Your Life As Pie
When I first start working with a student, I interview them. It mostly feels like a relaxed, getting-to-know-you chat instead of an under-the-bright-lights interrogation (though if it were, I’d be Good Cop). I’m asking obvious questions, and not-so-obvious questions. I’m trying to get a sketch of a student’s background, learning about what matters in their lives, their meaningful experiences, what they like, what they don’t. Family, academics, future. This chat usually yields lots of great content that we’ll either ferret away as topics for supplemental essays later or seize on immediately for the Common App essay.
When I give college essay presentations at high schools, I spend lots of time on what to write. I like to employ my considerable artistic skills to further articulate my most salient points. One of my most popular pieces is entitled “Crude Timeline in Dry Erase Marker on Whiteboard,” in which I draw an uninterrupted line that undulates between peaks and valleys before the marker is capped, snuffing out its squeaks. The idea being that some college essay topics naturally focus on the mountain-top moments or rock-bottom moments that stand out from the everyday. The day you got your braces off. When the curtain closed on the last night of the musical. Hearing the news that your mom’s been diagnosed with breast cancer. Talent show gone wrong.
But there can be another way of examining your experience in hopes of identifying the elusive Common App essay topic. See fig. 2 by yours truly: “Crude Pie Chart in Dry Erase Marker on Whiteboard,” in which I draw an oblong, not-quite circle, divide it into wobbly pieces, and write things. I’ll ask my students to identify the pieces as the stuff that takes up most of their time. School, friends, maybe a job, or a sport, or another passion. The stuff that shows up on someone’s pie chart can be a great start.
My guy Ethan came to work with me and was the lucky kind of kid who had about 10 possible Common App essay topics. An embarrassment of riches! As we examined his world, there were many pieces of pie to explore. First, a cool job at a movie theater, which was a perfect fit for Ethan, who was a total film nerd. Second, a really significant volunteer commitment creating a tutoring service for his community, where he worked with a bunch of kids who needed academic support. Third, a huge passion for science, filled with rabbit-holes and random knowledge that revealed a legitimate obsession. And finally, a life-changing medical diagnosis that had real implications into his everyday life. This was a very big pie, and every piece could have easily morphed into a great Common App essay.
We were making plans to schedule a second tutoring session when Ethan balked at the day and time I’d suggested.
“I can’t meet then. That’s when I watch Better Call Saul.”
I waited a second before I gently responded. “Okayyyy. But, uh, don’t we have the technology that allows you to watch Better Call Saul whenever you want?”
Ethan shut me down immediately. “No. I have to watch the episode as soon as it drops.” He went on to explain his post-watch ritual – hitting the Reddit message boards to read and contribute and rewatching with a crew of international friends with his headset on. He was out of breath by the time he finished.
“Better Call Saul is kind of a thing for you, huh?”
“Yeah, I guess. It’s only because it’s the best show of all time. Fight me.”
And this statement got me thinking. Even though Ethan’s Better Call Saul obsession was more of a sliver in the pie chart of his life compared to the rest of his pieces, I thought this might have potential. I thought that the sliver could be the lens through which Ethan could examine something bigger about himself. Connect to truths about his identity and his values. And I was right.
So picture a poorly-drawn pie chart with four or five big pieces. Fill them up with the things that take up lots of time in your life – faith, family, friends, job, school, soccer, whatever. But keep an eye out for those slivers that bring you joy and light you up. Sometimes the best topics can sneak up in the sliver.