Family Coming and Going and College Essays

So my family arrived Friday morning and leaves tomorrow morning really early, so I've already said goodbye to them. It's Sunday night, so needless to say the visit was brief, but really fun, nice, emotional and everything you'd expect. We ran around Paris tons seeing people and things and it was rather action packed, but not I doubt you're interested in reading about it. I'm taking into account that my family (who has obviously already lived all of these experience) represents an overwhelmingly huge percentage of my readers. (Note, we missed Sam... hey sam!)

On an entirely different note, I've been thinking a lot about my life and college essays and I've decided to try and write one. I feel like I've grown up a bit since I had to write mine so I'm curious to see what I come up with. Realize that I'm obviously not laboring over this, so please don't have high expectations. Here goes:

The standard college essay is basically an incredibly open-ended prompt that demands for the subtlest and most convincing sales pitch I can come up with. I'm supposed to prove that I'm smart, creative, nice, generous and every other positive description I can think of in a painfully brief 500 words. I only have 450 left.

So I'm going to list all the positive descriptions I can think of and then I'm going to convince you that I'm all of those. Actually, I'm going to convince you that I'm all of those and more. (410 left).

When I'm done, you're going to know that I'm smart, funny and clever and that I'm nice, generous, caring, respectful, modest, courageous, cautious, dependable, independent, confident and competent. I'm going to have you so convinced that I doubt you continue to read the rest of my files. In fact, I doubt you'll even blink when you see (if you even get that far) that I only got a 670 on my bio SAT II. (Down to just 334).

After reading this essay you're going to be absolutely positive that I'm the kind of guy that helps people out because he appreciates being helped. You're going to be sure that I'm the type of person that really wants this world to be a better place. You're going to know without any doubt that I'm the sort of young person that brings a vitality and enthusiasm to everything he does. You're going to know that I'm extremely tolerant of all types of people and of all types of ideas. (I'm running out, only 233 words left, will I do it?).

Now for the heavy convincing, an anecdote (my college counselor said anecdotes are good): I once met a very wise young woman who, while young, was a couple of years older than I. I was curious as to what she though about college, and working and pretty much life in general. I asked her what she had studied and where she had worked and I found her answers both impressive and interesting. She then told me this: "If you know where you're going to be in 20 years, why live the 20 years?" I thought on this for a while and I find the concept and it's appeal to me nerve racking and invigorating. I thought about 20 years from now, and the closest thing I could come to a prediction was that I might be married; I might have kids. I was satisfied with this (Just 92 left! Gulp.).

So here's the point: the meaning of life, the answers to all of these questions and the proof that I'm all of those wonderful things, they're hard to find and even harder to articulate. To find the meaning of life or to answer all of life's questions isn't important. It's important to do what makes and keeps you happy. Maybe that's the answer to all of those impossible questions. And as for finding all of that proof, I might need a lifetime. (6 words left. What should I...)

Sorry, I don't love it, but if I try and edit it then I need to re-count all of the words. There's no way I'm doing that. Also, I don't think I'd actually have sent that to a college... would I have gotten in though?... Not entirely sure. I'd be curious though.