Write about one specific experience that changed how you acted, thought, or felt. Use your experience as a springboard for reflection. Your purpose is not merely to tell an interesting story but to show your readers — your instructor and your classmates — the importance of that experience for you.
We suggest you pick an event that is not too personal, too subjective, or too big to convey effectively to others. Something that happened to you or that you observed, an encounter with a person who greatly influenced you, a decision that you made, or a challenge or an obstacle that you faced will be easier to recall (and to make vivid for your readers) than an interior experience like a religious conversion or falling in love.
These students recalled experiences heavy and light:
One writer recalled guitar lessons with a teacher who at first seemed harsh but who turned out to be a true friend.
Another student recalled a childhood trip when everything went wrong and she discovered the complexities of change.
Another recalled competing with a classmate who taught him a deeper understanding of success.
The major challenge writers confront when writing from recall is to focus their essays on a main idea. When writing about a familiar — and often powerful — experience, it is tempting to include every detail that comes to mind and equally easy to overlook familiar details that would make the story’s relevance clearer to the reader.
When you are certain of your purpose in writing about a particular event — what you want to show readers about your experience — you can transform a laundry list of details into a narrative that connects events clearly around a main idea. You can select details that work together to convey the significance of your experience. To help you decide what to show your readers, respond to each of these questions in a few sentences:
Once you have decided on your main point about the experience, you should select the details that best illustrate that point and show readers why the experience was important to you.