Others say completely dismiss it. I don’t think you can just completely dismiss a big part of your life like this. (I’m a rising senior and how many extremely life changing moments have we had when all we’ve been doing is going to clubs and volunteering?— which they say is even more cliche) I got help with my essay and what I learnt was that it has to have a conflict and it should involve other people - people like to read about interpersonal relationships. This could be small or big. Essentially, your mom with PTSD and the divorce probably shaped your life some way… if it did a big part (like you moved or you stopped an activity) then you can write. With your friends, only if an experience with one of those friends profoundly affected you, then you can right about that. I also recommend just trying to show not tell a story that adcoms can imply a respectable character trait from. Once you start explaining how your friend made you think about psychology, that’ll seem cliche and self-rewarding that you’re worried about. Overall, in the end it’s a story about you that tells a characteristic of you… the best topic that helps you do that is fine.