What college essay topic should I use?

  I want to do prompt number one for my essay,  "Some students have a background, identity, interest, or talent that is so meaningful..." and I was considering writing about learning Korean. I have been interest in the culture since middle school, and started learning the language on my own last year. It means a lot to me, and I've put in countless hours learning it during my free time. I could talk about the self-motivation it takes to learn something without anyone, or anything pushing you, and how while I have learned a lot, I will still continue to study for many years. The problem is that I do not have anything to measure my progress, like grades or awards. It is just something for myself. 
  Other things I can talk about are speech team, being involved in it since freshman year, and how I have grown and improved every year. I am also the captain, so I can talk about that. 
 I can also talk about color guard/ marching band, being in it since sophomore year, and how band camp pushes me to my maximum level of physical ability and focus. Also, the teamwork that goes into color guard and how every practice session helps the group become better and create a better performance. 

I have been going back and forth with these topics and I just can’t make up my mind. If anyone can offer some piece of advice I would really appreciate it!

Before the essays were released an admissions officer from Vanderbilt told me that focusing on a failure is more appealing to her than a success. My choice is going to be the essay about a failure in your life and what you learned from it due to this hint I got.

Admissions doesn’t really want to hear about your awards or achievements in your essay. They just want to know more about your personality. For this reason, I would not eliminate the first option.

It’s also preferred that you don’t repeat something that’s already on your application, unless you add a deeper level of understand on what it means to you. Color guard and speech team definitely will be on your EC list, so I wouldn’t do these.

I think learning Korean is your best option here, but it’s up to you. You know best which is most meaningful to you.

I think learning about Korean is an interesting and unique topic. If you like the culture and language, it would be great to talk about that instead of some club like a lot of people would. Just don’t post your essay here

@2016senior i think its stanford’s essay is not it ?