essay about challenge in life

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How to Write a Personal Challenge Essay (with Examples)

A personal challenge essay offers a singular chance for introspection and personal development. It gives you a chance to consider your past, face difficulties, and demonstrate your tenacity. This essay structure enables you to communicate your ideas and experiences with others, regardless of whether you’ve overcome hardship, dealt with a tricky circumstance, or chased an audacious goal. You’ll walk you through the phases of writing an engaging personal challenge essay in this in-depth guide, complete with samples that demonstrate the procedure.

Understanding the Personal Challenge Essay

The Personal challenges in life as a student essay asks you to describe an instance or time in your life when you had to overcome challenges, setbacks, or barriers. It’s an opportunity to demonstrate your resilience, your capacity to face adversity, and the lessons you’ve picked up along the road. This kind of article necessitates reflection, sincerity, and skillful narrative.

Selecting a Meaningful Challenge

It’s important to pick the correct challenge to write about. Think about Personal challenges in life as a student essay that profoundly influenced your development, principles, or attitude on life. It can have been an obstacle you overcame in your studies, relationships, sense of self, or any other area of your life. The task should have personal significance for you and provide information that your audience can relate to.

Structuring Your Personal Challenge Essay

To effectively portray your experiences, feelings, and growth, writing an engaging personal challenge essay involves careful thought and a well-organized format. The following steps will show you how to organize your essay such that it presents a logical and interesting story:

Introduction:

Beginning your essay with an attention-grabbing hook that draws the reader in and highlights the topic of the difficulty you’ll be exploring is a good idea. This might be a provocative inquiry, a moving saying, a detailed account, or a first-hand account associated with your issue.

Background & Context:

Make sure the reader has all the background knowledge they need to comprehend your dilemma. Describe the context, surroundings, and any other pertinent information that establishes the scene for your narrative. Additionally, you have the choice to ask for assistance from PhD thesis writing help if you run into difficulties when writing the background and context of your thesis or dissertation or if you are unsure owing to a lack of experience. They can offer helpful assistance to improve the caliber of your work.

The Challenge:

Describe the challenge in detail in a portion of your essay. When describing the challenges, difficulties, or setbacks you encountered, be descriptive and in-depth.

Your Reaction and Result:

Write about how you responded to the challenge in this part. What steps have you taken? Did you make crucial decisions, prepare a plan, or ask for assistance? Be sure to emphasize your ability to solve problems, tenacity, and any other traits that may have helped you overcome the obstacle.

Growth and Reflection:

Consider the encounter and share what you took away from it. What effects did the challenge have on your emotions, mind, and possibly even body? What new understandings did you get about who you are, your values, or your outlook on life? Describe how you overcame the obstacle to grow personally, discover yourself, or alter your perspective.

Takeaways & Lessons:

The exact lessons you took away from overcoming the obstacle should be highlighted. What priceless knowledge, abilities, or traits did you acquire as a result? Describe how these teachings have shaped your current behavior, choices, or attitude in life.

Conclusion:

Writing a compelling conclusion that connects everything can help you to conclude your essay. Write a summary of your shared journey, highlighting your personal development and new perspectives.

Include a Call to Action (Optional):

Depending on the nature of your issue, you might want to include a call to action that prompts the reader to reflect on their own issues, take action, or adopt a particular attitude.

After you’ve finished writing the essay, take some time to review and make any necessary changes. Check that the grammar, spelling, and punctuation in your writing are correct, as well as the flow.

Maintain You’re Authentic Voice Throughout the Essay:

While it’s crucial to follow a structured methodology, don’t forget to preserve your authentic voice. Remain sincere, honest, and personal in your writing. Your unique perspective and emotions will lend greater authenticity to your writing and make it more compelling. By adhering to the instructions outlined in this comprehensive guide, you’ll effectively organize your personal challenge essay. This approach will skillfully lead your readers through your journey, captivating their attention and leaving a memorable impression. Furthermore, if you find it challenging to maintain a systematic approach, consider seeking assistance from master thesis writing help. Their expertise can aid you in completing your work with precision and coherence.

Don’ts and Dos

Be upfront and honest when discussing your experiences. Do emphasize your development and lessons acquired. To keep the reader’s attention, employ colorful language and descriptions. Don’t make up or embellish details. Instead of blaming others for the difficulty, concentrate on your solution. Choose a challenge that had a significant influence rather than one that was inconsequential.

Examples of Personal Challenge Essays

Following are the Personal challenge essay examples:

Overcoming Academic Challenges:

Navigating the challenges we face in life essay can be a transformative journey that leads to personal growth and self-discovery. A prime example of this is when I confronted a series of academic setbacks. I realized that my ingrained fear of failing was standing in the way of my development. I, however, resisted allowing this fear to direct my course. I started a quest for self-improvement with pure tenacity. I reached out for guidance and support, shedding light on the power of seeking assistance when needed.

Overcoming Fear:

For instance, I had always been terrified of public speaking, but I had to face my phobia to present in front of a large crowd. I overcame my anxiety about public speaking over time with practice and confidence, and I also acquired speaking abilities that I still use today.

Dealing with Personal Loss:

Losing a loved one was a difficult emotional experience that altered my outlook on relationships and life. I learned the value of cherishing moments and helping others in need through my grief and contemplation.

Examples of challenges you have overcome as a student essay

I have encountered a range of challenges as a student, which has pushed my perseverance, adaptability, and resilience to the test. Even though they occasionally proved to be challenging, these obstacles ultimately helped me become a better and more capable individual. Here are a few instances of obstacles I overcame in my academic career:

Time Management Challenges:

Juggling schoolwork, assignments, extracurricular activities, and personal obligations can be difficult. There were times when I struggled to adequately manage my time, which resulted in missed deadlines and frustration. To overcome this difficulty, I started adopting time management strategies like making a thorough calendar, establishing priorities, and breaking work down into smaller, more manageable pieces. I became more organized about my obligations over time, which led to increased productivity and decreased stress. Furthermore, many students pursuing careers in the medical field face similarly demanding schedules that make it challenging to meet deadlines. In such cases, they often turn to nursing research paper writing services to ensure the quality and timeliness of their assignments.

Academic Setbacks:

It was demoralizing to experience academic setbacks, such as earning lower grades than expected. I decided to take advantage of these setbacks as chances for improvement rather than giving in to self-doubt. I requested input from my lecturers, made note of my weaknesses, and put focused study techniques into practice. I was able to improve my academic performance and regain my confidence by persevering and being willing to learn from my failures.

Language Barrier:

Navigating English as a second language introduced a unique set of challenges, especially in terms of effective communication and the completion of writing assignments. In essays and presentations, I often encountered hurdles in articulating my thoughts coherently and concisely. To overcome this hurdle, I actively expanded my vocabulary, engaged in consistent reading and writing exercises, and actively sought input from peers and professors. Furthermore, this drive to enhance my linguistic abilities not only improved my communication skills but also bolstered my confidence in expressing myself in academic and professional settings. My determination to conquer these language-related challenges demonstrates my commitment to growth and adaptability, qualities that I believe would make me a strong candidate for the Harvard Scholarship Essay .

Dynamics of Group Projects:

Due to the various work habits, schedules, and perspectives held by the group members, collaborative projects have occasionally proven to be difficult. I adopted efficient communication techniques, such as active listening and open discussion, to handle these circumstances. By praising each team member’s abilities and accomplishments, I helped to create a more effective and pleasant working atmosphere.

Personal Well-Being and Health:

It can be difficult to maintain a good balance between your personal needs and your academic obligations. I have occasionally overlooked my needs, which has resulted in burnout and a decline in drive. I gave exercise, wholesome eating, and regular breaks top priority since I understood how important self-care was. This all-encompassing strategy not only increased my general well-being but also sharpened my attention and increased my output. These examples collectively constitute my challenges in life as a student essay. They serve as valuable lessons that offer insights on how to navigate and overcome various situations.

How to Revise and Improve Your Essay

For instance, if you are given a topic such as “Essay on Environmental Problems and Their Solutions” and you’re not well-versed in it, it’s advisable to invest time in research. This will enable you to create quality content for your essay. After writing your personal challenge essay, it’s essential to engage in the editing and revision process. Ensure that your essay flows logically and that your ideas are well-organized. Edit for clarity, grammar, and punctuation. If you’re seeking a comprehensive perspective, consider seeking feedback from peers, professors, or mentors.

Frequently Asked Questions

Final thoughts.

Writing a personal challenge essay offers you the chance to share your unique journey and inspire others through your resilience and progress you can create an engaging tale that engrosses your readers by choosing a pertinent challenge, using a solid essay structure, and remaining honest. It’s crucial to remember that your essay about a personal issue demonstrates both your capacity for self-reflection and personal development in addition to your capacity for overcoming challenges. For those who face challenges in managing their academic tasks, there are online homework writing services available that can provide valuable assistance and support.

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8 Overcoming Challenges College Essay Examples

The purpose of the Overcoming Challenges essay is for schools to see how you might handle the difficulties of college. They want to know how you grow, evolve, and learn when you face adversity. For this topic, there are many clichés , such as getting a bad grade or losing a sports game, so be sure to steer clear of those and focus on a topic that’s unique to you. (See our full guide on the Overcoming Challenges Essay for more tips).

These overcoming challenges essay examples were all written by real students. Read through them to get a sense of what makes a strong essay. At the end, we’ll present the revision process for the first essay and share some resources for improving your essay.

Please note: 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. 

Essay 1: Becoming a Coach

“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 begins with an in-the-moment narrative that really illustrates the chaos of looking for a coach last-minute. We feel the writer’s emotions, particularly their dejectedness, at not being able to compete.

Through this essay, we can see how gutsy and determined the student is in deciding to become a coach themselves. The writer shows us these characteristics through their actions, rather than explicitly telling us: To prepare myself for success as a coach, I spent the next year as an official and took coaching classes on the side.

One area of improvement of this essay would be the “attack” wording. The author likely uses this word as a metaphor for martial arts, but it feels too strong to describe the adults’ doubt of the student’s abilities as a coach, and can even be confusing at first.

Still, we see the student’s resilience as they are able to move past the disbelieving looks to help their team. The essay is kept real and vulnerable, however, as the writer admits having doubts: 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.

The essay comes full circle as the author recalls the frantic situations in seeking out a coach, but this is no longer a concern for them and their team. Overall, this essay is extremely effective in painting this student as mature, bold, and compassionate.

Essay 2: Starting a Fire

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.

This essay is an excellent example because the writer turns an everyday challenge—starting a fire—into an exploration of her identity. The writer was once “a kind of rustic princess, a cradler of spiders and centipedes,” but has since traded her love of the outdoors for a love of music, writing, and reading. 

The story begins in media res , or in the middle of the action, allowing readers to feel as if we’re there with the writer. One of the essay’s biggest strengths is its use of imagery. We can easily visualize the writer’s childhood and the present day. For instance, she states that she “rubbed and rubbed [the twigs] until shreds of skin flaked from my fingers.”

The writing has an extremely literary quality, particularly with its wordplay. The writer reappropriates words and meanings, and even appeals to the senses: “My face burned long after I left the fire pit. The camp stank of salmon and shame.” She later uses a parallelism to cleverly juxtapose her changed interests: “instead of scaling a white pine, I’d practiced scales on my piano.”

One of the essay’s main areas of improvement is its overemphasis on the “story” and lack of emphasis on the reflection. The second to last paragraph about changing perspective is crucial to the essay, as it ties the anecdote to larger lessons in the writer’s life. She states that she hasn’t changed, but has only shifted perspective. Yet, we don’t get a good sense of where this realization comes from and how it impacts her life going forward. 

The end of the essay offers a satisfying return to the fire imagery, and highlights the writer’s passion—the one thing that has remained constant in her life.

Essay 3: Last-Minute Switch

The morning of the Model United Nation conference, I walked into Committee feeling confident about my research. We were simulating the Nuremberg Trials – a series of post-World War II proceedings for war crimes – and my portfolio was of the Soviet Judge Major General Iona Nikitchenko. Until that day, the infamous Nazi regime had only been a chapter in my history textbook; however, the conference’s unveiling of each defendant’s crimes brought those horrors to life. The previous night, I had organized my research, proofread my position paper and gone over Judge Nikitchenko’s pertinent statements. I aimed to find the perfect balance between his stance and my own.

As I walked into committee anticipating a battle of wits, my director abruptly called out to me. “I’m afraid we’ve received a late confirmation from another delegate who will be representing Judge Nikitchenko. You, on the other hand, are now the defense attorney, Otto Stahmer.” Everyone around me buzzed around the room in excitement, coordinating with their allies and developing strategies against their enemies, oblivious to the bomb that had just dropped on me. I felt frozen in my tracks, and it seemed that only rage against the careless delegate who had confirmed her presence so late could pull me out of my trance. After having spent a month painstakingly crafting my verdicts and gathering evidence against the Nazis, I now needed to reverse my stance only three hours before the first session.

Gradually, anger gave way to utter panic. My research was fundamental to my performance, and without it, I knew I could add little to the Trials. But confident in my ability, my director optimistically recommended constructing an impromptu defense. Nervously, I began my research anew. Despite feeling hopeless, as I read through the prosecution’s arguments, I uncovered substantial loopholes. I noticed a lack of conclusive evidence against the defendants and certain inconsistencies in testimonies. My discovery energized me, inspiring me to revisit the historical overview in my conference “Background Guide” and to search the web for other relevant articles. Some Nazi prisoners had been treated as “guilty” before their court dates. While I had brushed this information under the carpet while developing my position as a judge, i t now became the focus of my defense. I began scratching out a new argument, centered on the premise that the allied countries had violated the fundamental rule that, a defendant was “not guilty” until proven otherwise.

At the end of the three hours, I felt better prepared. The first session began, and with bravado, I raised my placard to speak. Microphone in hand, I turned to face my audience. “Greetings delegates. I, Otto Stahmer would like to…….” I suddenly blanked. Utter dread permeated my body as I tried to recall my thoughts in vain. “Defence Attorney, Stahmer we’ll come back to you,” my Committee Director broke the silence as I tottered back to my seat, flushed with embarrassment. Despite my shame, I was undeterred. I needed to vindicate my director’s faith in me. I pulled out my notes, refocused, and began outlining my arguments in a more clear and direct manner. Thereafter, I spoke articulately, confidently putting forth my points. I was overjoyed when Secretariat members congratulated me on my fine performance.

Going into the conference, I believed that preparation was the key to success. I wouldn’t say I disagree with that statement now, but I believe adaptability is equally important. My ability to problem-solve in the face of an unforeseen challenge proved advantageous in the art of diplomacy. Not only did this experience transform me into a confident and eloquent delegate at that conference, but it also helped me become a more flexible and creative thinker in a variety of other capacities. Now that I know I can adapt under pressure, I look forward to engaging in activities that will push me to be even quicker on my feet.

This essay is an excellent example because it focuses on a unique challenge and is highly engaging. The writer details their experience reversing their stance in a Model UN trial with only a few hours notice, after having researched and prepared to argue the opposite perspective for a month. 

Their essay is written in media res , or in the middle of the action, allowing readers to feel as if we’re there with the writer. The student openly shares their internal thoughts with us — we feel their anger and panic upon the reversal of roles. We empathize with their emotions of “utter dread” and embarrassment when they’re unable to speak. 

From the essay, we learn that the student believes in thorough preparation, but can also adapt to unforeseen obstacles. They’re able to rise to the challenge and put together an impromptu argument, think critically under pressure, and recover after their initial inability to speak. 

Essay 4: Music as a Coping Mechanism

CW: This essay mentions self-harm.

Sobbing uncontrollably, I parked around the corner from my best friend’s house. As I sat in the driver’s seat, I whispered the most earnest prayer I had ever offered.

Minutes before, I had driven to Colin’s house to pick up a prop for our upcoming spring musical. When I got there, his older brother, Tom, came to the door and informed me that no one else was home. “No,” I corrected, “Colin is here. He’s got a migraine.” Tom shook his head and gently told me where Colin actually was: the psychiatric unit of the local hospital. I felt a weight on my chest as I connected the dots; the terrifying picture rocked my safe little world. Tom’s words blurred as he explained Colin’s self-harm, but all I could think of was whether I could have stopped him. Those cuts on his arms had never been accidents. Colin had lied, very convincingly, many times. How could I have ignored the signs in front of me? Somehow, I managed to ask Tom whether I could see him, but he told me that visiting hours for non-family members were over for the day. I would have to move on with my afternoon.

Once my tears had subsided a little, I drove to the theater, trying to pull myself together and warm up to sing. How would I rehearse? I couldn’t sing three notes without bursting into tears. “I can’t do this,” I thought. But then I realized that the question wasn’t whether I could do it. I knew Colin would want me to push through, and something deep inside told me that music was the best way for me to process my grief. I needed to sing.

I practiced the lyrics throughout my whole drive. The first few times, I broke down in sobs. By the time I reached the theater, however, the music had calmed me. While Colin would never be far from my mind, I had to focus on the task ahead: recording vocals and then producing the video trailer that would be shown to my high school classmates. I fought to channel my worry into my recording. If my voice shook during the particularly heartfelt moments, it only added emotion and depth to my performance. I felt Colin’s absence next to me, but even before I listened to that first take, I knew it was a keeper.

With one of my hurdles behind me, I steeled myself again and prepared for the musical’s trailer. In a floor-length black cape and purple dress, I swept regally down the steps to my director, who waited outside. Under a gloomy sky that threatened to turn stormy, I boldly strode across the street, tossed a dainty yellow bouquet, and flashed confident grins at all those staring. My grief lurched inside, but I felt powerful. Despite my sadness, I could still make art.

To my own surprise, I successfully took back the day. I had felt pain, but I had not let it drown me – making music was a productive way to express my feelings than worrying. Since then, I have been learning to take better care of myself in difficult situations. That day before rehearsal, I found myself in the most troubling circumstances of my life thus far, but they did not sink me because I refused to sink. When my aunt developed cancer several months later, I knew that resolution would not come quickly, but that I could rely on music to cope with the agony, even when it would be easier to fall apart. Thankfully, Colin recovered from his injuries and was home within days. The next week, we stood together on stage at our show’s opening night. As our eyes met and our voices joined in song, I knew that music would always be our greatest mechanism for transforming pain into strength.

This essay is well-written, as we can feel the writer’s emotions through the thoughts they share, and visualize the night of the performance through their rich descriptions. Their varied sentence length also makes the essay more engaging.

That said, this essay is not a great example because of the framing of the topic. The writer can come off as insensitive since they make their friend’s struggle about themself and their emotions (and this is only worsened by the mention of their aunt’s cancer and how it was tough on them ). The essay would’ve been stronger if it focused on their guilt of not recognizing their friend’s struggles and spanned a longer period of time to demonstrate gradual relationship building and reflection. Still, this would’ve been difficult to do well.

In general, you should try to choose a challenge that is undeniably your own, and you should get at least one or two people to read your essay to give you candid feedback.

Essay 5: Dedicating a Track

“Getting beat is one thing – it’s part of competing – but I want no part in losing.” Coach Rob Stark’s motto never fails to remind me of his encouragement on early-morning bus rides to track meets around the state. I’ve always appreciated the phrase, but an experience last June helped me understand its more profound, universal meaning.

Stark, as we affectionately call him, has coached track at my high school for 25 years. His care, dedication, and emphasis on developing good character has left an enduring impact on me and hundreds of other students. Not only did he help me discover my talent and love for running, but he also taught me the importance of commitment and discipline and to approach every endeavor with the passion and intensity that I bring to running. When I learned a neighboring high school had dedicated their track to a longtime coach, I felt that Stark deserved similar honors.

Our school district’s board of education indicated they would only dedicate our track to Stark if I could demonstrate that he was extraordinary. I took charge and mobilized my teammates to distribute petitions, reach out to alumni, and compile statistics on the many team and individual champions Stark had coached over the years. We received astounding support, collecting almost 3,000 signatures and pages of endorsements from across the community. With help from my teammates, I presented this evidence to the board.

They didn’t bite. 

Most members argued that dedicating the track was a low priority. Knowing that we had to act quickly to convince them of its importance, I called a team meeting where we drafted a rebuttal for the next board meeting. To my surprise, they chose me to deliver it. I was far from the best public speaker in the group, and I felt nervous about going before the unsympathetic board again. However, at that second meeting, I discovered that I enjoy articulating and arguing for something that I’m passionate about.

Public speaking resembles a cross country race. Walking to the starting line, you have to trust your training and quell your last minute doubts. When the gun fires, you can’t think too hard about anything; your performance has to be instinctual, natural, even relaxed. At the next board meeting, the podium was my starting line. As I walked up to it, familiar butterflies fluttered in my stomach. Instead of the track stretching out in front of me, I faced the vast audience of teachers, board members, and my teammates. I felt my adrenaline build, and reassured myself: I’ve put in the work, my argument is powerful and sound. As the board president told me to introduce myself, I heard, “runners set” in the back of my mind. She finished speaking, and Bang! The brief silence was the gunshot for me to begin. 

The next few minutes blurred together, but when the dust settled, I knew from the board members’ expressions and the audience’s thunderous approval that I had run quite a race. Unfortunately, it wasn’t enough; the board voted down our proposal. I was disappointed, but proud of myself, my team, and our collaboration off the track. We stood up for a cause we believed in, and I overcame my worries about being a leader. Although I discovered that changing the status quo through an elected body can be a painstakingly difficult process and requires perseverance, I learned that I enjoy the challenges this effort offers. Last month, one of the school board members joked that I had become a “regular” – I now often show up to meetings to advocate for a variety of causes, including better environmental practices in cafeterias and safer equipment for athletes.

Just as Stark taught me, I worked passionately to achieve my goal. I may have been beaten when I appealed to the board, but I certainly didn’t lose, and that would have made Stark proud.

While the writer didn’t succeed in getting the track dedicated to Coach Stark, their essay is certainly successful in showing their willingness to push themselves and take initiative.

The essay opens with a quote from Coach Stark that later comes full circle at the end of the essay. We learn about Stark’s impact and the motivation for trying to get the track dedicated to him.

One of the biggest areas of improvement in the intro, however, is how the essay tells us Stark’s impact rather than showing us: His care, dedication, and emphasis on developing good character has left an enduring impact on me and hundreds of other students. Not only did he help me discover my talent and love for running, but he also taught me the importance of commitment and discipline and to approach every endeavor with the passion and intensity that I bring to running.

The writer could’ve helped us feel a stronger emotional connection to Stark if they had included examples of Stark’s qualities, rather than explicitly stating them. For example, they could’ve written something like: Stark was the kind of person who would give you gas money if you told him your parents couldn’t afford to pick you up from practice. And he actually did that—several times. At track meets, alumni regularly would come talk to him and tell him how he’d changed their lives. Before Stark, I was ambivalent about running and was on the JV team, but his encouragement motivated me to run longer and harder and eventually make varsity. Because of him, I approach every endeavor with the passion and intensity that I bring to running.

The essay goes on to explain how the writer overcame their apprehension of public speaking, and likens the process of submitting an appeal to the school board to running a race. This metaphor makes the writing more engaging and allows us to feel the student’s emotions.

While the student didn’t ultimately succeed in getting the track dedicated, we learn about their resilience and initiative: I now often show up to meetings to advocate for a variety of causes, including better environmental practices in cafeterias and safer equipment for athletes.

Overall, this essay is well-done. It demonstrates growth despite failing to meet a goal, which is a unique essay structure. The running metaphor and full-circle intro/ending also elevate the writing in this essay.

Essay 6: Body Image

CW: This essay mentions eating disorders.

I press the “discover” button on my Instagram app, hoping to find enticing pictures to satisfy my boredom. Scrolling through, I see funny videos and mouth-watering pictures of food. However, one image stops me immediately. A fit teenage girl with a “perfect body” relaxes in a bikini on a beach. Beneath it, I see a slew of flattering comments. I shake with disapproval over the image’s unrealistic quality. However, part of me still wants to have a body like hers so that others will make similar comments to me.

I would like to resolve a silent issue that harms many teenagers and adults: negative self image and low self-esteem in a world where social media shapes how people view each other. When people see the façades others wear to create an “ideal” image, they can develop poor thought patterns rooted in negative self-talk. The constant comparisons to “perfect” others make people feel small. In this new digital age, it is hard to distinguish authentic from artificial representations.

When I was 11, I developed anorexia nervosa. Though I was already thin, I wanted to be skinny like the models that I saw on the magazine covers on the grocery store stands. Little did I know that those models probably also suffered from disorders, and that photoshop erased their flaws. I preferred being underweight to being healthy. No matter how little I ate or how thin I was, I always thought that I was too fat. I became obsessed with the number on the scale and would try to eat the least that I could without my parents urging me to take more. Fortunately, I stopped engaging in anorexic behaviors before middle school. However, my underlying mental habits did not change. The images that had provoked my disorder in the first place were still a constant presence in my life.

By age 15, I was in recovery from anorexia, but suffered from depression. While I used to only compare myself to models, the growth of social media meant I also compared myself to my friends and acquaintances. I felt left out when I saw my friends’ excitement about lake trips they had taken without me. As I scrolled past endless photos of my flawless, thin classmates with hundreds of likes and affirming comments, I felt my jealousy spiral. I wanted to be admired and loved by other people too. However, I felt that I could never be enough. I began to hate the way that I looked, and felt nothing in my life was good enough. I wanted to be called “perfect” and “body goals,” so I tried to only post at certain times of day to maximize my “likes.” When that didn’t work, I started to feel too anxious to post anything at all.  

Body image insecurities and social media comparisons affect thousands of people – men, women, children, and adults – every day. I am lucky – after a few months of my destructive social media habits, I came across a video that pointed out the illusory nature of social media; many Instagram posts only show off good things while people hide their flaws. I began going to therapy, and recovered from my depression. To address the problem of self-image and social media, we can all focus on what matters on the inside and not what is on the surface. As an effort to become healthy internally, I started a club at my school to promote clean eating and radiating beauty from within. It has helped me grow in my confidence, and today I’m not afraid to show others my struggles by sharing my experience with eating disorders. Someday, I hope to make this club a national organization to help teenagers and adults across the country. I support the idea of body positivity and embracing difference, not “perfection.” After all, how can we be ourselves if we all look the same?

This essay covers the difficult topics of eating disorders and mental health. If you’re thinking about covering similar topics in your essay, we recommend reading our post Should You Talk About Mental Health in College Essays?

The short answer is that, yes, you can talk about mental health, but it can be risky. If you do go that route, it’s important to focus on what you learned from the experience.

We can see that the writer of this essay has been through a lot, and a strength of their essay is their vulnerability, in excerpts such as this: I wanted to be admired and loved by other people too. However, I felt that I could never be enough. I began to hate the way that I looked, and felt nothing in my life was good enough. I wanted to be called “perfect” and “body goals,” so I tried to only post at certain times of day to maximize my “likes.”

The student goes on to share how they recovered from their depression through an eye-opening video and therapy sessions, and they’re now helping others find their self-worth as well. It’s great that this essay looks towards the future and shares the writer’s goals of making their club a national organization; we can see their ambition and compassion.

The main weakness of this essay is that it doesn’t focus enough on their recovery process, which is arguably the most important part. They could’ve told us more about the video they watched or the process of starting their club and the interactions they’ve had with other members.

Still, this essay shows us that this student is honest, self-aware, and caring, which are all qualities admissions officer are looking for.

Essay 7: Health Crisis

Tears streamed down my face and my mind was paralyzed with fear. Sirens blared, but the silent panic in my own head was deafening. I was muted by shock. A few hours earlier, I had anticipated a vacation in Washington, D.C., but unexpectedly, I was rushing to the hospital behind an ambulance carrying my mother. As a fourteen-year-old from a single mother household, without a driver’s license, and seven hours from home, I was distraught over the prospect of losing the only parent I had. My fear turned into action as I made some of the bravest decisions of my life. 

Three blood transfusions later, my mother’s condition was stable, but we were still states away from home, so I coordinated with my mother’s doctors in North Carolina to schedule the emergency operation that would save her life. Throughout her surgery, I anxiously awaited any word from her surgeon, but each time I asked, I was told that there had been another complication or delay. Relying on my faith and positive attitude, I remained optimistic that my mother would survive and that I could embrace new responsibilities.

My mother had been a source of strength for me, and now I would be strong for her through her long recovery ahead. As I started high school, everyone thought the crisis was over, but it had really just started to impact my life. My mother was often fatigued, so I assumed more responsibility, juggling family duties, school, athletics, and work. I made countless trips to the neighborhood pharmacy, cooked dinner, biked to the grocery store, supported my concerned sister, and provided the loving care my mother needed to recover. I didn’t know I was capable of such maturity and resourcefulness until it was called upon. Each day was a stage in my gradual transformation from dependence to relative independence.

Throughout my mother’s health crisis, I matured by learning to put others’ needs before my own. As I worried about my mother’s health, I took nothing for granted, cherished what I had, and used my daily activities as motivation to move forward. I now take ownership over small decisions such as scheduling daily appointments and managing my time but also over major decisions involving my future, including the college admissions process. Although I have become more independent, my mother and I are inseparably close, and the realization that I almost lost her affects me daily. Each morning, I wake up ten minutes early simply to eat breakfast with my mother and spend time with her before our busy days begin. I am aware of how quickly life can change. My mother remains a guiding force in my life, but the feeling of empowerment I discovered within myself is the ultimate form of my independence. Though I thought the summer before my freshman year would be a transition from middle school to high school, it was a transformation from childhood to adulthood.

This essay feels real and tells readers a lot about the writer. To start at the beginning, the intro is 10/10. It has drama, it has emotions, and it has the reader wanting more.

And, when you keep going, you get to learn a lot about a very resilient and mature student. Through sentences like “I made countless trips to the neighborhood pharmacy, cooked dinner, biked to the grocery store, supported my concerned sister, and provided the loving care my mother needed to recover” and “Relying on my faith and positive attitude, I remained optimistic that my mother would survive and that I could embrace new responsibilities,” the reader shows us that they are aware of their resilience and maturity, but are not arrogant about it. It is simply a fact that they have proven through their actions!

This essay makes us want to cheer for the writer, and they certainly seem like someone who would thrive in a more independent college environment.

Essay 8: Turned Tables

“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.

Where to Get Your Overcoming Challenges Essays Edited

Do you want feedback on your Overcoming Challenges essays? After rereading your essays countless times, it can be difficult to evaluate your writing objectively. That’s why we created our free Peer Essay Review tool , where you can get a free review of your essay from another student. You can also improve your own writing skills by reviewing other students’ essays. 

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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How to Nail Your Overcoming a Challenge Essay: Advice and Tips

By Eric Eng

College essays play an incredibly important role in your application, especially when it comes to getting into the Ivy League, yet they’re often underestimated. By the time you reach this stage of the admissions process, you’re eager to finish everything and relax. However, it’s your college essays, especially your essay about overcoming a challenge, that can determine whether your application stands out or gets overlooked. Effective essay writing can significantly impact your application.

While essay prompts vary across colleges, certain themes are universal. One of the most common and challenging prompts asks you to write a narrative essay about overcoming a challenge and what you learned as a result. Many students find this seemingly straightforward prompt daunting for various reasons. When writing this essay, it’s important to convey your unique experiences and personal growth.

We will be diving into this essay topic in this blog. We will investigate what the college admission officer is looking for and give you some tips that will help you in writing a how to overcome challenges in life essay.

• What Is the Overcoming Challenges Essay All About?

Personal Challenge Essay Examples

Top tips for writing a “how to overcome challenges in life” essay, frequently asked questions, what is the “overcoming challenges” essay all about.

Wondering what are some personal challenge essay examples? As the name implies, the “essay about overcoming a challenge” prompt refers to any college essay question that asks you to address a difficult obstacle or challenge that you have had to overcome. There are many variations of the question, but it is essentially always the same basic material. Writing a college essay for this prompt involves reflecting on these experiences thoughtfully.

Among top schools, essays play a particularly significant role in the admissions process. In fact, 84 of the top 100 schools on Forbes’ 2023 list of America’s Top Colleges c onsider student essays either “very important” or “important,” according to their responses in the Common Data Set. These responses were submitted before the Supreme Court’s decision to strike down affirmative action, which seems to increase the weight placed on essays.

College admissions officers are looking at how you cope with adversity and how the challenges you have faced have molded you into the person you are today. Much like many of the other college essay topics , writing a college essay on overcoming challenges requires you to get a bit personal and open up.

This is an excellent opportunity for you to let admissions officers in on more about themselves as a person, helping you further qualify for an acceptance letter. While you may feel the urge to tell one of the most traumatic experiences you’ve gone through in your life, writing a college essay does not require you to choose the most dramatic story. The challenge may be something very ordinary and common.

Admission officers will read and review your response based on how you faced the challenge, how you overcame it, and what you learned. Writing a college essay on overcoming challenges is about showing colleges you can deal with setbacks and obstacles in your life and be resilient, resourceful, and able to push through.

No matter where you go, there’s a fair likelihood you’ll run into at least some of the obstacles that are going to be on your way to graduation. Colleges need to know that their students can overcome some of these barriers gracefully. The “overcoming challenges” essay prompt helps colleges measure this capacity.

Just to feel your way around what these essays look like, let’s take a look at some real “overcoming challenges” essay prompts. This first one is from Common App, which asks you to respond to the following question with a 650-word limit. When writing a college essay for this prompt, it’s important to address each part thoughtfully.

“The lessons we take from obstacles we encounter can be fundamental to later success. Describe a problem you’ve solved or a challenge you’ve faced and how you approached it. It can be a challenge you’ve faced, a setback, or a failure. How did it affect you? What did you learn from this experience?”

Notice that the question is not just about some setback or challenge that you had in the past. This is asking how this experience impacted you and changed you up until now. This means the real focus here will be more on how it affected the applicant rather than the seriousness of the challenge itself. Writing a college essay that effectively highlights this transformation is key.

Another example of an “overcoming challenges” essay question comes from MIT . For the 2018-2020 application, students were asked to answer the following question in 200 to 250 words. When writing a college essay for this prompt, consider the specific aspects they are asking for.

“Tell us about the most significant challenge you’ve faced or something important that didn’t go according to plan. Tell us what you did to handle the situation.”

This is a “managed the situation” prompt—not what you learn, or how you have been changed as a result. Writing a college essay for this type of prompt involves focusing on your actions and decision-making process.

An example of an effective response for this prompt would be:

During my sophomore year, I became president of our school’s environmental club, ready to create some real change. Our main project? A huge campus-wide tree-planting event that we had spent months planning. The morning of the event, though, I woke up to a downpour. One of those relentless storms that leaves you with zero hope of following through. My stomach dropped. All that preparation, all those volunteers, the excitement—all washed away.

I sat in the car, staring at the drenched field, trying to accept that canceling was our only option. But then, a thought hit me: just because we couldn’t plant trees didn’t mean we couldn’t do something meaningful.

I called an emergency meeting with my team, and within hours, we completely switched gears. We contacted environmental experts, set up a last-minute virtual climate change workshop, and hustled to get the word out online. It was chaotic at times, but by the end of the day, we had pulled off a successful event with even more attendees than we’d anticipated.

Without my team’s quick thinking and willingness to adapt, we wouldn’t have pulled it off. Together, we turned a disaster into something positive. That experience showed me the importance of collaboration. That day, I also learned that plans will fall apart—and that’s okay. What matters is how you adapt when things don’t go the way you expected. That’s when real growth happens.

Excited to start on your college journey? Keep these tips in mind to ensure that your personal challenge essay impresses the admissions committee of your dream school:

1. Refrain from writing about common topics.

One major mistake students make when responding to the “overcoming challenges” essay is writing a college essay on a common topic. Since admissions officers have to read hundreds, if not thousands, of essays answering the same question, writing on a common topic can seem trite and unoriginal.

Even if your essay is pristine, the topic still runs the risk of bringing down your overall response. Instead, it’s best to try and pinpoint a challenge or obstacle you’ve faced in your life that’s unique, or at least not as common. Some common “overcoming challenges” essay topics to avoid include winning a difficult sports game or passing a course in which you were struggling.

Think back to events earlier in your life that impacted how you think and act today. Any of these experiences involved you in challenges you overcame and changed for the better? Don’t be afraid to get vulnerable and open when writing a college essay. The more concrete, unique, and original you can make the topic, the better your chances at standing out from the crowd when you write your how to overcome challenges in life essay.

2. Highlight your emotional intelligence.

Colleges use “overcoming challenges” essay prompts to get a better sense of the applicant than other areas of the application would be able to convey. These essays are intended to highlight some characteristics that you might possess that would prove valuable for your time in college. Writing a college essay on this topic allows you to showcase these attributes effectively.

An experience related to dealing with a challenging event in your life can show mental strength, perseverance, long-term thinking, follow-through, and other such qualities. One of the strongest ways to make your response even stronger is through writing a college essay that will reflect certain qualities you want to display to admissions officers.

For example, overcoming a disagreement with a friend could strike a chord in you as a meaningful challenge. You should consider in advance what type of qualities you would like to convey in your answers and select a challenge accordingly when writing your college essay.

Again, what this prompt is looking for is some positives about you and your personality. Contemplating ahead of time how your topic is going to be read by the admissions officers can make the overall piece more impactful.

3. Steer clear of common writing techniques.

Now, here’s the pro tip that most applicants won’t ever think about: this “overcoming challenges” essay can stand out from other responses if you pay attention to its structure.

How you structure your prompt response can make a huge difference to the essay. Even if the topic is original, admissions officers will still spot the duplicated patterns of paragraphs. When writing a college essay, to make sure that your “overcoming challenges” essay stands out in the colleges’ eyes, you will have to give a due share of attention to how it is written. The majority of students stick to the following pattern:

Describe an event or experience that tested you → Describe how you overcame the challenge.

It’s not that this format is going to damage your essay. The thing is, hitting on something more unique and unexpected helps the essay to stand out. When writing your college essay, it’s normal to feel stuck especially when you run out of ideas. Instead of focusing on a singular event or occasion, you could write about a challenge you overcame over a prolonged period and events that helped you to push forward.

If you want to get creative, you could focus on something you’re still in the process of getting over. You could bring it into the present day and talk about what you plan to do in the future. Writing a college essay with these variations isn’t essential, but it is a great way to grab the attention of admissions officers.

4. Pay attention to the essay’s substance.

When the prompt asks for a description of an event or obstacle, as in the case of the “overcoming challenges” essay prompt, you might focus on the description of people, places, circumstances, and other physical or tangible things. That is a fine writing skill overall, but you’re not competing for a Pulitzer Prize when writing a college essay for your university applications.

This all goes to giving admissions exactly what they want, making your responses outstanding, and showing off your strengths in the process. It’s best to focus more on the internal components of your topic rather than the circumstances. For example, rather than writing about what happened in the challenging event, you should focus on writing a college essay about how you reacted, how you felt, what you thought, and how you overcame it mentally.

Were you anxious, worried, nervous, scared, confused? Was the event a surprise or frustrating one to you? It is this psychological experience and development that forms the true story. It’s more engaging—it tells more about who you are and who you became through this process. This can give admissions officers the feeling of knowing you more as a person, which works wonders for making your essay stand out when writing an essay about overcoming a challenge.

5. Show the impact, not the event.

As mentioned earlier, the “overcoming challenges” essay prompt gives admissions officers a better idea of who you are and how you deal with challenges. There are always some questions about a difficult/challenging situation in your life, but the key emphasis is on the reaction to the situation, rising to the occasion, and becoming a better person out of it.

Spending too much time describing the event, rather than how it impacted you, can ultimately hurt the quality of your answer. Remember, you are working with a strict word limit. While that varies between each school, many universities only allow applicants a few hundred words in which to respond. When writing a college essay, the greatest portion of your response should deal with how the event affected your life, not how hard it was or the details about the challenge.

Now, this doesn’t mean you have to explicitly write that “from this event, I learned…” You certainly can make it that evident, but it’s more effective to show the admissions committee rather than telling them by providing examples of how you’re better off having gone through the challenge.

For example, let’s say you had a debilitating fear of public speaking. You overcame this difficulty by joining a debate club and working through the discomfort to become an all-around stronger speaker. Instead of saying, “I became more confident in front of crowds,” describe that transformation by saying, “Now, I can even give extemporaneous speeches easily.” This describes the qualities you have developed, rather than saying them flat-out. When writing your college essay, it’s one of those small things that can make all the difference for the admissions officers reading your essays.

1. Should I choose a recent challenge or can it be something from my past?

Either is acceptable. What matters most is how well you can reflect on the experience and articulate its significance in your personal development.

2. Is there a word limit for writing a personal challenge essay?

Yes. It should only be between 200-250 words for some universities and colleges, but for the Common App, it’s 650.

3. What are some college essay topics to avoid?

You should avoid the following: trauma dump, travelogue, plan for world peace, and other common topics. These are topics that admissions officers usually read about so it will not help in making your application stand out from the rest.

• You can think of your college application as your college resume. It’s a summary of performance and experience so far and of present knowledge and capability.
• Admissions officers are not just looking for hardship stories—they’re interested in how you faced the challenge and came out stronger. Did you learn patience? Problem-solving? A deeper understanding of yourself? Highlight these skills and lessons in your college essay.
• Writing a good college essay effectively can greatly enhance your application. We at AdmissionSight can help! For the last decade, we have been helping students like you refine their essays and increase their chances of getting into their dream universities. And you know what? Of the students we have helped, about 75% have gone on to be accepted into Ivy League or Top 10 Universities.

Want to assess your chances of admission? Take our FREE chances calculator today!

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How to Write the Overcoming Challenges Essay + Example

April 17, 2023

At some point, most college-bound students are tasked with writing an overcoming challenges essay. The prompt crops up in various forms, as a supplemental short essay about overcoming a challenge, and in as the main essay itself.

Some students may feel inclined to write about a dramatic experience (say, spotting a grizzly bear outside the kitchen window), mistaking the drama of the moment for a significant challenge. Others may get to work, only to realize they don’t have much to say about the time they got a C in P.E. (that dreaded frisbee unit). Students who’ve overcome unspeakable difficulties, like a death in the family, may find that reducing the tragedy to 650 words feels insufficient, or worse—as if they’re attempting to profit from suffering. One or two students may stare down the blank computer screen as their entire existence shrinks to the size of a 12-point font. Should they write about the challenge of writing about the challenge of writing an overcoming challenges essay??

Don’t worry. Focusing first on how to tackle the essay will help any student decide what they should write about. In fact, how the essay is written will also prove more influential than the challenge itself in determining the strength of the essay.

Decoding the Prompt

Let’s take a look at the overcoming challenges essay question included among the seven 2023-24 Common App Essay Prompts :

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?

Notice how the prompt places an immediate emphasis on the “lessons we take,” rather than on the obstacles themselves, or any potential success. This is because the challenge itself often says less about the student than the way the student chose to tackle it, or the way they now reflect on it. In other words, obstacles often come at us randomly; it’s our personal response to the circumstances which reveals something of who we are.

While studying a prompt for clues, it’s helpful to think from the perspective of the admissions officer (the essay reader). What can they glean from an overcoming challenges essay?  A lot, actually. A thoughtfully written essay may tell them about the student’s personality, as well as things like problem-solving techniques, rigor, persistence, creativity, and courage. These insights can work to prove to the admissions officers that the student has what it takes to overcome challenges in college, too. These future challenges may range from the inevitable academic obstacles that occur with heavy courseloads, to social and moral challenges that arise as college students form their adult identities.

Picking Your Topic: A Brainstorming Activity

With the question of identity in mind, let’s now approach the overcoming challenges essay backwards, by brainstorming the final message the student wants it to contain.

For this three-part exercise, the student will first set a five-minute timer. With the clock ticking, they’ll jot down character traits, values, and any descriptive words or terms that say something about who they are. If stumped, change perspective. The student may imagine what their best friends, parents, coaches and siblings would say. (For example, tenacious , logical , scientific , peacemaker .) Even mild criticism can be helpful, as long as it’s not cruel. While a student’s brother may call him a “perfectionist,” perhaps this word will trigger other relevant words, like persistent and detail-oriented.

Next, the student will set the timer for another five minutes, pull out a second sheet of paper, and jot down any challenges, obstacles, setbacks, failures, and achievements that come to mind. Don’t hold back here or overanalyze. (For example: underdog at state swim meet , getting lost on the family hike , petitioning for a school compost system …)

Lastly, the student will place the two pages side by side, and draw lines between the items on the list wherever connections occur. One student may draw lines between persistent , curious , gamer , passionate about electronics , and saved the day during the power outage. Another set of lines might connect caring, observant, creative thinker , and helped sister leave abusive cult . Whatever ideas are sparked here, the goal is to identify which challenges will demonstrate something essential about the student to an admissions officer.

Topics to Avoid

The internet is rife with advice on what not to write when writing an overcoming challenges essay. Yet this advice can be confusing, or downright hypocritical. For instance, some may advise against writing about death. Yet a student who lost their father at an early age may be capable of writing a poignant essay about their search for an alternative father figure, and how they found one in their soccer coach.

I suggest avoiding guides on what not to write until after the student has done a thorough round of brainstorming. Otherwise, they risk censoring themselves too early, and may reject a promising idea. Once they’ve narrowed down their list to three ideas or less, they may want to check our guide on College Application Essay Topics to Avoid .

The reason why certain types of overcoming challenges essays miss the mark is that they emphasize the wrong aspect of the experience, which turns the topic into a cliché. While it’s generally a good idea to avoid trivial topics (again, that C in P.E.), any topic has the potential to be compelling, if it’s animated through personal opinions, insight, and description. Details bring an experience to life. Structure and reflection make an essay convincing. In other words, how the story is told will determine whether or not the topic is worth writing about.

So, rather than avoid specific topics, consider avoiding these scenarios: if you can’t show the essay to your best friend or grandmother, it’s probably not ready to show a college admissions officer. If you must write a clichéd topic, don’t choose a typical structure.

Techniques to Hone

Techniques that animate an overcoming challenges essay are the same ones used in storytelling. Think setting, visuals, sounds, dialogue, physical sensations, and feelings. “Showing” instead of “telling.” Crafting the essay with these inner and external details will bring the challenge to life, and catch the reader’s attention.

Another technique which works well when trying to avoid the trappings of cliché involve subverting the reader’s expectations. In storytelling terms, this is a plot twist. The student who got a C in P.E. may actually have a stellar essay on their hands, if they can break away from the “bad grade” trope (working harder to improve their grade). Perhaps this student’s story is actually about how, while sitting on the bleachers and not participating in the game, they found themselves watching the frisbee spin through the air, and realized they had a deep interest in the movement of astronomical bodies.

Some of the strongest overcoming challenges essays demonstrate what students have learned about themselves, rather than what they’ve learned about the obstacle they confronted. These essays may show how the student has come to see themselves differently, or how they’ve decided to change, thanks to the challenge they faced. These essays work because the reflection is natural and even profound, based on the student’s self-awareness.

Writing the Overcoming Challenges Essay, or Drafts, Drafts, Drafts

Everyone writes differently, some by outlining (never a bad idea), some by free-styling (good for capturing sensations and memories), some by lighting a candle—but don’t procrastinate too much. The only “must” is to revise. After a first draft, the student should begin to look for several things:

1) Clarity and Detail. Is the challenge recounted with precision? Is it personal?

2) Structure. Consider mapping the structure, to visualize it better. Does the structure suit the story? Can it be changed for clarity, or to keep the reader more engaged?

3) Cliché. Identify words, sentences, and ideas that are dull or repetitive. Mark them up, and in the next draft, find ways to rewrite, subvert, condense, and delete.

4) Lesson Learned. Has the student reflected adequately on the lesson they learned from overcoming a challenge? To add more reflection, students might ask themselves what they have felt and thought about the experience since. Would they do something differently, if faced with the same challenge? Has their understanding of the experience evolved over time?

By the final draft, the experience and the reflection should feel equally weighted. To get there, it may take five or six drafts.

Overcoming Challenges Essay Sample

The Happiness Hotline

First there were reports. Then we were told to stop socializing, go inside, wait. Covid struck. Everyone knows what ensued. It probably looked different from where we were all (separately) standing, even though we faced the same thing. Those first weeks, I stood at my bedroom window. It was dark by early evening in Oregon. The weirdest part—after the fact that we were collectively sharing the loneliest experience of our lives—was the silence.

… it was really quiet.

So quiet, I could hear my mom sigh downstairs. (So quiet, I couldn’t remember if I’d hummed aloud, or if I’d just heard myself in my head.) When I looked out the window, I could hear the stoplight at the end of our street. Green to yellow. Click.

Before going on, you should know three things. First, this is not a Covid essay. This is about melancholy, and the “sadness that has taken on lightness,” to quote Italo Calvino. Second, from my bedroom window, I can see down a row of oak trees, past the hospital, to my friend Carlo’s house. Third, Carlo is a jazz singer. Maybe that sounds pretentious, a freshman kid being a jazz singer, but that’s Carlo, and I wouldn’t be me without Carlo being Carlo. He’s someone who appreciates the unhinged rhythm of a Charlie Parker tune. He’s an extrovert who can bring introverts like me out of my shell. He convinced me to learn trombone, and together we riff in the after-school jazz club.

In the first month of the pandemic, we called each other nightly to talk rap albums, school stuff. At Carlo’s house, he could hear a white-crowned sparrow. He could also hear his parents talking numbers behind the bathroom door. The death toll was mounting. The cost of living was going up too. As the month wore on, I began to hear something else in our calls, in the way Carlo paused, or forgot what he was saying. Carlo was scared. He felt sad, isolated, and without his bright energy, I too, felt utterly alone.

Overcoming Challenges Essay Sample (Continued)

After some dark days, I realized that to help ourselves we needed to help others. It was pretty obvious the more I thought about it. People are social creatures, supposedly, even introverts. Maybe our neighbors needed to remember the noisiness of life.

We built a happiness hotline. That sounds fancy, though essentially, we provided three-way calls on my parents’ landline. The harder part involved making flyers and putting them up around town, in places people were still going. Grocery stores, the post office. We made a TikTok account, and then—the phone rang. Our first caller.

For months, if you called in, you could talk to us about your days in lockdown. People went really deep about the meaning of life, and we had to learn on the spot how to respond. I’d become a journalist and a therapist before becoming a sophomore. After chatting, the caller would request a song, and if we knew how to play it, we would. If not, we improvised.

Now we’re seniors in high school. Carlo visits the hospital with band members. As for myself, I’ve been working on a community music book, compiling our callers’ favorite tunes. I don’t want to forget how important it felt to make these connections. Our callers taught me that loneliness is a bit like a virus, a bit like a song. Even when it stops it can come back to haunt you, as a new variant or an old refrain. Still, sadness can take on lightness when voices call through the dark: sparrows, friends, strangers. I learned I’m good at listening into the silence. Listening isn’t only a passive stance, but an open line of receiving.

Analysis of the Overcoming Challenges Essay Sample

This student uses their musical passion to infuse the essay with vivid detail. There’s a focus on sound throughout, from the bird to the stoplight. Then there are the callers, and the clever way the student conceived of breaking through the silence. The narrator’s voice sharpens the piece further, elevating a clichéd Covid essay to a personal story of self-discovery.

In fact, the essay briefly breaks with structure to tell the reader that this is not a Covid essay. Although techniques like this should be used sparingly, it works here by grabbing the reader’s attention. It also allows the student to organize their thoughts on the page, before moving the plot along.

Outwardly, the student is overcoming the challenge of loneliness in a time of quarantine. Yet there seems to be an inner, unspoken challenge as well, that of coming to terms with the student’s introverted personality. The essay’s reflection occurs in the final paragraph, making the essay experience-heavy. However, clues woven throughout point to the reflection that will come. Details like the Italo Calvino quote hint at the later understanding of how to alleviate loneliness. While some readers might prefer more development, the various themes are threaded throughout, which makes for a satisfying ending.

A Last Word on the Short Essay About Overcoming Challenges

The short essay about overcoming a challenge requires the same steps as a longer one. To write it, follow the same brainstorming activity, then focus more on condensing and summarizing the experience. Students who’ve already written a longer overcoming challenges essay can approach the short essay about overcoming a challenge by streamlining. Instead of deleting all the extra bits, keep two interesting details that will flavor the essay with something memorable and unique.

• College Essay

Kaylen Baker

With a BA in Literary Studies from Middlebury College, an MFA in Fiction from Columbia University, and a Master’s in Translation from Université Paris 8 Vincennes-Saint-Denis, Kaylen has been working with students on their writing for over five years. Previously, Kaylen taught a fiction course for high school students as part of Columbia Artists/Teachers, and served as an English Language Assistant for the French National Department of Education. Kaylen is an experienced writer/translator whose work has been featured in Los Angeles Review, Hybrid, San Francisco Bay Guardian, France Today, and Honolulu Weekly, among others.

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Essays About Overcoming Challenges: Top 5 Examples

Confront challenges in writing by reading our guide with example essays about overcoming challenges and helpful prompts. 

Whether your problems have been failing a subject, getting retrenched at work, or losing someone you love, overcoming challenges is a relief and successful feat always worthy of celebration. 

Overcoming challenges requires patience and persistence to advance your goals despite failures. If you aim for something great in life, you can anticipate facing constant obstacles on your way. However, to successfully hurdle them, a positive and focused mindset coupled with the ability to regulate your emotions will help you go a long way.

5 Essay Examples

1. ​​how to succeed at failure by arthur brooks, 2. how to overcome family problems by vinaya ghimre, 3. when obstacles become opportunities to work better by tim harford, 4. how you can stop global warming by melissa denchak, 5. how countries deal with debt, 10 helpful writing prompts on essays about overcoming challenges, 1. my inspiration for overcoming challenges, 2. helping persons with disabilities (pwds) overcome discrimination, 3. overcoming challenges for students, 4. overcoming mental health issues, 5. overcoming challenges in budgeting, 6. overcoming challenges from childhood, 7. how startups overcome financing challenges, 8. overcoming bullies, 9. overcoming challenges in memory retention, 10. overcoming challenges in income inequality.

“After you have been hurt by a failed relationship, for example, rumination can make you focus on the past instead of the future, so you are less likely to get out there and try again. You’re frozen in your moment of failure as you turn defeat over and over in your mind. You become fearful, lose confidence, and miss your opportunities for new success.”

This essay explores the cognitive studies of a professor’s happiness and includes success tips to help one overcome challenges. One tip that eches with relevance is our need to stop aiming for success and shift toward learning and improvement. For more, check out these essays about life challenges .

“Culture and tradition ask young people to respect their parents and elders’ decisions, whereas modern education teaches them to have their own view of life. Neither the educational system is wrong nor are the parents trying to harm their children. However, truth is, the difference in opinions creates family conflict.”

This essay strives to explain the root causes of conflicts to help readers better navigate the nature of their family problems. The author also offers tips to overcome family tensions, such as being more tolerant and understanding of family members. 

“A shock can prompt us to find new and better ways to live our lives, both individually and collectively. We try new ideas, develop new skills, invest in new kit and draw strength from the fact that others are doing likewise. Resilience is essential but not enough: we need to be able to explore, experiment and adapt.”

As COVID-19 redefined the way we live, we are forced to find new paths to rediscovering better ways of living. Offering lessons from the life of musician Django Reinhardt and the pandemic, the author notes that with the right mindset and commitment to more significant change, we can bring light to a dark period and even rebound stronger and better. 

“ The effects of climate change are already threatening our health, our communities, our economy, our security, and our children’s future. What can you do? A whole lot, as it turns out. ”

Slowing down global warming and building resilience against climate change are critical missions to the world that everyone has to be part of. This essay lists 12 specific actions one can take to help combat global warming in their day-to-day lives, with each tip backed by data showing how big this seemingly small act can mean.

“While higher debt can slow growth and slower growth may cause sovereign debt to rise, the level of debt at which it turns into a problem depends on a country’s particulars, including sources of its debt financing and economic growth catalysts.”

As debts in several countries have ballooned to record highs during the COVID-19 pandemic, governments are finding new sources of revenue to reduce this debt. The article explains dominant economic beliefs about debt and cites its negative consequences on countries. 

Whoever it may be, write about the person whose accomplishments and constant efforts always remind you that you can overcome challenges in life. List down the qualities you admire and how you practice adopting these qualities. You can also elaborate on why these qualities are crucial for the younger generations.

PWDs face discrimination every day and are forced to make adjustments to be part of society. So first, spell out the current challenges PWDs face. Next, you can narrow down this discussion to the situation in your locality. And then, write down what your government is doing to move toward genuine inclusiveness and enable PWDs to cope better in their daily lives. Some examples could be educating the public about how society should accommodate PWDs and creating more wheelchair-accessible destinations. 

Students may struggle in their academic and extracurricular performance while dealing with anxieties over social relationships and growing up. Enumerate the multiple challenges students face on campus and at home. You can share your own experiences and relay how you have overcome them. You can also interview some friends and consolidate their responses. 

With raging geopolitical tensions and the road to recovery from COVID-19 still a long way to go, cases of anxiety and depression are on the rise . First, write about the detrimental effects of such mental health issues on overall well-being and life – as depression is a trigger to suicide. Then write about what specific parts of society are doing to address the mental health crisis. For example, you can cite the efforts your city health office is providing.

With more uncertainties looming for the economy, overcoming bad money habits is imperative. This essay describes the colossal challenge of balancing the need to save, spend for basic needs and invest. Then provide tips on saving and doing away with bad habits. One prudent advice would be to review spending patterns through a statement of accounts. 

Feelings of emptiness can plague even the most successful people. Often, this emptiness could be traced back to challenges in childhood. This essay explains adults’ difficulties in facing their repressed childhood trauma—research recommendations by psychology experts on breaking free from the contempt against parents. Here, you can tackle the benefits of cognitive behavioral therapy to alter harmful thoughts and behavioral patterns.

The biggest obstacle to the commercial success of startups is adequate financing to bring their concepts into reality. For this essay, lay down the financing options available to startups in your country. Often, countries promoting innovative startups have assistance funds. You can encourage startups to tap these funds by enumerating the eligibility criteria of each fund. Look also into the latest surveys and reports showing trends in investing preferences worldwide. 

Bullying can come in different forms and may even initially disguise itself as a playful joke. Help your readers detect bullying and overcome these challenges early. Write about the early signs of bullying and the best ways to defend against it. Keeping records of the incident and immediately filing a report to higher authorities is often the best way to deter bullies. If you want to be guided more on this topic prompt, check out our essays about bullying . 

Forgetting is normal. But the pressures to remember an overwhelming load of information can be high during examination week. For an interesting kick in your essay, talk about famous memory theories such as the Forgetting Curve by German psychologist Hermann Ebbinghaus , which sheds light on why we forget and how we can remember better. Then, write more tips on how one can retain information longer. Not cramming is one helpful suggestion.

First, point out historical events and trends that have exacerbated the divide between the rich and the poor. For instance, several studies have blamed the digital divide. Next, think about what societies can do to narrow this gap. With this, you can also touch on how much your government is spending to improve digital infrastructure in rural areas and look into whether these resources are mobilized efficiently. 

For more help with your essay, check out our roundup of the best grammar checkers .  Grammarly is one of our top grammar checkers, and you can find out why in this Grammarly review .

How to Write a Challenges-Based (i.e., Narrative) College Essay That TBH Wasn’t That Big of a Deal

In this post, I’ll cover: 

A Word to the Wise for Students Who May Be Forcing a Challenges-Based Personal Statement

Three Brainstorming Exercises to Help You Come Up with New Potential Ideas (and Why You Maybe Should)

An Example of an Outstanding Essay Written on a Challenge That TBH Wasn’t That Big of a Deal

Something Called the Trampoline Technique That Will Help You Write Your Essay (If You’re Still 100% Committed to Writing About Your Challenge) 

Many students feel like they should write about a particular challenge they’ve faced. I’ve seen this happen for a few reasons:

Someone told them that challenges-based essays are more likely to get noticed by admission readers.

They read a personal statement they really liked and thought, “Ooh—I want my essay to be like that,” or “I want the reader to feel the way that I felt after reading that essay.” 

This is the first idea they came up with, and they just went with it.

They’ve spent soooooo long on this topic, and it feels painful to consider switching topics at this point.

Any of these sound like you? 

If so, a few quick truth bombs: 

It’s just not true. Many students are accepted into great colleges each year with all kinds of personal statements. In fact, check out this link for essays not about challenges written by students who were accepted to great colleges. 

For those of you who’ve read someone else’s essay and felt like you wanted to do “what they did”—wait, who wants to copy other people? Also, there are many ways to get a reader to feel things (more on that later).

If this is your first idea, I’m curious: How much brainstorming did you do? There are a million stories you could tell; what other ideas could you come up with in just, like, 15 minutes of more brainstorming?

This is called sunk-cost bias. Read more about it here . 

In short, you totally don’t have to write about a challenge in order to get into a great college.

So ask yourself: Am I trying to force this?

A Word to the Wise If You Think You Might Be Forcing a Challenges-Based Personal Statement

College admission readers are interested to know what are the skills, values, qualities, and interests you’re bringing with you to the college campus. 

How do you do that? Try this:

Spend (at least) 20 minutes brainstorming other topics before you commit to (or continue with) this one. Here are three exercises to help you do that: 

Essence Objects Exercise

21 Details Exercise

Everything I Want Colleges to Know About Me List

Each one will take about 20 minutes. I recommend doing all three.

Why brainstorm other ideas? Because if your challenge isn’t that compelling, or if the insights you developed aren’t that surprising, I’m worried you’ll waste a bunch more time trying to either a) make the challenge sound more difficult than it was, b) force insights, or c) (and this is worse) make up lessons that you learned just so the ending sounds nice. 

Once you’ve done these brainstorming exercises, I recommend sharing them with someone you trust, or at least like a little bit (a counselor, mentor, family member, friend), and ask them to spend 15 minutes helping you come up with other ideas.

And, oh, BTW: I recommend doing this even if you have faced significant challenges. Why? Because: 

Your challenges-based essay may not pan out.

You might like your new idea(s) even better.

You might find a way to incorporate your new idea(s) with your current idea to create a better essay, or

The new ideas you generate might end up working for a supplemental essay, which is an essay you’ll probably need to write if you’re applying to selective colleges.

Have you done this? Will you? Please do.

… Done? Okay. Once you’ve completed all those exercises and have made A REAL AND GENUINE EFFORT to come up with other potential ideas and STILL haven’t found something else you like better and you absolutely must write about this challenge (whichever one you’ve picked), then in order for you to stand out, here’s my best advice …

You have to write the heck out of it. 

What do I mean? 

Take a look below at the example essay, which was written by a student who wrote about a challenge that TBH wasn’t that big of a deal … and notice how well-written it is. (BTW, this was his title—it’s generally rare that you need to or should title a personal statement, but his adds a layer …)

Much Ado About Nothing

Up on stage, under the glowing spotlight, and in front of the glowering judge, I felt as if nothing could get in my way. As would soon be evident, I was absolutely right. The last kid got out on casserole —I eat casseroles for breakfast. But the first round of the Manhattan-wide Spelling Bee was definitely not the right time to learn a new word. Stammering into the microphone, I asked for a definition. The judge recited from the dictionary: “The belief that the actions that one takes in life have no meaning, or will amount to nothing.” The auditorium clock was ticking. Carefully eyeing the disqualification bell, I began to spell because I had no other options: “N—I—A—” ding . The judge had brought her hand down with the unabridged force of the entire English language. It was over. I was out, already beside my parents in the audience. Words, which had always been my infallible asset, had failed me. In desperation for appeal, I looked up the word how I’d intended to spell it— “ Nialism : A term frequently used by adolescents as a misspelling of the word nihilism ” (source: Urban Dictionary). I was stung by the Bee. That day, I met a word that defined who I wasn’t . To me, words are the very embodiment of spinning meaning out of thin air: squiggles into letters into words into stories. Therefore, nihilism betrayed convention—doubting its own importance by claiming that nothing has meaning. How could I possibly have never come across nihilism in my life at all? I found the answer in my family. Name any creative skill and I can point to a relative who is a whiz at it: paint on a blank canvas, musical notes into biding silence, and monologues on an otherwise empty stage are all ways of disrupting the same blank void—turning nothing into something . In that respect, my creativity has been my inheritance. Nihilism just wasn’t part of my world. Encountering the word only gave a name to what I had unwittingly striven towards from the start: creativity against nothing. Growing up, my New York City was filled with wonder. I would race up and down the pavement pointing out my own wondrous alphabet: police barricades were bookended by stoic A ’s, trees were tall, fractal Y ’s, and lampposts were arching lowercase R ’s. I saw kaleidoscopic, lexicographic beauty where others saw nothing out of the ordinary—I recognized the unseen potential of everything around me. Likewise, I always make the most out of any situation—knowing that there is always a way to solve a problem walks hand-in-hand with my optimism. Manifested in Model UN—whether using history as a powerful crisis management tool or making even the smallest of logistical alterations to keep team morale afloat—or in theater, where I wear the hats of playwright, lyricist, and actor simultaneously to help make the production worthwhile for both us and the audience, I have learned to improvise when needed and think ahead well in advance. Across the board, my peers and I put together new ideas from a finite alphabet to make a finished product greater than the sum of its parts. Walking through my city with the Manhattan Borough President during my summer internship, I listened to profound stories from inspiring citizens and engaged in parts of my city often overlooked. I worked with my research partner to fill voids with positive necessities, surveying empty school lots to locate possible future playground sites—I am excited for the new opportunities future children will have. In the ordinary locations where I had once seen my personal alphabet, I now see room for meaningful humanitarian change. Though opposed to nihilism , I am grateful for our encounter—for without the world’s nothing s, there would be no room for new something s. I will never let nothing get in my way again.

Crazy good, huh?

The take-away from this essay: You don’t have to have gone through a war or been born deaf to write an interesting essay on a “challenge.” But if your challenge is more on the meh side (like spelling a word wrong, or not making a sports team, or getting a bad grade), you’d better be able to write the heck out of it.

What do I mean?

This essay is just incredibly well-crafted, from the title right through to the final line.

On a scale of 1-10 in terms of extreme challenges, I’d rate this a 1. 

But on a scale of 1-10 in terms of personal statement craft, I’d rate it a hundred. 

Why so high?

This author makes a spelling bee error seem like a really big deal.

How does he do it? What makes this essay work? 

First, it’s so darn clever. Phrases like “I was stung by the Bee” or the double entendre in the title would make even Shakespeare proud. And that ending? Come on . 

Second, he’s doing something structurally interesting. How? His spelling error, although small in the grand scheme of things, sends him on an epic journey. And to be honest, the essay isn’t really about the error—it’s about the journey he goes on. I call this particular approach the Trampoline Technique … and I recommend you consider it for your essay (if you’re stuck on writing about this challenge). 

Here’s how it works.

The Trampoline Technique

A “trampoline” is something you use in your college essay to springboard to a variety of other areas or topics. This essay, for example, begins by describing a Spelling Bee in which the author makes an error, but that error is actually a trampoline that sends the author on a journey to discover the answer to the question, “How could I possibly have never come across nihilism in my life at all?” 

On that journey, he (and we, the readers) learn:

He “inherited” creativity from his family.

Growing up in NYC taught him to recognize “the unseen potential of everything around [him],” and he shows us this through some beautiful and specific (spelling related!) examples.

He did an internship that ...

Connected him with a variety of people, allowing him to also ...

Engage with “parts of [his] city often overlooked” and...

Work with a partner and ...

Become interested in making “meaningful humanitarian change”

We learn so much in these paragraphs about how he’ll make valuable contributions.

Okay, wait. Am I saying that you, dear reader, should make your challenges essay about a weaker challenge … essentially not about the challenge? I am. And I think you should do it as close to the start of your essay as you can. Notice this author begins with the “challenge,” but pretty quickly trampolines to a whole bunch of different things. And that’s the key to this technique, and what I’m recommending to you: Find a way to segue to other skills, qualities, values, and interests that you’ll bring with you to college. Because, like I said, that’s what readers are interested in. 

And maybe, if you’re funny, include humor in your essay. 

And expect to go through like 15+ drafts. Because that’s what it took the author above to get to his final draft. 

But if you’re not funny …

Or if you feel like you can’t possibly write something that good …

Or, to be honest, you’re feeling at this point like maybe that challenge you were considering writing about maybe isn’t The Very Best Way to demonstrate to colleges all the awesomeness of who you are …

Then, yeah. 

Maybe do some more brainstorming. 

Here are those exercises again: 

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Your chance of acceptance, your chancing factors, extracurriculars, overcoming a challenge essay examples.

I'm working on writing a 'overcoming a challenge' essay for one of my college applications. Does anyone have any examples or advice on how to approach this type of essay? I'd really appreciate some guidance here!

How's it going! Here are a few pointers on how to approach this kind of essay:

1. Choose a significant challenge: Select an experience that was truly challenging for you, and not just a minor inconvenience. The challenge could be personal, academic, or related to an extracurricular activity. It should be something that genuinely impacted your life and required you to grow in order to overcome it.

2. Be specific and descriptive: Detail the challenge and provide context for the reader. Use vivid language to paint a picture of the situation, sharing how you felt and what you were going through at the time. This will help the reader understand the significance of the challenge and empathize with you.

3. Focus on your response and growth: When describing how you overcame the challenge, emphasize the steps you took and the strategies you employed. Explain what you learned from the experience and how it changed you. Show how you grew as a person and developed new skills or perspectives as a result of facing the challenge.

4. Highlight your resilience: Illustrate your resilience by describing how you persevered through difficulties and setbacks. Show how you were able to adapt and find solutions, even when the path was not clear. This will demonstrate your determination and ability to withstand adversity.

5. Share lessons you learned: Consider the broader implications of your experience. What life lessons did you learn from this challenge? How has it shaped your understanding of yourself and the world around you? By reflecting on these lessons, you can provide a meaningful conclusion that showcases your growth.

For example, let's say you faced a significant health issue during high school. You might start by describing the day you were diagnosed, how it affected your daily life, and the challenges you faced in maintaining your grades and extracurricular activities. Then, you could discuss the steps you took to manage your health, such as adopting new routines, finding resources, and learning to prioritize your well-being. You would explain how the experience taught you about resilience, self-advocacy, and the importance of health and wellness in your life. Finally, you might connect this personal growth to your future endeavors, explaining how this experience has prepared you to overcome obstacles and seize opportunities in college and beyond.

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Narrative Essay on Overcoming a Challenge

Narrative essay generator.

Every individual has a tapestry of experiences that shape their worldview, personality, and life path. Among these, certain moments stand out, etched in our memories for the profound impact they have on us. My personal narrative revolves around such a pivotal experience – the first time I stepped outside my comfort zone to lead a community service project. This journey, fraught with challenges, self-doubt, and ultimately, growth, taught me invaluable lessons about leadership, perseverance, and the power of community.

The Genesis of the Journey

Growing up in a small town, opportunities for leadership were scarce, and my introverted nature didn’t help. I was comfortable in my bubble, shying away from the spotlight. However, the summer of my junior year in high school presented an unexpected opportunity that would alter the course of my personal and professional development.

The Challenge Accepted

It began when I stumbled upon a local advertisement seeking volunteers to spearhead a community clean-up initiative. Moved by the deteriorating state of our local park, a place that held countless childhood memories, I felt a surge of responsibility. After much deliberation and encouragement from my family, I decided to step up. This decision marked the beginning of a transformative journey, pushing me into uncharted territories of leadership and community engagement.

The Learning Curve

Facing the Challenges Head-On

Embarking on this project was like diving into deep waters without knowing how to swim. The initial phase was overwhelming, filled with logistical nightmares, coordination issues, and a palpable fear of failure. Recruiting volunteers, securing funding, and planning the clean-up activities required skills I had yet to develop. Each hurdle seemed like a test of my resolve, forcing me to adapt and grow.

The Power of Mentorship and Teamwork

In these moments of doubt, the guidance of a mentor and the support of a passionate team became my lifeline. A retired teacher, Mr. Henderson, who had led similar initiatives, took me under his wing, teaching me the nuances of effective leadership and project management. His wisdom, coupled with the enthusiasm and hard work of our volunteer team, transformed our project from a one-man mission into a collective endeavor. This collaborative spirit underscored the importance of teamwork and mentorship in overcoming challenges.

The Day of Reckoning

The Transformation of the Park – and Myself

After weeks of preparation, the day of the clean-up arrived. The sight of over fifty community members, from eager children to dedicated seniors, coming together was overwhelming. As we cleared litter, planted new trees, and repaired old structures, the park began to transform before our eyes. More importantly, I saw a transformation within myself. The shy, hesitant individual who had taken on this challenge was now confidently coordinating efforts, solving problems on the fly, and inspiring a group towards a common goal.

The Aftermath and Reflections

A Community Revitalized

The success of the clean-up project went beyond the physical rejuvenation of the park. It revitalized a sense of community spirit, encouraging ongoing involvement and care for our shared spaces. The project, initially met with skepticism, became a testament to what can be achieved when individuals come together for a common purpose.

Personal Growth and Future Aspirations

This experience was a turning point for me. It debunked my self-imposed limitations, unveiling a potential for leadership and resilience I had doubted in myself. The lessons learned in those few months have become foundational to my personal and professional ethos. Embracing challenges, the value of teamwork, and the impact of community service are principles I now live by.

In retrospect, the decision to lead the community clean-up project was a leap into the unknown, a challenge that transformed me in ways I could never have anticipated. It taught me that stepping out of one’s comfort zone, though daunting, is a powerful catalyst for growth and change. This journey of self-discovery and community service has not only shaped my aspirations but has also instilled a lifelong commitment to making a difference, however small it may seem. For students looking to participate in essay writing competitions or anyone aspiring to make an impact, remember that every challenge is an opportunity to learn, grow, and contribute to the world around you. Embrace it with open arms, and let it guide you on a path of endless possibilities.

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Home — Essay Samples — Life — Life Experiences — Overcoming Challenges

Essays on Overcoming Challenges

Prompt examples for "overcoming challenges" essays, personal growth through adversity.

Share a personal experience in which you faced a significant challenge or adversity. Describe the impact it had on your personal growth, the lessons you learned, and how it changed your perspective on life.

The Role of Resilience

Discuss the concept of resilience in the face of challenges. How do individuals develop and demonstrate resilience, and what role does it play in overcoming difficult situations?

Overcoming Academic Obstacles

Explore the challenges students often encounter in their academic journeys. Describe a specific academic hurdle you faced, how you addressed it, and the strategies you used to succeed in your studies.

Challenges in the Workplace

Discuss challenges that individuals may encounter in their professional careers. Share a personal or professional experience in which you faced a workplace obstacle and describe how you navigated it to achieve success.

Health and Wellness Journey

Reflect on a health-related challenge, whether it's a physical ailment, mental health issue, or lifestyle change. Describe the steps you took to address this challenge, improve your well-being, and maintain a healthy lifestyle.

Overcoming Adversity in Sports

Discuss how athletes often face physical and mental challenges in their sports careers. Share a personal or sports-related story in which you or someone you know overcame adversity in athletics, highlighting the determination and perseverance required.

Challenges in Relationships

Explore the challenges that can arise in personal relationships, such as friendships, family dynamics, or romantic partnerships. Share a personal experience or case study, detailing how communication and resilience played a role in overcoming relationship challenges.

Obstacles in Pursuit of Goals

Describe a specific goal or dream you have pursued and the obstacles you encountered along the way. Explain the strategies you employed to overcome these obstacles and achieve your objectives.

Contributions to Community

Discuss how individuals can overcome challenges to make positive contributions to their communities. Share a personal or community-based initiative you were involved in that addressed a significant challenge or issue.

Lessons from Adversity

Reflect on the life lessons you have learned from overcoming challenges. How have these experiences shaped your values, beliefs, and approach to future obstacles?

Challenges Are Part of Our Daily Lives

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The Role of Challenges in Human Life Essay

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Challenges are a part of life; it is to be considered that life happens for us, and not to us. That means challenges are supposed to improve individuals and their teams and make them grow into the people they are destined to be. In life, there is a choice; to either succumb to the challenges or face them head-on. Instead of complaining about the challenges, one can become optimistic and consider them an opportunity to learn. This essay will explain how challenges make individuals and their teams strong and, how to use them as an opportunity to grow.

Challenges leave scars in life; that doesn’t make anyone inferior; they are a mark to show survival through them. Those marks provide energy to charge into other challenges, this time with more zeal and confidence. According to Ted Neitzke’s thinking podcast every challenge makes you and your team stronger because you learn and grow from previous challenges; Mistakes are not repeated. Teams grow stronger because they share lessons learned before and recuperate from them. Trees get bumps from injuries caused by humans but do not dry up due to such injuries; they grow over them, becoming unique, strong, and beautiful. Challenges are there to mold better humans suited to survive this harsh world.

The days we face challenges are crazy ones but, it is from these days that wisdom is gained. It is from failures, sadness, and trauma acquired from facing challenges that we get the knowledge to face other challenges ahead. These are the scars of life that should be appreciated since they symbolize life and healing. Emerging victorious from a challenge makes individuals and teams polished, refined, and better. That means they have grown, and no matter how small the margin is, it is not in the same spot as before.

Challenges are life moments for individuals and their teams; they should be faced optimistically as buffalos do. Going through challenges is an opportunity: to grow because new hardships are incurred, and to learn because every mistakes offers a lesson. It is vital to stay strong not only for ourselves but the team. Challenges are there to test us but we must keep moving upward and onward.

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Essay about Life Challenges (1000 Words)

Life’s challenges are unavoidable. They are diverse and everywhere, each demanding a different approach. But how can we deal with these difficult situations? It is your reaction to life challenges that can make a difference. In this essay, you will learn about life challenges and how to deal with them.

Essay about Life Challenges

My life challenge is not staying focus and then at the end of the day I did the wrong things that I should have done. Because I wasn’t paying attention, and then got distracted by other things going on around me, it caused me to not stay focus on what I was going to do in the first place.

What are the challenges of life?

Some people have a physical challenge, like a disability or illness that prevents them from performing certain tasks. Others have emotional challenges, like depression or anxiety. Some struggle with mental health issues. And then there are those who face spiritual difficulties, such as feeling lost in a world that seems to move too quickly around them to keep up with their pace of life.

There are so many life challenges

Life challenges are everywhere. They come in many different forms and can be physical, mental or emotional. Some life challenges are short term while others are long term.

Some life challenges can be overcome while others cannot. One of the most common types of life challenges is having a difficult relationship with someone else where you feel like your needs aren’t being met or that there is no way to communicate with them because they don’t listen to what you have to say and this makes it difficult for you to trust yourself or anyone else because you think they will hurt you just like the other person did before.

All relationships seem difficult which makes it hard for me at times but I’m learning how not let this happen anymore because once my mind starts doing this then I start feeling depressed which means I’m alone again.

The biggest challenge in life

The biggest challenge in life is not the problem itself, but how you react to it. The way you react to a challenge can make you stronger or weaker, more or less successful.

How do you overcome challenges in life

When facing a life challenge, it is important to ask for help. It is also very important to talk with someone you trust. If you have been struggling with something for a long time and are having a hard time getting through it alone, then talking about it with someone else can be helpful. Talking about your problems helps you realize that other people face similar issues in their lives and helps you feel less alone in dealing with these issues.

It’s always nice when there’s an uplifting atmosphere surrounding us instead of one full of negativity because those feelings affect each person differently depending on how they’ve been raised throughout childhood or even adulthood!

You should never give up when things get tough because sometimes things won’t seem like they’re going anywhere but always remember: patience wins out over anything else – especially if someone else isn’t willing enough to wait until later on down the road before coming back again another day.

Nobody else can help you deal with your challenges

So when it comes time for me or any other person who wants my opinion on a certain life challenge I’m dealing with, I like when people ask me questions like: “How do I deal with this?” or “What would be an effective way of tackling this problem?” These are great questions because they allow me (or anyone else) an opportunity to give thoughtful answers based on experience instead of guessing at what might work for them without knowing all the details.

Life challenges can be hard but you can get through them

No one said life was easy for anyone. The person that you are today is a result of the difficulties, problems and challenges you have faced in your life. Those who face life head-on and overcome problems with courage and challenge know the true value of life. When we face a challenge or a problem, it helps us to grow. It gives us strength and a deeper insight into our own character. And it can also be an adventure! So don’t look at challenges as something to avoid, but as something to be sought after and cherished. There would be no progress if there were no challenges or struggles in our lives.

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Blog > Essay Advice , Supplementals > How to Write a Personal Challenge Essay (with Examples)

How to Write a Personal Challenge Essay (with Examples)

Admissions officer reviewed by Ben Bousquet, M.Ed Former Vanderbilt University

Written by Kylie Kistner, MA Former Willamette University Admissions

Key Takeaway

This post is one in a series of posts about the supplemental essays. You can read our core “how-to” supplemental post here .

What is a Personal Challenge supplemental essay?

Personal Challenge supplemental essays ask you to pick a personal challenge you’ve faced, detail how the problem affected you, and describe the action steps you took to overcome it.

These essays can be challenging for students for two main reasons. First, many students feel like they haven’t faced a problem significant enough to talk about. And second, other students have faced a significant problem but may not feel comfortable discussing it in a college essay.

So why do colleges want to know about a challenge you’ve faced anyway?

Well, admissions offices know that life in college and beyond doesn’t always go as expected. Colleges want to see that you’re resourceful, resilient, and capable of thinking critically to solve problems.

At their core, Personal Challenge essay prompts let you to strategically pick a problem you’ve faced and write about how you worked to solve it.

Before we continue, it’s worth saying explicitly: you do not have to talk about trauma you’ve experienced to get into college. No admissions officer will ever want to read anything you’re not ready to share. In fact, sharing negative experiences before you’re ready can actually work against you. Writing about a situation that you haven’t yet come to terms with can result in an essay that is overall too negative and not forward-looking enough to meet the requirements of Personal Challenge essay prompts.

That caveat out of the way, let’s look at three Personal Challenge supplemental essay prompt examples.

1: Brown University

Brown’s culture fosters a community in which students challenge the ideas of others and have their ideas challenged in return, promoting a deeper and clearer understanding of the complex issues confronting society. This active engagement in dialogue is as present outside the classroom as it is in academic spaces. Tell us about a time you were challenged by a perspective that differed from your own. How did you respond? (200-250 words)

2: Colorado School of Mines

Florence Caldwell was the first woman to graduate from Mines. She enrolled in 1895 and found that her fellow classmates discouraged her attendance. She persevered through that discouragement and graduated with a degree in Civil Engineering in 1898. She was described as a problem-solver, who was loyal, kind, and sympathetic to others and displayed unwavering courage. Describe a time when you overcame an obstacle, persevered through a situation, or displayed characteristics similar to Florence Caldwell. (500 words)

3: Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Tell us about a significant challenge you’ve faced (that you feel comfortable sharing) or something that didn’t go according to plan. How did you manage the situation?

Personal Challenge Essay Strategy

When an admissions officer reads your essay among thousands of others , your supplemental essays are one of the main tools you have to stand out. The key to writing a strong Personal Challenge essay is picking the right challenge to talk about.

Personal Challenge essays are all about finding a delicate balance. While your challenge should be a genuine one that you’ve had to wrestle with, it shouldn’t be so challenging that you can’t write about it in a way that is ultimately positive.

While you don’t have to reveal anything you don’t want to, you should choose a genuine challenge.

“Genuine” problems are those that present real challenges to you, your way of thinking, or your overall lived experience.

They are significant. That means that a genuine problem is more than sleeping in late and missing a test. It’s more than losing your big baseball game or forgetting to put gas in the car before a road trip.

Genuine problems don’t necessarily have to be life-changing, but they do have to be deeply meaningful.

Significant challenges might include:

• conflict or disagreements with friends or loved ones
• information or an event that challenged your worldview
• a significant change or loss
• reconciling with differences
• Dealing with a disadvantage that sets you apart from others

Pick a challenge that lets you refer to one of your strengths.

Personal Challenge essay questions are actually questions about your strengths in the face of adversity. Since all college essays should be rooted in strengths, your supplemental essays should be no different.

The challenge you pick shouldn’t be a covert way to brag about yourself, but it should represent one of your personal characteristics that is ultimately positive.

Whether your goal is to show your resilience, problem-solving abilities, compassion, understanding, fortitude, or something else, your Personal Challenge essay should work to showcase one of your strengths.

Take the “more phoenix, less ashes” approach.

This is one of the most difficult parts of writing Personal Challenge essays. By nature, Personal Challenge essays are about a challenge. That means that you’re inevitably going to be writing about something difficult.

But essays that only focus on the negative aren’t ultimately serving your college admissions goals. The ultimate goal of a personal challenge essay is to demonstrate how you’ve grown, developed, and changed through dealing with a problem.

The essay isn’t about the problem itself. It’s about your growth.

“More phoenix, less ashes” is a helpful way to remember to focus on the positivity. The phrase refers to the mythology of the phoenix, which rises from the ashes of a predecessor. By focusing more on the phoenix and less on the ashes, you’re focusing on the life, hope, and resilience that comes in the aftermath of a challenge.

How to Write a Personal Challenge Supplemental Essay

Step 1: Read the prompt.

As you’ve seen from the example Personal Challenge prompts, there are a few ways schools ask these kinds of questions.

Some ask you to focus on a time your perspective was challenged, others ask you to discuss a time you overcame a challenge, and others yet give you the freedom to discuss any personal challenge you want.

You’ll need to know which kind of prompt you’re responding to before you begin brainstorming, so analyzing the prompt closely should always be your first step.

Step 2: Brainstorm some challenges.

Since picking the right kind of challenge is important to writing a good Personal Challenge supplemental essay, it’s probably a good idea to brainstorm a few different options.

This structured brainstorming chart might help you sort through different areas of your life to identify particular challenges.

Step 3: List your action steps, think about what’s at stake, and find a positive focus.

To maintain sight of “more phoenix, less ashes,” it may be helpful to list out a few specific details for each challenge you’re considering writing about.

Specifically, think about three criteria:

• Action Steps: What specific actions did you take to confront the challenge?
• What’s at stake?: Why is this challenge one of genuine concern? What implications did it (or its solution) have to your life?
• Resolution & Lessons: How was the challenge resolved? What were the positive lessons or outcomes that you learned as a result?

Step 4: Pay special attention to your essay structure.

“More phoenix, less ashes” also means structuring your essay in a way that keeps the focus on the positive outcome rather than the challenge.

If the story about your challenge or difficulty takes up 80% of your essay, then there’s a good chance that you haven’t written enough to address the phoenix instead of the ashes. The best way to structure a Personal Challenge essay is to quickly pivot from discussing the challenge to discussing your actions, solutions, and reflections.

Depending on the prompt you’re responding to, your outline may look something like this:

I. Introduce the challenge

II. Describe inciting incident (what caused things to change for the better?)

III. Detail the action steps you took

IV. Expand on your solution

IV. Reflect on the lessons you learned and relate them to the prompt

Personal Challenge Essay Mistakes

Writing about a fake problem.

Since Personal Challenge essays should be about genuine challenges, few things are worse than writing about a fake problem.

“Fake” problems are those that didn’t actually affect you very much. The stakes were relatively low, and your worldview wasn’t significantly altered.

An example of a fake problem would be

Writing about a “convenient” problem.

A “convenient” problem is like a “fake” problem, but it’s one that conveniently allows you to talk about an accomplishment.

Here’s an example:

The biggest obstacle I’ve faced was when my team was down 88-90 in the state basketball finals. There was only one second left on the clock. My team was really starting to get discouraged, so I called everyone together to rally them back up. When the clock started back up, I sunk a three-pointer.

While that obstacle was obviously important in the writer’s life, the story itself comes across as a convenient way to talk about their team leadership and athletic abilities.

Writing an essay that only discusses problems, not solutions.

To return to the phrase we’ve been using, it’s a mistake to write a Personal Challenge essay that is all ashes and no phoenix. If you weigh your reader down with all the heavy details related to your story, it’ll be hard for them to climb out of those details to see your overall message.

To make it easier for them, only include the details that are necessary to understanding your story. Then quickly move on to addressing your action steps, solutions, and reflection.

Personal Challenge Supplemental Essay Example

Example essay: lead pipes.

MIT: Tell us about a significant challenge you’ve faced (that you feel comfortable sharing) or something that didn’t go according to plan. How did you manage the situation? (~200 words)

Two times a day, I fill up my Hydroflask at the drinking fountain near Room 124. With over 1,000 Hydroflasks of water total, this daily ritual has sustained me through countless lectures, math tests, and in-class essays. What I didn’t realize until last May was that this ritual was also slowly poisoning me.(( This introduction draws the reader in and states a compelling and significant problem.))

Built in the 1920s, my school contains a network of lead-covered pipes. Recent tests of the drinking fountain by Room 124 found over 5,000 parts per billion (ppb) of lead–4,985 more ppb than is considered safe to drink. I started organizing my schoolmates immediately after learning this news, and I put together a petition to the school board. With my Hydroflask in tow, I stood before the board and made our case.(( The writer focuses on the latter part of the prompt to answer the question: “How did you manage the situation?” By focusing on the efforts rather than the problem, the student maintains a “more phoenix, fewer ashes” approach that highlights their strengths rather than the problem.)) Unsafe water in our schools was unacceptable, and the board needed to prioritize the health of its students and staff members. We needed renovations.

After weeks of deliberation, the school board announced its decision to delay renovations. They were concerned about budget constraints. My entire community felt betrayed and disheartened. Not one to settle, I decided if the current board members wouldn’t prioritize our health, then we would elect board members who would. Since then, I have been volunteering with two board campaigns, canvasing our neighborhood, and continuing to organize my classmates to advocate for our health.(( Even though the problem became worse, the writer continues to focus on their actions instead.))

There’s not much I can do about the lead I’ve already consumed, but I’ll continue fighting to keep future CHS students safe.

Interested in seeing even more supplemental essay examples? We've got some of our favorites in our list of college essay examples .

Liked that? Try this next.

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Challenges In Life Essay

Throughout our life, it is bound that there are periods of challenges that we must face, but the real challenge is how we grow and learn from overcoming them. Being naive, innocent children, we ignorantly believed that life was going to be simple and effortless. Oh, we were far from correct, we can only dream for life to be that easy. My life, in particular, has been filled with countless, tiring ups and downs. It felt like I was in an endless roller coaster of obstacles. As we mature from being children into adults, we will continue to face countless hurdles that only get bigger and more consequential. I would do anything to go back in time when I thought learning division was complicated as untying a series of knots. To when our obstacles we faced were insignificant and foolish. Thankfully, life isn’t a game where we can only have one chance. Even when we stumble a thousand times, we can still manage to get back up, and it’s that concept about …show more content…

Life was never meant to be easy, it was meant to be a journey filled with quests, a journey where we must travel through no matter how bad the obstructions are ahead of us. Everyone in their life has their ups, downs, and plateaus; just like a roller coaster. And we can’t stop that roller coaster, it’s the cycle of life. In the cycle of life, we are taught that even our failures are better than our victories. Life doesn’t punish us for our downfalls, but it rewards us for our own successes. Obstacles shouldn’t be viewed as a burden, but rather as a blessing and a stepping stone to our success in the future. Obstacles give us a chance to grow and nourish. Behind everyone’s faces, lies a story. A story of them facing their own adversities, and we all have our own stories. Life will continue to trip us with hurdles. But we all have a choice; A choice to grow and learn from our stumbles, or a choice to remain

Overcoming Obstacles In The Glass Castle By Jeanette Walls

Everybody has been through obstacles threw out their lives. How they overcome those obstacles is in their hands. Obstacles or disadvantages sometimes make a person stumble off track. Those obstacles or disadvantages shape the way people live out their lives. Any obstacles or disadvantage can be turned into a positive aspect in your life which could make you stronger as a person.

The Civil War: Hardship In American History

Hardship is an endeavor no person yearns for, and logically it’s fathomable why we’d steer away from difficulties. However, one can only value what they have when they’ve survived the unimaginable, because without hardships we’d be oblivious to the triumphs in life. History is an abyss of unfortunate events, nevertheless we have conquered every setback. The civil war, for example, was one of the United States most traumatic times. Much can be said about the bloodiest four years in american history, but overall in order to find harmony between the divided sides, we had to fight battle by battle for a cause that, with all the gruesome sacrifices no longer seemed worth it.

Ship Wreck At The Bottom Of The World Analysis

At least once in everyone’s life they experience adversity. Many of these experiences may feel impossible in the moment, but after reading two books based on true stories, I have discovered that most things are possible to overcome. This is very important because if you can’t overcome adversity in life, it is not going to go very well for you. At the moment you may not realize the importance or solution to overcoming the adversity, but eventually you’ll find a way. Adversity is found in the book “Shipwreck at the Bottom of the World.”

Overcoming Obstacles In So Far From The Bamboo Grove

Obstacles can be challenging, and difficult, but people can overcome them by never giving up, always trying their best, and surrounding themselves with families and friends. Two stories that I have read that show adversity are “A Work in Progress” by Aimee Mullins which is about a little girl losing her leg. The other story I read is “So Far From the Bamboo Grove” by Yoko Kawashima Watkins about a little girl that has to leave her home because of war and has very big obstacles to overcome. Aimee Mullins and the Kawashimas both face obstacles that include losing family members, walking very far in intense weather, and people doubting you and trying to stop you. In the end they all make it through the the challenges mentally and physically.

Oprah Winfrey: The Importance Of Adversity In My Life

After the obstacles he has overcame Walt Disney once said “All the adversity I’ve had in my life, all my troubles and obstacles, have strengthened me… You may not realize when it happens, but a kick in the teeth may be the best thing in the world for you.” Everyone has a time in there life where they need to get passed something that is in there way. When this time or times come everyone would find a way to get through it, whether it is asking for help or doing it on their own. When someone says the word adversity one would say you have to be hard working, determined, and strong would pop into their mind.

How Baseball Has Changed My Life

When times get tough and adversity is thrown at you like a curveball all you can do is stay positive and know to never give up. Unfortunately I have had to deal with a couple scenarios where I have been faced with adversity. I have had to overcome my parents being divorced, and a family member who has overcame a drug addiction. That was one of the hardest things I was ever faced with going through middle school, but knowing that there will always be a tomorrow and to not give up on someone has had a positive impact in the end. It has brought my family closer than we have ever been.

Narrative Essay On Marching Band Leadership

Easy to encounter, not so easy to overcome, failures claw at hopes and successes. They bring down those who are weak enough to let them in. They strengthen those that can get past them. I got past one that almost ruined my chances for new opportunities.

Societal Obstacles Essay

Monetary and Societal Obstacles Societal simply comes from the word society and it means relating to society. Monetary refers to money. In our society monetary and societal obstacles can intertwine. These obstacles can even build on each other. Consequently, this can cause bigger problems if they are not handled correctly.

Overcoming Obstacles In Selma By Martin Luther King

“Obstacles are barriers and to overcome them is to do whatever it takes to prevent them from stopping you from going where you want to go”. An obstacle is anything that keeps you from achieving your goal; it could be physical, financial or resource limitations. It could be moral opposition or anything that impedes you from comfortably achieving one's goal. Martin Luther King Jr overcame his obstacle in the Movie Selma. He gave Africans Americans the full right to vote.

Overcoming Obstacles In The Glass Castle By Jeannette Walls

Though, obstacles are a constant part of our daily lives, overtime, we learn to cope with those obstacles. We discover how to jump every hurdle, or to simply walk around them. Granted, it seems that the biggest hurdles come when you try to achieve personal goals. Until you are an adult, there are rarely any decisions you make that are your own. There are usually constant factors that may influence you.

Booker T Washington Obstacles In Life

Mariah Sanabria “Success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles which he has overcome.” Booker T. Washington Life can often be full of obstacles. However, that does not mean that overcoming them and being successful is not possible. Obstacles in life are there as challenges. Obstacles that people face will show who they really are.

Obstacles In Roland Smith's Peak

Michael Phelps, a professional swimmer, once said, “There will be obstacles. There will be doubters. There will be mistakes. But with hard work, there are no limits,” (¨AZ Quotes¨). This quotes shows that throughout one’s journey they will eventually have to go against many obstacles, and have to find a a way to get through them.

Why Is Perseverance Important

Coming into contact with challenges and struggles can seem awful and unwanted at first. But as we get around those struggles and challenges we can look back and be grateful we went through them. Sometimes we can face something so scary it feels as though we will never get through that stage but when we do that person will be so much stronger because they had to go face to face with what scared them. Challenges are bumps in an individual 's road to success, some may appear bigger than others but perseverance can and will help a person to get over those bumps. The more challenges someone gets past helps them get closer to their goals in life.

Essay On Overcoming Obstacles

“Another source of greatness is difficulty. When any work seems to have required immense force and labour to effect it, the idea is grand” -Edmund Burke Obstacles are challenges that make a better version of ourselves, doors that we need to open to achieve greatness and success. These obstacles can range from your school work to the death of a loved one. Everyone faces obstacles and challenges, some overcome them and some get overcome by the obstacles.

Speech About Challenges In Life

I would do anything to go back in time when I thought learning division was complicated as untying a series of knots. Sadly, this is the harsh reality, but even in this reality, we see even ourselves getting through a barrier. Life isn’t a game where you only have one try. Even when we stumble a thousand times, we can still manage to get back up, and it’s that thing about life that leaves me in awe. Life is a series of failures and lessons.

More about Challenges In Life Essay

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Essay on Personal Challenges In Life As A Student

Students are often asked to write an essay on Personal Challenges In Life As A Student in their schools and colleges. And if you’re also looking for the same, we have created 100-word, 250-word, and 500-word essays on the topic.

Let’s take a look…

100 Words Essay on Personal Challenges In Life As A Student

Time management.

Being a student means having a lot to do in a short time. You need to go to school, do homework, study, and maybe even help at home. It’s tough to keep track of everything and still have time to play or relax. Learning to plan your day can help you get things done without feeling too rushed.

Stress and Pressure

Tests and grades can make students feel nervous. You want to do well and make your family proud, but sometimes it’s hard. Talking to friends, teachers, or family about your worries can make you feel better.

Making Friends

School is also about making friends, but this isn’t always easy. Sometimes you might feel shy or left out. Joining clubs or sports can be a good way to meet people who like the same things you do.

Health and Well-being

Staying healthy is important when you’re a student. Eating good food, getting enough sleep, and playing outside can help you stay fit and focused for school tasks. Remember to take care of yourself.

250 Words Essay on Personal Challenges In Life As A Student

Being a student comes with the tough task of managing time. There are classes, homework, projects, and sometimes even a part-time job. It’s like juggling many balls in the air and trying not to drop any. Finding the right balance between studying and relaxing is hard. You need to plan your day well and make sure there’s time for everything, including fun.

Pressure to Succeed

Students often feel they must get the best grades to make their parents and teachers proud. This pressure can be heavy, like carrying a big backpack full of books. It’s important to remember that doing your best is good enough and that it’s okay to make mistakes sometimes.

School is not just about books; it’s also about making friends. But this isn’t always easy. Sometimes you might feel shy or worried about fitting in. It’s like being the new kid on the playground. The key is to be yourself and find people who like the same things you do.

Staying Healthy

With so much to do, it’s easy to forget to take care of your body. Eating right and staying active can be tough when you’re busy. It’s like forgetting to water a plant. But your body needs good food and exercise to stay strong and help you do your best in school.

Handling Failure

Sometimes, no matter how hard you try, things don’t go your way. You might fail a test or not make the team. It feels like falling off a bike. But it’s important to get back up and try again. Learning from mistakes is part of growing up.

500 Words Essay on Personal Challenges In Life As A Student

Being a student comes with its own set of tough spots, and one of the biggest is managing time. Imagine having to juggle school work, homework, other activities, and maybe even helping out at home. It can feel like there are not enough hours in the day to get everything done. The trick is to make a plan. By setting up a schedule and sticking to it, students can make sure there’s time for studying, rest, and fun. Learning to prioritize tasks is also key. This means deciding which tasks are the most important and doing those first.

School can be a pressure cooker at times. There are tests, grades, and the expectations of teachers and family members to deal with. This can make students feel worried and stressed. To deal with this, it’s important to take breaks and relax. Also, talking to friends, family, or teachers can help. They can offer support and advice. Remember, it’s okay to ask for help when things get too heavy.

Peer Relationships

Self-esteem and confidence.

How a student sees themselves can really affect their school life. When students doubt their abilities or feel like they don’t measure up to others, it can be hard for them to try new things or ask questions in class. Building self-esteem and confidence starts with setting small goals and achieving them. Celebrating these small wins can lead to a big boost in how students feel about themselves.

Adapting to Change

Change is a constant in life, and for students, this could mean moving to a new school, getting new teachers, or adjusting to online learning. These changes can be scary and can throw students off their game. The key to handling change is to stay flexible and open-minded. It’s also helpful to talk about the changes and express feelings rather than keeping them bottled up.

Planning for the Future

In conclusion, life as a student is filled with personal challenges, from managing time and stress to building relationships and self-confidence. Each student’s journey is unique, and facing these challenges is part of growing up. By tackling these issues head-on with strategies and support, students can overcome them and emerge stronger and more prepared for the future. Remember, every big problem was once a small challenge that got conquered one step at a time.

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Rape Cases in the Headlines and in Our Everyday Lives

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To the Editor:

Re “ Two Recent Rape Cases Hit Close to Home ,” by Elizabeth Spiers (Opinion guest essay, Sept. 24):

At 76, I am sadly aware of how little things change. Nearly 50 years ago, standing in the dining room of the home of faculty friends, I asked a small group of women if they had ever been violated sexually. One after the other, every woman in this conversation circle reported a case involving themselves or a close relative: molested by an uncle at age 10; daughter raped at knifepoint in her bed at 3 a.m. on campus; niece raped by Notre Dame football player (the girl later dying by suicide).

I worked in a suburban high school in the late 1990s and early 2000s. During that time, girls would come to me. Was this rape? She had said no. But he was her friend. She knew him. She resisted. But he was her friend.

I worked to create programs to illuminate the problems and encountered the defensiveness of my male colleagues. Professionals entrusted with young people worried far more about their own guilt and shame being brought to light than about the safety of their students.

I used to regularly explain that no, I did not hate men; in fact I had two of my own (beloved husband and son). And I am surrounded by any number of men who know and care. However, male dominance over women and white male supremacy are ongoing problems, and right now one of their foremost champions is running for POTUS.

Barbara Allen Taylor Denver

Thank you, Elizabeth Spiers, for your recent essay about rape. The same thing happened to me in college as was done to you. I still can’t believe how long I made it “my fault” because I had been drinking.

I know that I’ve taught my daughters how to think about rape, but not many parents do. I hope your essay opens a lot of eyes.

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Us Weekly’s Favorite New TV Couples of 2024: From Maxton Hall’s Ruby and James to Bridgerton’s Polin

From Ruby and James from Maxton Hall to  My Lady Jane’ s Jane and Guildford, TV couples have kept Us fed this year.

There have been many fictional relationships we wanted to see come to life in 2024 , but the best surprises sprouted from the pairings we weren’t expecting to fall in love with this year.

Prime Video’s Maxton Hall is a great example. The series quietly premiered in May before blowing up because of the incredible chemistry between the leads: Damian Hardung and Harriet Herbig-Matten .

Maxton Hall introduced Ruby Bell (Herbig-Matten) as a scholarship student at a prestigious university in the U.K. who unwittingly witnessed a secret that put her on the wealthy Beaufort family’s radar. James Beaufort (Hardung) specifically set his sights on Ruby after realizing she knew something that could destroy his family. Their rivalry evolved, however, into an undeniable connection that Ruby and James were determined to make work despite their backgrounds creating constant obstacles for them.

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The first season ended with James and Ruby hopeful for their future — until a cliffhanger turned things upside down again. Luckily fans — including Us — can rest easy knowing there are more episodes coming our way after Prime Video renewed the series within a week of its release.

Bridgerton is another successful series built off romantic love. Season 3 thrust Colin Bridgerton ( Luke Newton ) into the spotlight as he began to question whether his friendship with longtime friend Penelope Featherington ( Nicola Coughlan ) was something more.

Keep scrolling for Us ‘ favorite new TV ships from 2024:

Credit: Prime Video; Netflix

Us Weekly's Favorite New TV Couples of 2024: From Maxton Hall's Ruby and James to Bridgerton's Polin

From Ruby and James from Maxton Hall to  My Lady Jane' s Jane and Guildford, TV couples have kept Us fed this year. There have been many fictional relationships we wanted to see come to life in 2024 , but the best surprises sprouted from the pairings we weren't expecting to fall in love with this year. Prime Video's Maxton Hall is a great example. The series quietly premiered in May before blowing up because of the incredible chemistry between the leads: Damian Hardung and Harriet Herbig-Matten . Maxton Hall introduced Ruby Bell (Herbig-Matten) as a scholarship student at a prestigious university in the U.K. who unwittingly witnessed a secret that put her on the wealthy Beaufort family’s radar. James Beaufort (Hardung) specifically set his sights on Ruby after realizing she knew something that could destroy his family. Their rivalry evolved, however, into an undeniable connection that Ruby and James were determined to make work despite their backgrounds creating constant obstacles for them. [poll id="3606705"] The first season ended with James and Ruby hopeful for their future — until a cliffhanger turned things upside down again. Luckily fans — including Us — can rest easy knowing there are more episodes coming our way after Prime Video renewed the series within a week of its release. Bridgerton is another successful series built off romantic love. Season 3 thrust Colin Bridgerton ( Luke Newton ) into the spotlight as he began to question whether his friendship with longtime friend Penelope Featherington ( Nicola Coughlan ) was something more. Keep scrolling for Us ' favorite new TV ships from 2024:

Credit: Disney+

Osha and Qimir ('Star Wars: The Acolyte')

Star Wars isn't exactly known for romance, which is why the “enemies to something more” connection between Osha (Amandla Stenberg) and Qimir (Manny Jacinto) took Us by surprise. The first episode started out with Osha never imagining that she would go to the dark side — only to end the season holding hands with Qimir while looking at a sunset. 

Now all fans need is for Disney to renew the show for a second season so we can watch Qimir train Osha as their bond continues to deepen. 

Credit: Prime Video

Jane and Guildford ('My Lady Jane')

What could have been just a historical reimagining turned into so much more because of the chemistry between Emily Bader and Edward Bluemel . The costars had Us invested from their very first scene together and Jane and Guildford's romance only got better as the season continued. 

Now where is that renewal?

Credit: Amazon MGM Studios

Ruby and James ('Maxton Hall')

Sometimes all you need is two actors with insane chemistry, an enemies to lovers story line and a dream. Prime Video's Maxton Hall had all of that — and more — when it premiered in May. 

Based on Mona Kasten 's Save You book series, Maxton Hall: The World Between Us followed Ruby, who accidentally witnessed a shocking secret at her private school that subsequently brought millionaire heir James into her life. What started out as an antagonistic relationship between classmates turned into something unexpected as Ruby and James fought for a future together against all the odds.

The six-part German-language TV series quickly found record-breaking success by being the most-watched non-U.S. title during its first week on Prime Video. Maxton Hall was renewed for a second season one week after its debut.  

Credit: Courtesy of Netflix

Francesca and Michaela ('Bridgerton')

Bridgerton fans only had Francesca ( Hannah Dodd ) and Michaela ( Masali Baduza ) for a few brief seconds during season 3 but they are already anxiously awaiting their season. Their first interaction held even more meeting considering Francesca's love interest in the When He Was Wicked novel was Michael. 

Credit: Teddy Cavendish/Netflix

Emma and Dex ('One Day')

Based on the 2009 novel of the same name by David Nicholls , One Day made Us fall in love with friends Emma Morley ( Ambika Mod ) and Dexter Mayhew ( Leo Woodall) whose lives remained intertwined although they went their separate ways. It took years and years for the stars to align for Emma and Dex , and just as swiftly as they got together, their relationship got taken away from Us . 

Despite the heartbreaking ending, the Netflix series left a mark largely because of Mod and Woodall's commitment to their roles. 

Credit: Liam Daniel/Netflix

Penelope and Colin ('Bridgerton')

After two seasons of buildup, it was finally time for Colin and Penelope to shine as the newest Bridgerton couple. The pair started out as friends but a season 3 kiss made Colin realize that Penelope was The One. Romance fans were subsequently in for a treat as Colin came to terms with his feelings and fought for Penelope before she got engaged to someone else. 

Their story doesn't stop there though since Netflix is releasing a second part — which includes more steamy moments — in June. 

Credit: Ed Araquel/The CW

Max and Ellis ('Wild Cards')

The police procedural introduced The CW viewers to demoted water-cop Cole Ellis ( Giacomo Gianniotti ) who was offered an opportunity at redemption if he worked with con woman Max Mitchell ( Vanessa Morgan ) to help solve crimes. The duo didn't make sense on paper but on screen the sparks were flying as soon as Gianniotti and Morgan appeared in their first scene together.

Ellis and Max's blossoming romance was rocky at best due to her past — and the secrets she continued to keep from him. But the show appeared to be in it for the long haul with Ellis and Max. Now The CW just needs to renew the Canadian import series for another season.  

Credit: Ed Araquel/CBS

Colter and Billie ('Tracker')

Justin Hartley knew what he was doing when he cast his wife, Sofia Pernas , to play his character Colter Shaw's ex Billie Matalon, who previously tricked him out of a reward.

Tracker , which premiered in February, centered around the survivalist as he traveled the country helping people and law enforcement tackle a variety of mysteries. One of the cases led Colter to reunite with Billie and it didn't take long before they started working together. 

Colter and Billie's reunion was full of potential — and chemistry — but they ultimately didn't reconcile. Their connection was undeniable however and Hartley has since confirmed that fans will see Colter and Billie again during season 2 of the hit CBS series.  

Credit: Netflix

Joanne and Noah ('Nobody Wants This')

Nobody Wants This follows the unlikely relationship between an agnostic woman named Joanne (Kristen Bell) and a Jewish rabbi Noah (Adam Brody).

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Justin Hartley

Kristen Bell

Nicola Coughlan

Sofia Pernas

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