Welcome to F1GMAT’s #askAtulJose series. I am Atul Jose. Today’s question is from a reader who asks
Q) I come from a wealthy family. The admission essays require writing about one’s struggles. I have read many sample essays. They were around financial instability. How do I capture an authentic struggle for the essays?
Jamie Foxx – the Oscar-winning actor, shared an interesting anecdote about his rise to fame and the impact on his stand-up routine. Once he got the big dough in the mid-90s, he started testing out experiences from his new rich life. He bombed. The audience couldn’t relate to the complaints about Range Rover and its lack of mileage.
This is a fundamental human lesson – unless you suffer or enjoy an outcome or an outcome like what a protagonist is experiencing, you are unlikely to care about the hero. This is especially true while applying to a college application – graduate, post-graduate, or any program where an essay is mandatory. The reviewer, regardless of their socioeconomic background, must connect with the roadblocks and setbacks that you cite in the essay.
Blessed but..
It is extremely tough for a politician with millions in assets and the power to legislate to connect with the average person making less than $40,000. But consistently, they evoke strong emotion among the voters – some wearing the attire that they wear, kissing their baby, shaking hands, trying the local cuisines, repeating the biases and prejudices of the voters, and some even using slight variation in accents and connotation to subconsciously convey that “I am just like you.” If the voters are multilingual, you will definitely see the politician embarrassingly try out the local slang or customary greeting.
I remember a client – a wealthy person trying to create a narrative on the biggest challenge he faced in his life for a college application. The first draft read like a storyline from the Crawley family in Downton Abbey. No way the reviewer, who is likely coming from a middle-income or upper-middle-income family, is going to connect with the struggles of a wealthy person.
I began exploring other aspects of his life where he struggled. Apart from the legacy of his father’s business, he struggled with his sexuality. His father didn’t accept who he was. There was a drift that pushed him to work on his own in a completely different industry. He started from the ground up, managing complex schedules and logistics of a small production company.
Anyone who reads his story will connect with the universal desire to break away from the shadows of a parent and be one’s, own person.
Anyone will connect with the discrimination he faced while revealing his sexual orientation to conservative parents.
If you are blessed, find struggles that are universal.
