I’m writing an essay that start off with a story of me being trapped in the desert (really happened) and how I learned to focus on what I can control to overcome solutiosn from it which then transitions into me getting chronic tendonitis while lifting and how I have been overcoming that for the past 1.5 years. Is the topic of a lifting injury in PT too common. I began thinking about it and I feel like every sports athlete has gone through an injury. Will the length of mine help me stand out. Will this hurt my essay. Please tell me because I might be cooked as I have little time to change this essay now
Not necessarily related to your topic - the idea of you overcoming solitude while in the desert is quite interesting though - CC offers some free college essay help. I’ll link it below.
STUDENTS, Need Help w/ Your College Essays? Get Community Feedback Now - College Essays - College Confidential Forums
You’ll definitely get some feedback here, but the link above may give you more detailed responses/feedback.
Yes, the topic of overcoming a sports injury is considered to be too overused. I agree with the idea of running it past one of this site’s free essay readers.
I know my daughter wrote about PT for some supplements, but it was because she spent a lot of time there all 4 years of HS (dancer, runner) and she wanted to major in exercise science and get her DPT in graduate school (she did a lot of shadowing innHS too). Her main essay dealt with a very embarrassing moment at a xc meet as a freshman.
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The entire topic of “how I overcame my difficulties in life” is overused and really should be a rare choice, not a go-to.
That being said, the part about being lost in the desert can be a good topic, because you can use it to focus on introspection and being alone with your thoughts, rather than on how you Persevered in Face of Insurmountable Odds. Again, telling them how you were Able To Overcome Difficulties will do little to make them stop and say “hmmm, interesting”. On the other hand, telling a story of you in the desert, or, more correctly, showing them your story of you in the desert is likely much more interesting, at least in my opinion.
In fact, I think that the story of how you ended up lost in the desert seems far more interesting than how you got out.
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One of my kids did discuss their competitive athletic career-ending injuries to help set up how and why they switched gears 180 degrees and how their decision making process changed.
When I’ve read the idea of sports injuries being overused in college essays, I think it is all in how the topic is treated. If the story is “I was injured but worked hard and came back stronger than ever” - yeah that is an overused topic treatment. If you use the injury/rehab process to discuss something unexpected - I think it can work quite well.
The general idea of overcoming an injury is very common, but it all depends on what you want to say. The more interesting idea is that you were stuck in the desert. Is there a need to link it to tendonitis? It sounds to me like it will be a stretch.
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IMO even a commonly used essay theme can work well – it is all about how the essay is written and what it says about you. Start by writing an outline or draft and see how it goes.
I totally agree with the PP who said that the story of how or why you ended up stuck in the desert is WAYYYY more interesting. I don’t even care how you got out or overcame anything really. Just tell the story - that would be the more interesting read.
OP- just remember any essay needs to be about YOU.
I’d love to read an essay on PT which focused on the patient/person. Most of the one’s I’ve read spend too much time explaining the medicine/anatomy part (nobody cares) or discussing the role of the therapist (yeah, we get it, he pushed you harder than you thought possible, blah blah blah. First you hated him, now you admire him because he was able to identify pockets of strength you didn’t know you had etc.).
But an essay about YOU could be cool and interesting.
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