Does the topic of the essay matter all that much, or is it more about telling your story and character in that topic?
Reading about what everybody else wrote in their essays has made me realized my essay topic is cliche and I didn’t write about anything special that nobody else has or an interesting new perspective. But personally when I submitted it I was happy because I thought I elaborated through good anecdotes and explained how I grew from it. I wrote about joining the student council, starting music, and volunteering. Then my short essay was how I skipped a belt test to compete with my chess team. Any thoughts? I might just be getting too anxious for M10.
I don’t think an essay topic matters that much; the important part is telling your story and making sure that the AO gets a sense of your personality through your writing. It can definitely help to have a super interesting hook/premise, but that’s more of an added bonus than something that’s required. An essay about a “cliche” topic will still resonate with the reader if the writing is of good quality! If you personally feel that you elaborated through good anecdotes and explained how you grew from it, I see no problem.
I also wrote some of my essays about cliche topics- joining a school club, how I grew from it, etc. However, I think my writing style was engaging, and I don’t feel like I’m disadvantaged in any way because not all of my essays had crazy hooks. Probably just the M10 nerves hitting in lol.