spiders and centipedes, who was serenaded by mourning doves and chickadees, who could glide through tick-infested meadows and emerge Lyme-free. I knew the cracks of the earth like the scars on my own rough palms. Yet here I was, ten years later, incapable of performing the most fundamental outdoor task: I could not, for the life of me, start a fire. 

Furiously I rubbed the twigs together—rubbed and rubbed until shreds of skin flaked from my fingers. No smoke. The twigs were too young, too sticky-green; I tossed them away with a shower of curses, and began tearing through the underbrush in search of a more flammable collection. My efforts were fruitless. Livid, I bit a rejected twig, determined to prove that the forest had spurned me, offering only young, wet bones that would never burn. But the wood cracked like carrots between my teeth—old, brittle, and bitter. Roaring and nursing my aching palms, I retreated to the tent, where I sulked and awaited the jeers of my family. 

Rattling their empty worm cans and reeking of fat fish, my brother and cousins swaggered into the campsite. Immediately, they noticed the minor stick massacre by the fire pit and called to me, their deep voices already sharp with contempt. 

“Where’s the fire, Princess Clara?” they taunted. “Having some trouble?” They prodded me with the ends of the chewed branches and, with a few effortless scrapes of wood on rock, sparked a red and roaring flame. My face burned long after I left the fire pit. The camp stank of salmon and shame. 

In the tent, I pondered my failure. Was I so dainty? Was I that incapable? I thought of my hands, how calloused and capable they had been, how tender and smooth they had become. It had been years since I’d kneaded mud between my fingers; instead of scaling a white pine, I’d practiced scales on my piano, my hands softening into those of a musician—fleshy and sensitive. And I’d gotten glasses, having grown horrifically nearsighted; long nights of dim lighting and thick books had done this. I couldn’t remember the last time I had lain down on a hill, barefaced, and seen the stars without having to squint. Crawling along the edge of the tent, a spider confirmed my transformation—he disgusted me, and I felt an overwhelming urge to squash him. 

Yet, I realized I hadn’t really changed—I had only shifted perspective. I still eagerly explored new worlds, but through poems and prose rather than pastures and puddles. I’d grown to prefer the boom of a bass over that of a bullfrog, learned to coax a different kind of fire from wood, having developed a burn for writing rhymes and scrawling hypotheses. 

That night, I stayed up late with my journal and wrote about the spider I had decided not to kill. I had tolerated him just barely, only shrieking when he jumped—it helped to watch him decorate the corners of the tent with his delicate webs, knowing that he couldn’t start fires, either. When the night grew cold and the embers died, my words still smoked—my hands burned from all that scrawling—and even when I fell asleep, the ideas kept sparking—I was on fire, always on fire.

First things first, this Common App essay is well-written. This student is definitely showing the admissions officers her ability to articulate her points beautifully and creatively. It starts with vivid images like that of the “rustic princess, a cradler of spiders and centipedes, who was serenaded by mourning doves and chickadees, who could glide through tick-infested meadows and emerge Lyme-free.” And because the prose is flowery (and beautiful!), the writer can get away with metaphors like “I knew the cracks of the earth like the scars on my own rough palms” that might sound cheesy without the clear command of the English language that the writer quickly establishes.

In addition to being well-written, this essay is thematically cohesive. It begins with the simple introduction “Fire!” and ends with the following image: “When the night grew cold and the embers died, my words still smoked—my hands burned from all that scrawling—and even when I fell asleep, the ideas kept sparking—I was on fire, always on fire.” This full-circle approach leaves readers satisfied and impressed.

While dialogue often comes off as cliche or trite, this student effectively incorporates her family members saying “Where’s the fire, Princess Clara?” This is achieved through the apt use of the verb “taunted” to characterize the questioning and through the question’s thematic connection to the earlier image of the student as a rustic princess. Similarly, rhetorical questions can feel randomly placed in essays, but this student’s inclusion of the questions “Was I so dainty?” and “Was I that incapable?” feel perfectly justified after she establishes that she was pondering her failure.

Quite simply, this essay shows how quality writing can make a simple story outstandingly compelling. 

Why This College?

“Why This College?” is one of the most common essay prompts, likely because schools want to understand whether you’d be a good fit and how you’d use their resources.

This essay is one of the more straightforward ones you’ll write for college applications, but you still can and should allow your voice to shine through.

Learn more about how to write the “Why This College?” essay in our guide.

Prompt: How will you explore your intellectual and academic interests at the University of Pennsylvania? Please answer this question given the specific undergraduate school to which you are applying (650 words).

Sister Simone Roach, a theorist of nursing ethics, said, “caring is the human mode of being.” I have long been inspired by Sister Roach’s Five C’s of Caring: commitment, conscience, competence, compassion, and confidence. Penn both embraces and fosters these values through a rigorous, interdisciplinary curriculum and unmatched access to service and volunteer opportunities.

COMMITMENT. Reading through the activities that Penn Quakers devote their time to (in addition to academics!) felt like drinking from a firehose in the best possible way. As a prospective nursing student with interests outside of my major, I value this level of flexibility. I plan to leverage Penn’s liberal arts curriculum to gain an in-depth understanding of the challenges LGBT people face, especially regarding healthcare access. Through courses like “Interactional Processes with LGBT Individuals” and volunteering at the Mazzoni Center for outreach, I hope to learn how to better support the Penn LGBT community as well as my family and friends, including my cousin, who came out as trans last year.

CONSCIENCE. As one of the first people in my family to attend a four-year university, I wanted a school that promoted a sense of moral responsibility among its students. At Penn, professors challenge their students to question and recreate their own set of morals by sparking thought- provoking, open-minded discussions. I can imagine myself advocating for universal healthcare in courses such as “Health Care Reform & Future of American Health System” and debating its merits with my peers. Studying in an environment where students confidently voice their opinions – conservative or liberal – will push me to question and strengthen my value system.

COMPETENCE. Two aspects that drew my attention to Penn’s BSN program were its high-quality research opportunities and hands-on nursing projects. Through its Office of Nursing Research, Penn connects students to faculty members who share similar research interests. As I volunteered at a nursing home in high school, I hope to work with Dr. Carthon to improve the quality of care for senior citizens. Seniors, especially minorities, face serious barriers to healthcare that I want to resolve. Additionally, Penn’s unique use of simulations to bridge the gap between classroom learning and real-world application impressed me. Using computerized manikins that mimic human responses, classes in Penn’s nursing program allow students to apply their emergency medical skills in a mass casualty simulation and monitor their actions afterward through a video system. Participating in this activity will help me identify my strengths and areas for improvement regarding crisis management and medical care in a controlled yet realistic setting. Research opportunities and simulations will develop my skills even before I interact with patients.

COMPASSION. I value giving back through community service, and I have a particular interest in Penn’s Community Champions and Nursing Students For Sexual & Reproductive Health (NSRH). As a four-year volunteer health educator, I hope to continue this work as a Community Champions member. I am excited to collaborate with medical students to teach fourth and fifth graders in the city about cardiology or lead a chair dance class for the elders at the LIFE Center. Furthermore, as a feminist who firmly believes in women’s abortion rights, I’d like to join NSRH in order to advocate for women’s health on campus. At Penn, I can work with like-minded people to make a meaningful difference.

CONFIDENCE. All of the Quakers that I have met possess one defining trait: confidence. Each student summarized their experiences at Penn as challenging but fulfilling. Although I expect my coursework to push me, from my conversations with current Quakers I know it will help me to be far more effective in my career.

The Five C’s of Caring are important heuristics for nursing, but they also provide insight into how I want to approach my time in college. I am eager to engage with these principles both as a nurse and as a Penn Quaker, and I can’t wait to start.

This prompt from Penn asks students to tailor their answer to their specific field of study. One great thing that this student does is identify their undergraduate school early, by mentioning “Sister Simone Roach, a theorist of nursing ethics.” You don’t want readers confused or searching through other parts of your application to figure out your major.

With a longer essay like this, it is important to establish structure. Some students organize their essay in a narrative form, using an anecdote from their past or predicting their future at a school. This student uses Roach’s 5 C’s of Caring as a framing device that organizes their essay around values. This works well!

While this essay occasionally loses voice, there are distinct moments where the student’s personality shines through. We see this with phrases like “felt like drinking from a fire hose in the best possible way” and “All of the Quakers that I have met possess one defining trait: confidence.” It is important to show off your personality to make your essay stand out. 

Finally, this student does a great job of referencing specific resources about Penn. It’s clear that they have done their research (they’ve even talked to current Quakers). They have dreams and ambitions that can only exist at Penn.

Prompt: What is it about Yale that has led you to apply? (125 words or fewer)

Coin collector and swimmer. Hungarian and Romanian. Critical and creative thinker. I was drawn to Yale because they don’t limit one’s mind with “or” but rather embrace unison with “and.” 

Wandering through the Beinecke Library, I prepare for my multidisciplinary Energy Studies capstone about the correlation between hedonism and climate change, making it my goal to find implications in environmental sociology. Under the tutelage of Assistant Professor Arielle Baskin-Sommers, I explore the emotional deficits of depression, utilizing neuroimaging to scrutinize my favorite branch of psychology: human perception. At Walden Peer Counseling, I integrate my peer support and active listening skills to foster an empathetic environment for the Yale community. Combining my interests in psychological and environmental studies is why I’m proud to be a Bulldog. 

This answer to the “Why This College” question is great because 1) the student shows their excitement about attending Yale 2) we learn the ways in which attending Yale will help them achieve their goals and 3) we learn their interests and identities.

In this response, you can find a prime example of the “Image of the Future” approach, as the student flashes forward and envisions their life at Yale, using present tense (“I explore,” “I integrate,” “I’m proud”). This approach is valuable if you are trying to emphasize your dedication to a specific school. Readers get the feeling that this student is constantly imagining themselves on campus—it feels like Yale really matters to them.

Starting this image with the Beinecke Library is great because the Beinecke Library only exists at Yale. It is important to tailor “Why This College” responses to each specific school. This student references a program of study, a professor, and an extracurricular that only exist at Yale. Additionally, they connect these unique resources to their interests—psychological and environmental studies.

Finally, we learn about the student (independent of academics) through this response. By the end of their 125 words, we know their hobbies, ethnicities, and social desires, in addition to their academic interests. It can be hard to tackle a 125-word response, but this student shows that it’s possible.

Why This Major?

The goal of this prompt is to understand how you came to be interested in your major and what you plan to do with it. For competitive programs like engineering, this essay helps admissions officers distinguish students who have a genuine passion and are most likely to succeed in the program. This is another more straightforward essay, but you do have a bit more freedom to include relevant anecdotes.

Learn more about how to write the “Why This Major?” essay in our guide.

Why Duke Engineering

Prompt: If you are applying to the Pratt School of Engineering as a first year applicant, please discuss why you want to study engineering and why you would like to study at Duke (250 words).

One Christmas morning, when I was nine, I opened a snap circuit set from my grandmother. Although I had always loved math and science, I didn’t realize my passion for engineering until I spent the rest of winter break creating different circuits to power various lights, alarms, and sensors. Even after I outgrew the toy, I kept the set in my bedroom at home and knew I wanted to study engineering. Later, in a high school biology class, I learned that engineering didn’t only apply to circuits, but also to medical devices that could improve people’s quality of life. Biomedical engineering allows me to pursue my academic passions and help people at the same time.

Just as biology and engineering interact in biomedical engineering, I am fascinated by interdisciplinary research in my chosen career path. Duke offers unmatched resources, such as DUhatch and The Foundry, that will enrich my engineering education and help me practice creative problem-solving skills. The emphasis on entrepreneurship within these resources will also help me to make a helpful product. Duke’s Bass Connections program also interests me; I firmly believe that the most creative and necessary problem-solving comes by bringing people together from different backgrounds. Through this program, I can use my engineering education to solve complicated societal problems such as creating sustainable surgical tools for low-income countries. Along the way, I can learn alongside experts in the field. Duke’s openness and collaborative culture span across its academic disciplines, making Duke the best place for me to grow both as an engineer and as a social advocate.

This prompt calls for a complex answer. Students must explain both why they want to study engineering and why Duke is the best place for them to study engineering.

This student begins with a nice hook—a simple anecdote about a simple present with profound consequences. They do not fluff up their anecdote with flowery images or emotionally-loaded language; it is what it is, and it is compelling and sweet. As their response continues, they express a particular interest in problem-solving. They position problem-solving as a fundamental part of their interest in engineering (and a fundamental part of their fascination with their childhood toy). This helps readers to learn about the student!

Problem-solving is also the avenue by which they introduce Duke’s resources—DUhatch, The Foundry, and Duke’s Bass Connections program. It is important to notice that the student explains how these resources can help them achieve their future goals—it is not enough to simply identify the resources!

This response is interesting and focused. It clearly answers the prompt, and it feels honest and authentic.

Why Georgia Tech CompSci

Prompt: Why do you want to study your chosen major specifically at Georgia Tech? (300 words max)

I held my breath and hit RUN. Yes! A plump white cat jumped out and began to catch the falling pizzas. Although my Fat Cat project seems simple now, it was the beginning of an enthusiastic passion for computer science. Four years and thousands of hours of programming later, that passion has grown into an intense desire to explore how computer science can serve society. Every day, surrounded by technology that can recognize my face and recommend scarily-specific ads, I’m reminded of Uncle Ben’s advice to a young Spiderman: “with great power comes great responsibility”. Likewise, the need to ensure digital equality has skyrocketed with AI’s far-reaching presence in society; and I believe that digital fairness starts with equality in education.

The unique use of threads at the College of Computing perfectly matches my interests in AI and its potential use in education; the path of combined threads on Intelligence and People gives me the rare opportunity to delve deep into both areas. I’m particularly intrigued by the rich sets of both knowledge-based and data-driven intelligence courses, as I believe AI should not only show correlation of events, but also provide insight for why they occur.

In my four years as an enthusiastic online English tutor, I’ve worked hard to help students overcome both financial and technological obstacles in hopes of bringing quality education to people from diverse backgrounds. For this reason, I’m extremely excited by the many courses in the People thread that focus on education and human-centered technology. I’d love to explore how to integrate AI technology into the teaching process to make education more available, affordable, and effective for people everywhere. And with the innumerable opportunities that Georgia Tech has to offer, I know that I will be able to go further here than anywhere else.

With a “Why This Major” essay, you want to avoid using all of your words to tell a story. That being said, stories are a great way to show your personality and make your essay stand out. This student’s story takes up only their first 21 words, but it positions the student as fun and funny and provides an endearing image of cats and pizzas—who doesn’t love cats and pizzas? There are other moments when the student’s personality shines through also, like the Spiderman reference.

While this pop culture reference adds color, it also is important for what the student is getting at: their passion. They want to go into computer science to address the issues of security and equity that are on the industry’s mind, and they acknowledge these concerns with their comments about “scarily-specific ads” and their statement that “the need to ensure digital equality has skyrocketed.” This student is self-aware and aware of the state of the industry. This aptitude will be appealing for admissions officers.

The conversation around “threads” is essential for this student’s response because the prompt asks specifically about the major at Georgia Tech and it is the only thing they reference that is specific to Georgia Tech. Threads are great, but this student would have benefitted from expanding on other opportunities specific to Georgia Tech later in the essay, instead of simply inserting “innumerable opportunities.”

Overall, this student shows personality, passion, and aptitude—precisely what admissions officers want to see!

Extracurricular Essay

You’re asked to describe your activities on the Common App, but chances are, you have at least one extracurricular that’s impacted you in a way you can’t explain in 150 characters.

This essay archetype allows you to share how your most important activity shaped you and how you might use those lessons learned in the future. You are definitely welcome to share anecdotes and use a narrative approach, but remember to include some reflection. A common mistake students make is to only describe the activity without sharing how it impacted them.

Learn more about how to write the Extracurricular Essay in our guide.

A Dedicated Musician

My fingers raced across the keys, rapidly striking one after another. My body swayed with the music as my hands raced across the piano. Crashing onto the final chord, it was over as quickly as it had begun. My shoulders relaxed and I couldn’t help but break into a satisfied grin. I had just played the Moonlight Sonata’s third movement, a longtime dream of mine. 

Four short months ago, though, I had considered it impossible. The piece’s tempo was impossibly fast, its notes stretching between each end of the piano, forcing me to reach farther than I had ever dared. It was 17 pages of the most fragile and intricate melodies I had ever encountered. 

But that summer, I found myself ready to take on the challenge. With the end of the school year, I was released from my commitment to practicing for band and solo performances. I was now free to determine my own musical path: either succeed in learning the piece, or let it defeat me for the third summer in a row. 

Over those few months, I spent countless hours practicing the same notes until they burned a permanent place in my memory, creating a soundtrack for even my dreams. Some would say I’ve mastered the piece, but as a musician I know better. Now that I can play it, I am eager to take the next step and add in layers of musicality and expression to make the once-impossible piece even more beautiful.

In this response, the student uses their extracurricular, piano, as a way to emphasize their positive qualities. At the beginning, readers are invited on a journey with the student where we feel their struggle, their intensity, and ultimately their satisfaction. With this descriptive image, we form a valuable connection with the student.

Then, we get to learn about what makes this student special: their dedication and work ethic. The fact that this student describes their desire to be productive during the summer shows an intensity that is appealing to admissions officers. Additionally, the growth mindset that this student emphasizes in their conclusion is appealing to admissions officers.

The Extracurricular Essay can be seen as an opportunity to characterize yourself. This student clearly identified their positive qualities, then used the Extracurricular Essay as a way to articulate them.

A Complicated Relationship with the School Newspaper

My school’s newspaper and I have a typical love-hate relationship; some days I want nothing more than to pass two hours writing and formatting articles, while on others the mere thought of student journalism makes me shiver. Still, as we’re entering our fourth year together, you could consider us relatively stable. We’ve learned to accept each other’s differences; at this point I’ve become comfortable spending an entire Friday night preparing for an upcoming issue, and I hardly even notice the snail-like speed of our computers. I’ve even benefitted from the polygamous nature of our relationship—with twelve other editors, there’s a lot of cooperation involved. Perverse as it may be, from that teamwork I’ve both gained some of my closest friends and improved my organizational and time-management skills. And though leaving it in the hands of new editors next year will be difficult, I know our time together has only better prepared me for future relationships.

This response is great. It’s cute and endearing and, importantly, tells readers a lot about the student who wrote it. Framing this essay in the context of a “love-hate relationship,” then supplementing with comments like “We’ve learned to accept each other’s differences” allows this student to advertise their maturity in a unique and engaging way. 

While Extracurricular Essays can be a place to show how you’ve grown within an activity, they can also be a place to show how you’ve grown through an activity. At the end of this essay, readers think that this student is mature and enjoyable, and we think that their experience with the school newspaper helped make them that way.

Participating in Democracy

Prompt: Research shows that an ability to learn from experiences outside the classroom correlates with success in college. What was your greatest learning experience over the past 4 years that took place outside of the traditional classroom? (250 words) 

The cool, white halls of the Rayburn House office building contrasted with the bustling energy of interns entertaining tourists, staffers rushing to cover committee meetings, and my fellow conference attendees separating to meet with our respective congresspeople. Through civics and US history classes, I had learned about our government, but simply hearing the legislative process outlined didn’t prepare me to navigate it. It was my first political conference, and, after learning about congressional mechanics during breakout sessions, I was lobbying my representative about an upcoming vote crucial to the US-Middle East relationship. As the daughter of Iranian immigrants, my whole life had led me to the moment when I could speak on behalf of the family members who had not emigrated with my parents.

As I sat down with my congresswoman’s chief of staff, I truly felt like a participant in democracy; I was exercising my right to be heard as a young American. Through this educational conference, I developed a plan of action to raise my voice. When I returned home, I signed up to volunteer with the state chapter of the Democratic Party. I sponsored letter-writing campaigns, canvassed for local elections, and even pursued an internship with a state senate campaign. I know that I don’t need to be old enough to vote to effect change. Most importantly, I also know that I want to study government—I want to make a difference for my communities in the United States and the Middle East throughout my career. 

While this prompt is about extracurricular activities, it specifically references the idea that the extracurricular should support the curricular. It is focused on experiential learning for future career success. This student wants to study government, so they chose to describe an experience of hands-on learning within their field—an apt choice!

As this student discusses their extracurricular experience, they also clue readers into their future goals—they want to help Middle Eastern communities. Admissions officers love when students mention concrete plans with a solid foundation. Here, the foundation comes from this student’s ethnicity. With lines like “my whole life had led me to the moment when I could speak on behalf of the family members who had not emigrated with my parents,” the student assures admissions officers of their emotional connection to their future field.

The strength of this essay comes from its connections. It connects the student’s extracurricular activity to their studies and connects theirs studies to their personal history.

Overcoming Challenges

You’re going to face a lot of setbacks in college, so admissions officers want to make you’re you have the resilience and resolve to overcome them. This essay is your chance to be vulnerable and connect to admissions officers on an emotional level.

Learn more about how to write the Overcoming Challenges Essay in our guide.

The Student Becomes the Master

”Advanced females ages 13 to 14 please proceed to staging with your coaches at this time.” Skittering around the room, eyes wide and pleading, I frantically explained my situation to nearby coaches. The seconds ticked away in my head; every polite refusal increased my desperation.

Despair weighed me down. I sank to my knees as a stream of competitors, coaches, and officials flowed around me. My dojang had no coach, and the tournament rules prohibited me from competing without one.

Although I wanted to remain strong, doubts began to cloud my mind. I could not help wondering: what was the point of perfecting my skills if I would never even compete? The other members of my team, who had found coaches minutes earlier, attempted to comfort me, but I barely heard their words. They couldn’t understand my despair at being left on the outside, and I never wanted them to understand.

Since my first lesson 12 years ago, the members of my dojang have become family. I have watched them grow up, finding my own happiness in theirs. Together, we have honed our kicks, blocks, and strikes. We have pushed one another to aim higher and become better martial artists. Although my dojang had searched for a reliable coach for years, we had not found one. When we attended competitions in the past, my teammates and I had always gotten lucky and found a sympathetic coach. Now, I knew this practice was unsustainable. It would devastate me to see the other members of my dojang in my situation, unable to compete and losing hope as a result. My dojang needed a coach, and I decided it was up to me to find one. 

I first approached the adults in the dojang – both instructors and members’ parents. However, these attempts only reacquainted me with polite refusals. Everyone I asked told me they couldn’t devote multiple weekends per year to competitions. I soon realized that I would have become the coach myself.

At first, the inner workings of tournaments were a mystery to me. To prepare myself for success as a coach, I spent the next year as an official and took coaching classes on the side. I learned everything from motivational strategies to technical, behind-the-scenes components of Taekwondo competitions. Though I emerged with new knowledge and confidence in my capabilities, others did not share this faith.

Parents threw me disbelieving looks when they learned that their children’s coach was only a child herself. My self-confidence was my armor, deflecting their surly glances. Every armor is penetrable, however, and as the relentless barrage of doubts pounded my resilience, it began to wear down. I grew unsure of my own abilities.

Despite the attack, I refused to give up. When I saw the shining eyes of the youngest students preparing for their first competition, I knew I couldn’t let them down. To quit would be to set them up to be barred from competing like I was. The knowledge that I could solve my dojang’s longtime problem motivated me to overcome my apprehension.

Now that my dojang flourishes at competitions, the attacks on me have weakened, but not ended. I may never win the approval of every parent; at times, I am still tormented by doubts, but I find solace in the fact that members of my dojang now only worry about competing to the best of their abilities.

Now, as I arrive at a tournament with my students, I close my eyes and remember the past. I visualize the frantic search for a coach and the chaos amongst my teammates as we competed with one another to find coaches before the staging calls for our respective divisions. I open my eyes to the exact opposite scene. Lacking a coach hurt my ability to compete, but I am proud to know that no member of my dojang will have to face that problem again.

This essay is great because it has a strong introduction and conclusion. The introduction is notably suspenseful and draws readers into the story. Because we know it is a college essay, we can assume that the student is one of the competitors, but at the same time, this introduction feels intentionally ambiguous as if the writer could be a competitor, a coach, a sibling of a competitor, or anyone else in the situation.

As we continue reading the essay, we learn that the writer is, in fact, the competitor. Readers also learn a lot about the student’s values as we hear their thoughts: “I knew I couldn’t let them down. To quit would be to set them up to be barred from competing like I was.” Ultimately, the conflict and inner and outer turmoil is resolved through the “Same, but Different” ending technique as the student places themself in the same environment that we saw in the intro, but experiencing it differently due to their actions throughout the narrative. This is a very compelling strategy!

Growing Sensitivity to Struggles

Prompt: The lessons we take from failure can be fundamental to later success. Recount an incident or time when you experienced failure. How did it affect you, and what did you learn from the experience? (650 words)

“You ruined my life!” After months of quiet anger, my brother finally confronted me. To my shame, I had been appallingly ignorant of his pain.

Despite being twins, Max and I are profoundly different. Having intellectual interests from a young age that, well, interested very few of my peers, I often felt out of step in comparison with my highly-social brother. Everything appeared to come effortlessly for Max and, while we share an extremely tight bond, his frequent time away with friends left me feeling more and more alone as we grew older.

When my parents learned about The Green Academy, we hoped it would be an opportunity for me to find not only an academically challenging environment, but also – perhaps more importantly – a community. This meant transferring the family from Drumfield to Kingston. And while there was concern about Max, we all believed that given his sociable nature, moving would be far less impactful on him than staying put might be on me.

As it turned out, Green Academy was everything I’d hoped for. I was ecstatic to discover a group of students with whom I shared interests and could truly engage. Preoccupied with new friends and a rigorous course load, I failed to notice that the tables had turned. Max, lost in the fray and grappling with how to make connections in his enormous new high school, had become withdrawn and lonely. It took me until Christmas time – and a massive argument – to recognize how difficult the transition had been for my brother, let alone that he blamed me for it.

Through my own journey of searching for academic peers, in addition to coming out as gay when I was 12, I had developed deep empathy for those who had trouble fitting in. It was a pain I knew well and could easily relate to. Yet after Max’s outburst, my first response was to protest that our parents – not I – had chosen to move us here. In my heart, though, I knew that regardless of who had made the decision, we ended up in Kingston for my benefit. I was ashamed that, while I saw myself as genuinely compassionate, I had been oblivious to the heartache of the person closest to me. I could no longer ignore it – and I didn’t want to.

We stayed up half the night talking, and the conversation took an unexpected turn. Max opened up and shared that it wasn’t just about the move. He told me how challenging school had always been for him, due to his dyslexia, and that the ever-present comparison to me had only deepened his pain.

We had been in parallel battles the whole time and, yet, I only saw that Max was in distress once he experienced problems with which I directly identified. I’d long thought Max had it so easy – all because he had friends. The truth was, he didn’t need to experience my personal brand of sorrow in order for me to relate – he had felt plenty of his own.

My failure to recognize Max’s suffering brought home for me the profound universality and diversity of personal struggle; everyone has insecurities, everyone has woes, and everyone – most certainly – has pain. I am acutely grateful for the conversations he and I shared around all of this, because I believe our relationship has been fundamentally strengthened by a deeper understanding of one another. Further, this experience has reinforced the value of constantly striving for deeper sensitivity to the hidden struggles of those around me. I won’t make the mistake again of assuming that the surface of someone’s life reflects their underlying story.

Here you can find a prime example that you don’t have to have fabulous imagery or flowery prose to write a successful essay. You just have to be clear and say something that matters. This essay is simple and beautiful. It almost feels like having a conversation with a friend and learning that they are an even better person than you already thought they were.

Through this narrative, readers learn a lot about the writer—where they’re from, what their family life is like, what their challenges were as a kid, and even their sexuality. We also learn a lot about their values—notably, the value they place on awareness, improvement, and consideration of others. Though they never explicitly state it (which is great because it is still crystal clear!), this student’s ending of “I won’t make the mistake again of assuming that the surface of someone’s life reflects their underlying story” shows that they are constantly striving for improvement and finding lessons anywhere they can get them in life.

Community Service/Impact on the Community

Colleges want students who will positively impact the campus community and go on to make change in the world after they graduate. This essay is similar to the Extracurricular Essay, but you need to focus on a situation where you impacted others. 

Learn more about how to write the Community Service Essay in our guide.

Academic Signing Day

Prompt: What have you done to make your school or your community a better place?

The scent of eucalyptus caressed my nose in a gentle breeze. Spring had arrived. Senior class activities were here. As a sophomore, I noticed a difference between athletic and academic seniors at my high school; one received recognition while the other received silence. I wanted to create an event celebrating students academically-committed to four-years, community colleges, trades schools, and military programs. This event was Academic Signing Day.

The leadership label, “Events Coordinator,” felt heavy on my introverted mind. I usually was setting up for rallies and spirit weeks, being overlooked around the exuberant nature of my peers. 

I knew a change of mind was needed; I designed flyers, painted posters, presented powerpoints, created student-led committees, and practiced countless hours for my introductory speech. Each committee would play a vital role on event day: one dedicated to refreshments, another to technology, and one for decorations. The fourth-month planning was a laborious joy, but I was still fearful of being in the spotlight. Being acknowledged by hundreds of people was new to me.     

The day was here. Parents filled the stands of the multi-purpose room. The atmosphere was tense; I could feel the angst building in my throat, worried about the impression I would leave. Applause followed each of the 400 students as they walked to their college table, indicating my time to speak. 

I walked up to the stand, hands clammy, expression tranquil, my words echoing to the audience. I thought my speech would be met by the sounds of crickets; instead, smiles lit up the stands, realizing my voice shone through my actions. I was finally coming out of my shell. The floor was met by confetti as I was met by the sincerity of staff, students, and parents, solidifying the event for years to come. 

Academic students were no longer overshadowed. Their accomplishments were equally recognized to their athletic counterparts. The school culture of athletics over academics was no longer imbalanced. Now, every time I smell eucalyptus, it is a friendly reminder that on Academic Signing Day, not only were academic students in the spotlight but so was my voice.

This essay answers the prompt nicely because the student describes a contribution with a lasting legacy. Academic Signing Day will affect this high school in the future and it affected this student’s self-development—an idea summed up nicely with their last phrase “not only were academic students in the spotlight but so was my voice.”

With Community Service essays, students sometimes take small contributions and stretch them. And, oftentimes, the stretch is very obvious. Here, the student shows us that Academic Signing Day actually mattered by mentioning four months of planning and hundreds of students and parents. They also make their involvement in Academic Signing Day clear—it was their idea and they were in charge, and that’s why they gave the introductory speech.

Use this response as an example of the type of focused contribution that makes for a convincing Community Service Essay.

Climate Change Rally

Prompt: What would you say is your greatest talent or skill? How have you developed and demonstrated that talent over time? (technically not community service, but the response works)

Let’s fast-forward time. Strides were made toward racial equality. Healthcare is accessible to all; however, one issue remains. Our aquatic ecosystems are parched with dead coral from ocean acidification. Climate change has prevailed.

Rewind to the present day.

My activism skills are how I express my concerns for the environment. Whether I play on sandy beaches or rest under forest treetops, nature offers me an escape from the haste of the world. When my body is met by trash in the ocean or my nose is met by harmful pollutants, Earth’s pain becomes my own. 

Substituting coffee grinds as fertilizer, using bamboo straws, starting my sustainable garden, my individual actions needed to reach a larger scale. I often found performative activism to be ineffective when communicating climate concerns. My days of reposting awareness graphics on social media never filled the ambition I had left to put my activism skills to greater use. I decided to share my ecocentric worldview with a coalition of environmentalists and host a climate change rally outside my high school.

Meetings were scheduled where I informed students about the unseen impact they have on the oceans and local habitual communities. My fingers were cramped from all the constant typing and investigating of micro causes of the Pacific Waste Patch, creating reusable flyers, displaying steps people could take from home in reducing their carbon footprint. I aided my fellow environmentalists in translating these flyers into other languages, repeating this process hourly, for five days, up until rally day.  

It was 7:00 AM. The faces of 100 students were shouting, “The climate is changing, why can’t we?” I proudly walked on the dewy grass, grabbing the microphone, repeating those same words. The rally not only taught me efficient methods of communication but it echoed my environmental activism to the masses. The City of Corona would be the first of many cities to see my activism, as more rallies were planned for various parts of SoCal. My once unfulfilled ambition was fueled by my tangible activism, understanding that it takes more than one person to make an environmental impact.

Like with the last example, this student describes a focused event with a lasting legacy. That’s a perfect place to start! By the end of this essay, we have an image of the cause of this student’s passion and the effect of this student’s passion. There are no unanswered questions.

This student supplements their focused topic with engaging and exciting writing to make for an easy-to-read and enjoyable essay. One of the largest strengths of this response is its pace. From the very beginning, we are invited to “fast-forward” and “rewind” with the writer. Then, after we center ourselves in real-time, this writer keeps their quick pace with sentences like “Substituting coffee grounds as fertilizer, using bamboo straws, starting my sustainable garden, my individual actions needed to reach a larger scale.” Community Service essays run the risk of turning boring, but this unique pacing keeps things interesting.

Having a diverse class provides a richness of different perspectives and encourages open-mindedness among the student body. The Diversity Essay is also somewhat similar to the Extracurricular and Community Service Essays, but it focuses more on what you might bring to the campus community because of your unique experiences or identities.

Learn more about how to write the Diversity Essay in our guide.

A Story of a Young Skater

​​“Everyone follow me!” I smiled at five wide-eyed skaters before pushing off into a spiral. I glanced behind me hopefully, only to see my students standing frozen like statues, the fear in their eyes as clear as the ice they swayed on. “Come on!” I said encouragingly, but the only response I elicited was the slow shake of their heads. My first day as a Learn-to-Skate coach was not going as planned. 

But amid my frustration, I was struck by how much my students reminded me of myself as a young skater. At seven, I had been fascinated by Olympic performers who executed thrilling high jumps and dizzying spins with apparent ease, and I dreamed to one day do the same. My first few months on skates, however, sent these hopes crashing down: my attempts at slaloms and toe-loops were shadowed by a stubborn fear of falling, which even the helmet, elbow pads, and two pairs of mittens I had armed myself with couldn’t mitigate. Nonetheless, my coach remained unfailingly optimistic, motivating me through my worst spills and teaching me to find opportunities in failures. With his encouragement, I learned to push aside my fears and attack each jump with calm and confidence; it’s the hope that I can help others do the same that now inspires me to coach.

I remember the day a frustrated staff member directed Oliver, a particularly hesitant young skater, toward me, hoping that my patience and steady encouragement might help him improve. Having stood in Oliver’s skates not much earlier myself, I completely empathized with his worries but also saw within him the potential to overcome his fears and succeed. 

To alleviate his anxiety, I held Oliver’s hand as we inched around the rink, cheering him on at every turn. I soon found though, that this only increased his fear of gliding on his own, so I changed my approach, making lessons as exciting as possible in hopes that he would catch the skating bug and take off. In the weeks that followed, we held relay races, played “freeze-skate” and “ice-potato”, and raced through obstacle courses; gradually, with each slip and subsequent success, his fear began to abate. I watched Oliver’s eyes widen in excitement with every skill he learned, and not long after, he earned his first skating badge. Together we celebrated this milestone, his ecstasy fueling my excitement and his pride mirroring my own. At that moment, I was both teacher and student, his progress instilling in me the importance of patience and a positive attitude. 

It’s been more than ten years since I bundled up and stepped onto the ice for the first time. Since then, my tolerance for the cold has remained stubbornly low, but the rest of me has certainly changed. In sharing my passion for skating, I have found a wonderful community of eager athletes, loving parents, and dedicated coaches from whom I have learned invaluable lessons and wisdom. My fellow staffers have been with me, both as friends and colleagues, and the relationships I’ve formed have given me far more poise, confidence, and appreciation for others. Likewise, my relationships with parents have given me an even greater gratitude for the role they play: no one goes to the rink without a parent behind the wheel! 

Since that first lesson, I have mentored dozens of children, and over the years, witnessed tentative steps transform into powerful glides and tears give way to delighted grins. What I have shared with my students has been among the greatest joys of my life, something I will cherish forever. It’s funny: when I began skating, what pushed me through the early morning practices was the prospect of winning an Olympic medal. Now, what excites me is the chance to work with my students, to help them grow, and to give back to the sport that has brought me so much happiness. 

This response is a great example of how Diversity doesn’t have to mean race, gender, sexuality, ethnicity, age, or ability. Diversity can mean whatever you want it to mean—whatever unique experience(s) you have to bring to the table!

A major strength of this essay comes in its narrative organization. When reading this first paragraph, we feel for the young skaters and understand their fear—skating sounds scary! Then, because the writer sets us up to feel this empathy, the transition to the second paragraph where the student describes their empathy for the young skaters is particularly powerful. It’s like we are all in it together! The student’s empathy for the young skaters also serves as an outstanding, seamless transition to the applicant discussing their personal journey with skating: “I was struck by how much my students reminded me of myself as a young skater.”

This essay positions the applicant as a grounded and caring individual. They are caring towards the young skaters—changing their teaching style to try to help the young skaters and feeling the young skaters’ emotions with them—but they are also appreciative to those who helped them as they reference their fellow staffers and parents. This shows great maturity—a favorable quality in the eyes of an admissions officer.

At the end of the essay, we know a lot about this student and are convinced that they would be a good addition to a college campus!

Finding Community in the Rainforest

Prompt: Duke University seeks a talented, engaged student body that embodies the wide range of human experience; we believe that the diversity of our students makes our community stronger. If you’d like to share a perspective you bring or experiences you’ve had to help us understand you better—perhaps related to a community you belong to, your sexual orientation or gender identity, or your family or cultural background—we encourage you to do so. Real people are reading your application, and we want to do our best to understand and appreciate the real people applying to Duke (250 words).

I never understood the power of community until I left home to join seven strangers in the Ecuadorian rainforest. Although we flew in from distant corners of the U.S., we shared a common purpose: immersing ourselves in our passion for protecting the natural world.

Back home in my predominantly conservative suburb, my neighbors had brushed off environmental concerns. My classmates debated the feasibility of Trump’s wall, not the deteriorating state of our planet. Contrastingly, these seven strangers delighted in bird-watching, brightened at the mention of medicinal tree sap, and understood why I once ran across a four-lane highway to retrieve discarded beer cans. Their histories barely resembled mine, yet our values aligned intimately. We did not hesitate to joke about bullet ants, gush about the versatility of tree bark, or discuss the destructive consequences of materialism. Together, we let our inner tree huggers run free.

In the short life of our little community, we did what we thought was impossible. By feeding on each other’s infectious tenacity, we cultivated an atmosphere that deepened our commitment to our values and empowered us to speak out on behalf of the environment. After a week of stimulating conversations and introspective revelations about engaging people from our hometowns in environmental advocacy, we developed a shared determination to devote our lives to this cause.

As we shared a goodbye hug, my new friend whispered, “The world needs saving. Someone’s gotta do it.” For the first time, I believed that someone could be me.

This response is so wholesome and relatable. We all have things that we just need to geek out over and this student expresses the joy that came when they found a community where they could geek out about the environment. Passion is fundamental to university life and should find its way into successful applications.

Like the last response, this essay finds strength in the fact that readers feel for the student. We get a little bit of backstory about where they come from and how they felt silenced—“Back home in my predominantly conservative suburb, my neighbors had brushed off environmental concerns”—, so it’s easy to feel joy for them when they get set free.

This student displays clear values: community, ecoconsciousness, dedication, and compassion. An admissions officer who reads Diversity essays is looking for students with strong values and a desire to contribute to a university community—sounds like this student!  

Political/Global Issues

Colleges want to build engaged citizens, and the Political/Global Issues Essay allows them to better understand what you care about and whether your values align with theirs. In this essay, you’re most commonly asked to describe an issue, why you care about it, and what you’ve done or hope to do to address it. 

Learn more about how to write the Political/Global Issues Essay in our guide.

Note: this prompt is not a typical political/global issues essay, but the essay itself would be a strong response to a political/global issues prompt.

Fighting Violence Against Women

Prompt: Using a favorite quotation from an essay or book you have read in the last three years as a starting point, tell us about an event or experience that helped you define one of your values or changed how you approach the world. Please write the quotation, title and author at the beginning of your essay. (250-650 words)

“One of the great challenges of our time is that the disparities we face today have more complex causes and point less straightforwardly to solutions.” 

– Omar Wasow, assistant professor of politics, Princeton University. This quote is taken from Professor Wasow’s January 2014 speech at the Martin Luther King Day celebration at Princeton University. 

The air is crisp and cool, nipping at my ears as I walk under a curtain of darkness that drapes over the sky, starless. It is a Friday night in downtown Corpus Christi, a rare moment of peace in my home city filled with the laughter of strangers and colorful lights of street vendors. But I cannot focus. 

My feet stride quickly down the sidewalk, my hand grasps on to the pepper spray my parents gifted me for my sixteenth birthday. My eyes ignore the surrounding city life, focusing instead on a pair of tall figures walking in my direction. I mentally ask myself if they turned with me on the last street corner. I do not remember, so I pick up the pace again. All the while, my mind runs over stories of young women being assaulted, kidnapped, and raped on the street. I remember my mother’s voice reminding me to keep my chin up, back straight, eyes and ears alert. 

At a young age, I learned that harassment is a part of daily life for women. I fell victim to period-shaming when I was thirteen, received my first catcall when I was fourteen, and was nonconsensually grabbed by a man soliciting on the street when I was fifteen. For women, assault does not just happen to us— its gory details leave an imprint in our lives, infecting the way we perceive the world. And while movements such as the Women’s March and #MeToo have given victims of sexual violence a voice, harassment still manifests itself in the lives of millions of women across the nation. Symbolic gestures are important in spreading awareness but, upon learning that a surprising number of men are oblivious to the frequent harassment that women experience, I now realize that addressing this complex issue requires a deeper level of activism within our local communities. 

Frustrated with incessant cases of harassment against women, I understood at sixteen years old that change necessitates action. During my junior year, I became an intern with a judge whose campaign for office focused on a need for domestic violence reform. This experience enabled me to engage in constructive dialogue with middle and high school students on how to prevent domestic violence. As I listened to young men uneasily admit their ignorance and young women bravely share their experiences in an effort to spread awareness, I learned that breaking down systems of inequity requires changing an entire culture. I once believed that the problem of harassment would dissipate after politicians and celebrities denounce inappropriate behavior to their global audience. But today, I see that effecting large-scale change comes from the “small” lessons we teach at home and in schools. Concerning women’s empowerment, the effects of Hollywood activism do not trickle down enough. Activism must also trickle up and it depends on our willingness to fight complacency. 

Finding the solution to the long-lasting problem of violence against women is a work-in-progress, but it is a process that is persistently moving. In my life, for every uncomfortable conversation that I bridge, I make the world a bit more sensitive to the unspoken struggle that it is to be a woman. I am no longer passively waiting for others to let me live in a world where I can stand alone under the expanse of darkness on a city street, utterly alone and at peace. I, too, deserve the night sky.

As this student addresses an important social issue, she makes the reasons for her passion clear—personal experiences. Because she begins with an extended anecdote, readers are able to feel connected to the student and become invested in what she has to say.

Additionally, through her powerful ending—“I, too, deserve the night sky”—which connects back to her beginning— “as I walk under a curtain of darkness that drapes over the sky”—this student illustrates a mastery of language. Her engagement with other writing techniques that further her argument, like the emphasis on time—“gifted to me for my sixteenth birthday,” “when I was thirteen,” “when I was fourteen,” etc.—also illustrates her mastery of language.

While this student proves herself a good writer, she also positions herself as motivated and ambitious. She turns her passions into action and fights for them. That is just what admissions officers want to see in a Political/Global issues essay!

Where to Get Feedback on Your College Essays

Once you’ve written your college essays, you’ll want to get feedback on them. Since these essays are important to your chances of acceptance, you should prepare to go through several rounds of edits. 

Not sure who to ask for feedback? That’s why we created our free Peer Essay Review resource. You can get comments from another student going through the process and also edit other students’ essays to improve your own writing. 

If you want a college admissions expert to review your essay, advisors on CollegeVine have helped students refine their writing and submit successful applications to top schools.  Find the right advisor for you  to improve your chances of getting into your dream school!

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Revising the “Toy Story Method” of Essay Writing

July 24, 2015

The original blog post concludes by highlighting a deceptively simple question – “So what?” The author advises his students to “write that question at the top of your essay, in the margins, and at the end,” but he doesn’t explain what you’re supposed to do if you can’t answer it! I agree that it can be a useful question – in fact, it was one of my graduate school colleague’s favorites in seminar discussions – but if you can’t answer why it’s important or how to revise your work to say “This is what!”, you’re sort of stuck! What if the “insight” the question is supposed to lead you to eludes your tired, essay-fatigued brain?

Instead of asking “So, what?” at the end of each sentence or paragraph, you might have better luck with something like, “What does this say about me?” or, alternatively, “What do I want the reader to know about me?” Of course, you could interpret either of these questions as a convoluted way of asking, “So, what?”, but I would argue that it actually does very different work.

In my opinion, “So, what?” assumes that every sentence has an objective that needs to be met, as if there’s a right way to express a point or that every sentence must be linked to a specific argument. That may be true in an analytical essay, but the same rules don’t apply to narrative writing. Even in a short essay, you should feel free to stretch your creative legs, especially when you’re asked to write about yourself. Don’t hold yourself accountable for rationalizing every sentence!

In fact, by asking what each sentence says about you, you allow yourself to be multiple things at once and to tell more than one story at the same time. A particularly descriptive sentence may underscore your imaginative qualities while demonstrating your mastery of the metaphor. An alliterative phrase may illustrate your whimsical nature and flair for language. A poignant conclusion may showcase your knack for distilling complex ideas into a single sentence while highlighting your sense of humor. In other words, it matters what you say and how you say it. Answering “So, what?” may only show you half of that equation.

Lastly, in my opinion, the key feature of every Pixar film is the memorable cast of characters. From a superhero going through a mid-life crisis, to a rat cooking fancy French cuisine, to runaway emotions lost in the labyrinth of long-term memory, the films teach us about ourselves and what it means to be human by telling a universal story. We care about the characters because we see our experiences reflected in their encounters with the rest of their world, even if we’ve never been “to infinity and beyond.” We connect to them because at some point in our lives we’ve felt like they did. We recognize ourselves in the stories they tell.

With that in mind, rather than trying to write a “strong narrative” or to “make it new” like the author of the blog post suggests, just tell the admissions committee what it’s like to be you! I would argue that that is how you can apply the lessons of “Toy Story” storytelling to compose a memorable admissions essay.

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8.2: Henry David Thoreau, “Walden,” 1854

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Henry David Thoreau (July 12, 1817 – May 6, 1862) was an American essayist, poet, philosopher, abolitionist, naturalist, tax resister, development critic, surveyor, and historian. A leading transcendentalist, Thoreau is best known for his book Walden , a reflection upon simple living in natural surroundings, and his essay “Civil Disobedience” (originally published as “Resistance to Civil Government”), an argument for disobedience to an unjust state.

Thoreau’s books, articles, essays, journals, and poetry amount to more than 20 volumes. Among his lasting contributions are his writings on natural history and philosophy, in which he anticipated the methods and findings of ecology and environmental history, two sources of modern-day environmentalism. His literary style interweaves close observation of nature, personal experience, pointed rhetoric, symbolic meanings, and historical lore, while displaying a poetic sensibility, philosophical austerity, and Yankee attention to practical detail. He was also deeply interested in the idea of survival in the face of hostile elements, historical change, and natural decay; at the same time he advocated abandoning waste and illusion in order to discover life’s true essential needs.

Contributors and Attributions

• Biography of Henry David Thoreau. Provided by : Wikipedia. Located at : https://en.Wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_David_Thoreau . License : CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike
• Walden. Authored by : Henry David Thoreau. Located at : http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/205 . License : Public Domain: No Known Copyright

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After 20 years, I met my childhood hero: The local news anchor who looked like me

This story was first published on May 28, 2021.

If you ask kids who their childhood heroes are, they’ll probably mention characters and celebrities they see on-screen. If you’re my age (turning 30 this summer,  despite not fully being ready for it ), you might remember looking up to the Power Rangers or Britney Spears.

I, however, looked up to Ellee Pai Hong.

That’s not an obscure actor’s name or an early ‘90s pop star that slipped your mind; Ellee Pai Hong was the morning news anchor on NBC Chicago in the early-mid 2000s.

My mother has faithfully watched the TODAY Show and the morning local news every day in our suburban Chicago home since before I was born. She still does, actually, and wants Al Roker to know that he should go easy on Craig Melvin.

It’s a matter of luck or fate that I now work for TODAY, the show I have genuinely watched since birth, and Ellee Pai Hong was the person I saw each morning before catching the bus. There were a few days I didn’t tune in — I was tired, running late, finishing some sort of homework — but most days, I watched attentively as a well-dressed Asian American woman delivered the news in my hometown.

As anyone who is a devout watcher of morning news will tell you, it’s easy to grow attached to the anchors who you welcome into your home each day. For me, it wasn’t just that Ellee Pai Hong was cool and funny — though she obviously was — it was that she was one of the few faces that looked like mine on TV at the time.

I soon discovered that my life skills involved, almost exclusively, talking to others and writing, so I decided to pursue a career in journalism. And I can safely say that I believed I could follow my dreams, at least in part, because I had watched Ellee Pai Hong do it for all those years.

When I stepped foot on campus at the University of Missouri, which is home to one of the nation’s best journalism programs, I had a bit of culture shock. People there were constantly asking me “What are you?” and the only other Asian faces I recognized were exchange students coming to study from the other side of the globe. I wasn’t sure where I fit in.

Later, as a reporter/anchor on the local NBC station in Columbia, Missouri, I took phone calls, emails, tweets and comments from local viewers who complained about my appearance on air. And at least some of the responses were  tied to my ethnic identity .

But through it all, I tried to channel the journalists who came before me, especially Ellee Pai Hong.

I decided to track her down for this piece to let her know just how much her presence and success meant to me. She was kind enough to chat with one of her biggest fans and shared that she still works in TV, serving as a host for  Comcast Newsmakers .

It turns out that while growing up in Los Angeles, she looked up to another Asian American newscaster. Hong told me she used to trick her two sisters into watching the afternoon news so she could catch KCBS anchor Tritia Toyota.

“We only had one TV … and they never wanted to watch news,” she said with a laugh. “I’d say, ‘Well, don’t you want to watch the weather so you can figure out what you’re wearing to school tomorrow?’”

Toyota actually co-founded the Asian American Journalists Association in 1981. (Disclaimer: I’m a member of AAJA, which is now a nationwide organization with more than 1,500 members across the country).

“That’s who I used to watch, and I’d be like, ‘Oh, that looks interesting,’” Hong said. “And to see someone doing something like that (who) looks like me made it possible in my head. I totally believe you need to see people in different like diverse people in different areas because it connects you with that job or career.”

She added that she didn’t realize until later that she wanted to go into television broadcasting herself.

“Honestly, I wanted to be a Broadway star,” she said with a chuckle. “I’ve always been a little bit of a ham. But I realized I’m not that great of a singer.”

Like anyone meeting their career role model, I also had to ask for Hong’s professional advice.

Her first tip was to approach stories from all angles. She explained that her first boss (a “hardass”) in a small local news market had made her approach a family grieving after their two children died in a fire. Hong said she didn’t want to do the story but felt pressure from her boss, so asked the mother to tell her about her children’s lives before their untimely deaths.

“I took the position of, you know, let’s talk about your children, how great they were. Tell me about all the great stuff they did and what kind of kids they were and how much you love them” she said. “Just like with everything, it’s about how you approach things. Don’t get stuck in thinking you need to approach things one way — you can come at it from all different angles.”

Another piece of advice: “You’ve got to manage up, as well as manage down,” referring to how important it is to maintain workplace relationships with both subordinates and those you report to.

“Obviously … being good is just the baseline, you have to be good at what you do,” she said.“But you have to manage those relationships within your workspace … it’s always people problems, relationship problems that gets in the way of being more productive and more creative.”

As of late, there have been a slew of problems facing the  Asian American community . As I spoke with Hong in late April, there were ongoing attacks against people of Asian descent happening across the country.

Hong told me a story about how her daughter had faced racism at school and how she’d coached her to stick up for herself. She thinks the entire community should come together to stand up for themselves as well and hopes for lasting change.

“I feel like Asian Americans, we need a person or a group or several people to say something and be loud about it,” she said. “Culturally speaking, we as Asian Americans, we grow up to be considerate of others. It’s not ‘me first,’ it’s consideration of others, work hard and do what you’re supposed to do.

“But, you know, silence never inspired change, right, so to be silent about what happens to you, about the derogatory comments that are aimed at you, about the hate crimes — more seriously — that happened to you, it doesn’t do anything,” she continued. “It doesn’t prompt change so I feel like as a community, we cannot be silenced. And we cannot be silent.”

Sam Kubota is a senior digital editor and journalist for TODAY Digital based in Los Angeles. She joined NBC News in 2019.

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Oral History: The True Story of an Immigrant Woman

1. introduction.

Badran's paper investigates misunderstandings and forgetfulness in history, as well as the problem of historical representation, by reconsidering the individual as a unit of historical research. It includes a case study on an immigrant woman. Oral history, with its special methodology of memory, is advocated. A transcript of part of a life history interview with the author's grandmother is appended to the paper. When people recount their lives, they deal with questions of causality and motivation, therefore oral history can offer explanations. The paper combines issues of gender and class with those of oral history. In investigating the everyday lives of ordinary women in the past, it is often necessary to ask different questions about the past. Ironically, oral history, with its unstructured and flexible narrative style, should be better suited to dealing with the complexity of everyday life. However, many oral history projects have been used in superficial ways or have created inadequate archives. A variety of factors may contribute to the undercutting of oral history potential. These include the influence of the notion of objectivity, the use of oral history interviews more for attribution than for elucidation, and the methodological difficulties in using (oral) life histories. The paper recommends that researchers work closely with participants to explore the life history interviews' process and structure to a greater extent, and manage the research project carefully.

1.1. Background and Significance of Oral History

Oral history takes as its subject grassroots history, the words of those whom history has left voiceless or those who have been silenced by mere institutional form or literacy rates. Even with the help of widespread literacy, it is estimated that although humankind did not achieve a total of just one billion persons until the nineteenth century, there exists in this universe the potential of 189 million who do not speak or read a world language. These are the illiterates who depend upon the spoken word to record history. As a subfield within folklore studies, oral history interviews of historical significance are well known and documented, for this occupational group has been one of the leaders in the promotion of the oral tradition of folk documentation. The subjects of traditional oral history projects have been clear-cut. Rather than documenting the life and thoughts of the everyday worker, who composed ninety percent of society, only the words of the notables, the three percent, have survived as historical testimonies. Sensitivity in using the oral document is required due to the complexity of having a person's thoughts expressed by another and then produced within written form. This task allows many opportunities for alteration of the original testimony. Although modifying narration to fit closely with direct quotes is often acceptable in studies of this nature, the history of folklore study places use of the vernacular or native dialect as a primary concern. Current professional literary study acknowledges that literature is emerging in languages and dialects other than standard speech. Crime and stress or conversely misheard and not clarified voices may make specific naming, dates, and places difficult to determine, mark, and pinpoint. These apparent weaknesses in the qualitative identity of the spoken word conversely serve to represent the historical significance of the everyday life of the individual of whom it offers testimony.

2. Chapter 1: Early Life and Childhood

According to Maria's birth certificate, she was born in 1926 in Cacia, Portugal in the Civil Parish of St. Martin's. Maria is the youngest of four sisters. The family worked very, very hard and in that time it wasn't like here where my brother goes out to work and he has a car. No! Each one worked where she could find for a little bread to take to the table. At that time, life in Portugal was very difficult because food was scarce and expensive. The only thing left for the people who had little land was to produce more to compensate for money spent on other goods. They produced for their own consumption. They used to plant and manufacture it one way or another so they had food to eat. Both of my father's grandparents were wealthy people, they had more land, and they distributed it among their children. My father's father, out of pride, didn't want to buy the property from his father so he had to go work for other people. It was hard and I don't think I could survive. They corticed (remove the outer layer of cork from the tree) and made charcoal. Mother's parents, her mother—we just called her Maria. Mother went to school—her mother was the lady teacher who taught from a book, a slate, and a chock. Then, when they went to school, they made a profession that made it so they had a little money at the end of the month. My father made the brick and charcoal. Then, they imported the salt. Mother always tells that. Yes, the government were the overseers. Whoever didn't do what they said would be put in jail. They could read and write because they took a course on that. There was a company that paid for boarding officers of ships: one for people and the other for gold. The ships came in, but they only went to pass and they didn't want to cause trouble. My mother knew about it. So, my father would run and say, "Let's move everyone away." The officers were passing at the same time. It was a street in the center. There were people in the front and the back. Nobody wants to be accused of doing wrong. Back then, everything was controlled—sometimes good, sometimes bad. What we ate was never too strong. They didn't want one of ours to get sick. So, we always dug a couple of hands, they say. Exercise always helps people to maintain health. I had a friend who had 11 children; his sister had 7. Then they had more children; whatever they received was for them to buy something. The people of today, see how they have it. I am not like that because I had chores at home. Both, the girls and the boys, had to tend to the household chores every day. My mother didn't like to see us not doing anything. "You work," she'd say. "When one chickens, the other will lay an egg." My mother, no, she wasn't like that. "Go do something! Here, I have no laborers," she would say. Then, we had to do it all. At times, my friends wouldn't believe me. They'd ask how I was able to do everything. I just reply, "I know how to do it." I learned from a young age. Everyone found out by themselves by doing. We didn't have toys like children do nowadays—nothing, nothing. The only toys we had was our imagination. We were happy because those were the only toys there were. That was when children played like children.

2.1. Birth and Family Background

I was born February 20, 1907, in La Bahía, Tamaulipas, Mexico. My father and mother were both born in Tamaulipas. When I was born, my family was living in my grandfather's house on his land. My father had inherited his father's land in the San Fernando area, and we would travel back and forth, depending on the job my father had. He was a cattleman. My brothers and sisters and I grew up in a town similar to Kingsville except everything was there, there in Mexico - grocery store and all that. My father was the typical landowner for the time. He owned cattle and my mother cooked for the people who worked for us. We had a home there. It was completely built from native timber, but it was a sturdy home. It wasn't a shack; it was a home. I was a little girl, so don't ask me more. Since I was the oldest girl, I was the one who got stuck with the little brothers and sisters. I can very safely tell you that I cooked my first tortilla when I was 4. It looks just like a tortilla is supposed to look like! When I had grown up some, I went to school. I attended a little private school, then went to a public school in San Fernando for the third year and completed my education in Matamoros. That, as I recall, was about the maximum of my education.

3. Chapter 2: Journey to a New Land

On the other hand, occasions to laugh and talk to other people were scarce. Although the trip had been a long one, we managed to maintain our good spirits for quite a while. The most part of the people were strangers to me, but there were many relatives and neighbors traveling in the same ship, and what one could not see, the other would see. This small world among strangers was soon formed by the people that came from so many parts, and I came to know many of them by name. More than a month after we left Stockholm, we finally arrived in Buenos Aires. Many passengers came from Europe in the same boat. They were almost all from Eastern Europe, speaking languages that I had never heard before. They were Jews leaving their countries because of the persecutions they suffered by the Czar among others. When we arrived in the city, we went to my uncle's house. He lived in Mataderos, a peripheral neighborhood of Buenos Aires. He was married and so he was living with his wife and seven young children. My uncle and the first son of his were the only ones who worked for the packing company Uriburu S.A., after whom Mataderos was named. The rest of the family managed without any great difficulties. They lived well, although in a simple and modest way.

3.1. Reasons for Immigration

In the village in Greece where my grandmother was born, the customs and laws work differently from those that we experience in the United States today. My grandmother was born in Greece. She came to the United States when she was very young and married my grandfather who had also emigrated from Greece. They had two daughters, one of which was my mother. The family farm where my grandmother grew up was a piny in which the family depended on to live and for food. Her parents, brothers, and sisters crowded onto the piny, each working very hard to keep all from starving. The two nearest towns were about an hour's walk from the family home. My grandmother did not attend school because in Greece at that time most of the females did not have access to education. Her childhood was very hard growing up on the family farm. Her future finally began to look a little better when her brother returned from Argentina with enough money to sponsor her to come to the United States where she married and had a family of her own. When I asked her why she wanted to come to the United States she answered, "In Greece I was so very poor. Here in the United States we all work very hard together, but we have more than we need and plenty to help us live." The family had only enough food to last the year and no way to buy more. My grandmother recalls, "When my brothers went to war, they took their farm animals, so we had very little to depend on. In the United States, money was established into law. Everything runs on money. In this way things are even, because it is everyone's responsibility to have the things that he needs." Three of my grandmother's brothers had left the family farm to immigrate to the United States and one to Argentina. When my grandfather returned to Greece to visit, he saw my grandmother bathing in the river and decided to marry her so he asked her parents for her the same day.

4. Chapter 3: Settlement and Adaptation

After leaving the train, the women had no trouble finding the address of the employment agency in Montreal. When they arrived for their interview, they discovered that the wealthy Montreal family that had requested domestic help through Mr. Rubin had made a mistake - they had been expecting two Russian immigrant women to be part of their workforce, but Ruby and Jenny were obviously Jewish. The interview process would have ended right there, except that Mr. Rubin's wife, who was present at the interview, spoke on their behalf, beseeching the woman to give the "poor victims of the pogroms" a job. Her appeal worked, and the two women were hired on the spot. Ruby was to work in the kitchen, and Jenny was to work as the live-in laundress. They would also be given room and board as part of the agreement. The job allowed them one day off a week, and they used it to discover what Montreal had to offer newcomers to Canada. They saw the St. Lawrence River, visited the park, and walked along the streets of the affluent, where they marveled at the cleanliness, beauty, and affluence that surrounded them. However, Ruby and Jenny's adjustment to life in Canada did not go as smoothly. They had left London with magnificent fur muffs, coats, and hats, as well as pajamas, sweaters, and fine clothes. Jenny had also taken with her all the spoons and forks from those dinner sets she had purchased in London. The traveling experience only allowed them to bring to Montreal one small traveling case each, as the remainder of the large pieces of luggage and the trunks were to follow by boat a short time later. Upon arriving in Canada, they approached a bank and were able to convert a considerable sum of English pounds into Canadian dollars, and the dollars in turn were changed into Canadian shillings. The women quickly found a boarding house and rented a small room where they would have the opportunity to rest before they started to look for work. They took turns sleeping in their new room, and they asked the proprietor of the boarding house if they could keep their money, as well as their jewelry which they had carefully wrapped up in their worn undergarments, in the boarding house safe. The money and jewelry that had been left in the establishment safe had disappeared along with the boarding house proprietor's family. Ruby and Jenny found suitable quarters at a neighboring family's home, where they were most warmly received. In particular, the female head of the home treated both women magnificently and catered to their every need, wanting nothing in return. It was with her kind assistance that they soon found employment as domestic help in a Montreal aristocratic home on the townships.

4.1. Challenges Faced in the New Country

Adaptation and Challenges Faced in the New Country Adapting to the new country was not easy for the married girl. The social and cultural aspects of her own country and culture soon became of considerable importance to her. Now that she was living in a foreign country, she was even more anxious to retain the customs and traditions familiar to her. Many aspects of her new life, particularly those that were less public, she tried to retain not only for herself but for her offspring as well. She was not in an ideal position, however, to do so because her husband was working at a job that took him out of the home. She was therefore largely responsible for establishing, modifying, and maintaining the social and cultural ties of the family. She would put all her energy towards retention of her home life; she would call her neighbors to sing Aalman (song), she would take her family to someone else's house or invite them over to talk and help each other... In short, she struggled hard to keep her home life alive and improve it in the foreign country. Moreover, she quickly realized that she was not to be the only member of the family involved with people from her homeland. Her children's lives ought to reflect that they were Pakistani as well. They must learn to know and appreciate their family, their present culture, their country, and the other people in it to achieve understanding. If she was to do her job effectively, however, she had to retain the role of the person the children loved and listened to. The only way was to be able to instill in them a love for their homeland and its culture, and to demonstrate that the cultural heritage and practical aspects of life there are important to them.

5. Chapter 4: Family and Community Life

Life was still "simple" in those days, we didn't have a very hectic lifestyle like we do now. When there was a marriage, it was a very warm and close-knit community. People would help, not only with money, but also with actual work that needed to be done. Work was shared by men, women, children, and elders. Men would go searching for food while the women took care of the kids and chores. And then there were the village midwives. Despite not knowing a thing, they did an amazing job. In those times, there were two community healers from Tehran. When someone fell ill, the midwife would go ask the healers to help. They wrote something on a piece of paper, the midwife would put that paper in a glass of water, stir it around, and give that water to the person who was ill. And he would get well and start walking the same day. Did we believe in what the midwives did? Well, if we didn't, then we wouldn't see someone become healthy, right? For instance, my son had meningitis. I was told that if I took him to the hospital, they would let him die there and that I needed to bring him back home. That I should do that instead of having him die in a place like that. So I brought him back home. Then the lady from the village health center went to the midwife. She then prepared a list of ten items. I bought everything but two of the items, which was difficult to get at that time. But after two days, my son got up and started walking around!

5.1. Role of Family in Adaptation

Family is the most powerful and moving force in the lives of people. It has a magical power - by taking parents, blood brothers, sisters and other equally close relatives far beyond the borders of their common house and common yard, common kitchen, it makes them inseparable in their most urgent and important deeds. A person lost in the vast kingdom of strange, indifferent, and often callous people boldly steps up to the stranger and at once becomes talkative, prominent, and fearless. After all, people around - non-Italians, non-poor, non-knowing the languages, customs, and moral stereotypes are just what - afar, inconceivable... And as if invalidly taking to the heart the solicitous whispers of the dear house, compelling to be sure that warm, affectionate care is not just a human feeling but something solid and palpable, he is protected by the presence of his closest, dearest, and most trustworthy security guard. And so they all settled in Australia. The chores of everyday life captured everyone. They differ from those bouts of hurry in the very fact that now they brought much more joy. Busy with his family and work, Bravo das to keep in touch with Iolanda's parents, regularly wrote letters and holidays called them. Twice a year, at Christmas and Easter, they sent a decent amount of money to Italy - a little help to go home if suddenly there were any unforeseen circumstances, the rest so... Just to give, to the sweetest parents, to the most needed and the most worthy, joy and light, that elusive vital energy, which can make life a little easier, sweeter, brighter. And certainly, at the first opportunity to meet with this dear loving old couple personally.

6. Chapter 5: Reflections and Legacy

Q: Tonie, what's the meaning of your life now? What do you want to accomplish? A: The meaning of my life is to set an example for my children, my grandchildren, and other people. I want to be a good example. I want other people to work hard and go to school. Those are the basic things. Of course, you have to take care of other things, but it all comes back to your family, your goal, what you want to accomplish. You only have one life. You have to make the best of it. If I could teach that to the children, to other people, I'll feel that I did my part while I was here. Tonie shares wisdom emanating from a unique life shaped by immigration, work, faith, and community. None learned these virtues better than her children, who know firsthand how much Tonie gave and sacrificed in making a better life for them. They have taken advantage of that opportunity by obtaining an education and pursuing careers of their choice, a broader horizon than Tonie ever imagined. The toughest thing has been not understanding how much my mother did for me. I recognize now that because of this kind of opportunity, going to school and getting a job that I love, I'm freer. Because she's been so unselfish, so generous, and so giving to the family. My mom is the first with the faith and the knowledge that she could do it, and so created the ability for me to do it. I just wish I could have appreciated it more. My greatest hope is that Laurie, my children, and I will do what we can to make her life easier. Keep her comfortable, visit and enjoy with her. And create the best life that we can for her. Throughout this interview, Tonie articulated low levels of confidence in her ability to speak English, to become a U.S. citizen, to own property, to run a business, and to be critical of education in general, yet she accomplished most of these. She wanted more for the children, and they took advantage of the opportunity. Laurie explained the lesson well, paying tribute to a humble but powerful woman who truly carved out a better life for them. Tonie sacrificed, gave, and endured so much, yet never asked for any reward. The older life is to provide leadership, caring, and considerate responsibility to the next generations, to set lofty aspirations, to learn all – hope that we will give the children these gifts, and the wisdom to use them correctly.

6.1. Impact of Immigration on Future Generations

The history of immigration is the history of countries, independent states, because immigration is a specific phenomenon to human societies organized in that way. The problem of immigration has determined the birth and subsequent development of many countries and the United States of America is a clear example of this. That is why, in a very deep sense, every American from the generation that is establishes roots in the new country, that group that is usually referred to as the founders, can consider himself a true descendant of immigrates. This is the fundamental fact for every American, the anthropological characteristic, the genetic content that is found in their own social and moral actions. He who does not recognize this simple and evident truth is a nefarious instrument of what can be called the anarchic objective of some energetic and acknowledged ambition in policy, social or mercantile matters. The relativity of the presence of the immigrant experience always leads to a distorted teaching to generations that are far removed from that experience. Lord Acton repeated that it is a mistake to believe that a truthful image of things can be obtained from historical reconstructions that are learnt by rote. There is no doubt, however, these warnings and these preferential reservations towards teachings of school subjects, that which makes a feeling of warmness come to our soul is being able to directly look into the eyes of those who provided the testimony. This is especially true for children who, in as much as they live a phase of transition, are barely able to personally learn a life history. From an historical point of view, it is flanked by an all-embracing social history. For teenagers it is a time of greater biological development and for that reason they need guidance and emotional support.

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15 essential books written by musicians

There's no better time than the present to curl up with a good book. And if you're a music fan, there's nothing better than reading about the stories behind your favorite songs. Who doesn't want a peek into some of the world's most creative minds? 

Flip through the slideshow below for 15 essential books written by musicians, from non-fiction tomes on creativity and songwriting to fiction, essays, memoirs, and more. Even if you think you're not a fan of a particular artist on this list, give the book a chance — all 15 are stellar reads. 

"Life," Keith Richards

This 2010 memoir from legendary Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards is among the great rock autobiographies. It's packed with wild, unbelievable, and incredible stories from Richards' decades in the music industry, along with thoughtful discussions of his own battles with substance use and his relationship with frontman Mick Jagger. 

"Wolf in White Van," John Darnielle

Known for his earnest, folksy tunes as the songwriter behind The Mountain Goats, John Darnielle is also an accomplished fiction writer who's released multiple novels. "Wolf in White Van" is his first, and earned heaps of critical acclaim and a nomination for the National Book Award. 

"How Music Works," David Byrne

Few artists have managed to span the cultural zeitgeist like David Byrne, and his nonfiction book "How Music Works" is a fascinating look into the machinations into one of the most creative minds in the world. 

"Girl in a Band," Kim Gordon

Sonic Youth's Kim Gordon offers an intimate look into her personal and creative history in "Girl in a Band," a compellingly written memoir that traces her California childhood to her time in Sonic Youth and her eventually tumultuous marriage with bandmate Thurston Moore. 

"Just Kids," Patti Smith

Punk icon Patti Smith details her relationship with the artist and photographer Robert Mappelthorpe in this 2010 memoir, which won the National Book Award that year. According to Smith, the book was the result of a vow she made to Mappelthorpe on his deathbed, promising to tell their story. 

"Scar Tissue," Anthony Kiedis

A tough read at times, Red Hot Chili Peppers frontman Anthony Kiedis tells the story of his life, and struggle with substance abuse, in 2004's "Scar Tissue." 

"High Fidelity," Nick Hornby

Okay, British author Nick Hornby isn't a musician in the traditional sense, but he has written a ton of lyrics and had multiple works adapted into musicals. His 1995 novel "High Fidelity," which would later be turned into a feature film starring John Cusack, is a cult-favorite among music fans who have a ton of nostalgia for the mixtape era. 

"Tales From Margaritaville," Jimmy Buffett

Of course a guy like the late, great Jimmy Buffet is going to be great at telling stories, a collection of which appear in "Tales From Margaritaville." Released in 1989, the book is a must-read for any Parrothead. 

"Get In The Van," Henry Rollins

Whether or not you're a punk rock historian, Henry Rollins's memoir of his time as the frontman of Black Flag is an essential read for any music fan. It's a collection of journal entries written contemporaneously by Rollins, and includes the highs (and lows) of this legendary act's history. 

"The Death of Bunny Munro," Nick Cave

Fans of Nick Cave's music will likely be unsurprised that the artist's second novel, "The Death of Bunny Munro," traverses some pretty dark territory that involves a serial killer, a father-son relationship, and the titular character's looming mortality after the death of his wife. 

"This Wheel's On Fire," Levon Helm

Also the name of a song written by Bob Dylan, "This Wheel's on FIre" offers Levon Helm's perspective on both his childhood, and the interpersonal conflicts that led to the dissolution of The Band. Whether or not you fully believe Helm's often one-sided take, it's still a worthy read. 

"The Creative Act: A Way of Being," Rick Rubin

"The Creative Act" offers a peek inside the mind, and the creative processes, of legendary producer Rick Rubin, known for his work with artists like Johnny Cash, Jay-Z, and the Red Hot Chili Peppers, among many other acts. 

"How to Write One Song," Jeff Tweedy

A must-read for any aspiring songwriter, Wilco frontman Jeff Tweedy offers tons of helpful advice in "How to Write One Song," a book that actually encourages music fans to try their hand at writing songs of their own. 

"Chronicles: Volume One," Bob Dylan

Whether you're a Dylan obsessive or just curious about one of music's most legendary songwriters, "Chronicles" is a great place to learn more about Bob Dylan. The book, which won the Nobel prize for literature, covers his rise to fame, his years in declining popularity, and the resurgence that followed. 

"Le Freak," Nile Rodgers

One of the most notable figures of the disco era, Nile Rodgers's memoir "Le Freak" is a deeply honest book about one of the wildest times in music history. It tracks Rodgers's creative growth, his struggles with addiction, and what happened when the disco era unceremoniously ended as the 1980s began. 

Amy McCarthy is a Texas-based journalist. Follow her on twitter at @aemccarthy . 

More must-reads:

• 20 classic books people say are must-reads
• The essential 70s folk playlist

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