Princeton Essay - Significant Person

<p>I know there have been some threads on this essay, but I have a fairly specific question:</p>

<p>I wrote a ‘Character Sketch’ essay not long ago and I feel like it fits this prompt pretty well. But the thing is, I used someone who I only saw for 20 seconds. I wrote what effect it had on me, and how it did influence my life, but it’s a very strange subject (for reference: a homeless man on a tricycle) and I’m wondering if I should follow the grandparent-mom-dad-teacher mold for significant person and use someone who I’ve known most of my life, or if this odd take on the essay might help me stand out.</p>

<p>Again, very strange. It’s about walking in Bremen and I saw in an alley, a little person (I think that’s the PC term) sitting on a small red tricycle with a kid’s baseball cap and scratching his crotch. I didn’t make it too explicit, and I did bring it around to explain how it changed me and that point was the crux of the essay, but I’m wondering if it’d be daring and unique or just stupid, and Princeton will look right on past.</p>

i think that’s a very good and rather unique idea–the whole “my grandma inspires me” is overused and trite.

I like it. It ties in to the idea of how impactful small moments of your life can be. I think it could be very refreshing to read.