<p>While applying to colleges and scholarships I’ve found that the ‘What has been your biggest challenge and how did you overcome it?’ essay comes up a lot. Thankfully a lot of the colleges make it optional, unfortunately, most of the scholarships are not. How can I write this essay without sounding petty? All I can really come up with that happened to me was switching schools senior year…three blocks away. As hard as a new school was, my best friends were still just down the street and I made new ones really quick so I feel like it’s not what they’re looking for. At the same time though, in the words of my cousin,</p>
<p>“Your parents weren’t killed when you were three, you weren’t shot when six, you didn’t have to pull your alcoholic brother out of a burning house when you were nine, you weren’t captured by rebels and handed an AK-47 when you were twelve, you didn’t raise three children at 15, and you didn’t have chemo when you were 16 so yeah, not much else to write about.”</p>