Learning to deal with the inconveniences of social stigmas was the least of my worries in the late winter of ninth grade. I was sleeping 17 hours a day, not eating, constantly walking through a cloud of self-despair. Sometimes, the feat of getting out of bed in the morning was the highlight of my waking hours. Walking exerted so much energy it would bring me to tears. It was like I was constantly dragging around a metaphysical representation of my anguish,...

About five years ago I moved from a suburban neighborhood to a farmhouse. This farmhouse included a barn, and the only appropriate thing to do with a barn is fill it with animals; so we chose chickens. I started with five, but since then my flock has grown tremendously in size. Each of my feathered children have names, and no one is able to tell them all apart but me. It is hard to explain to people how much raising...

I volunteer at a local nonprofit organization that provides equine assisted therapy toindividuals with physical and mental disabilities. I knew that I would be helping people,but I didn't truly understand to what extent I would be assisting them psychologically.Living with disabilities or a disabled individual is clearly a hard life to lead, and the general public continues to sweep the millions in this position under the rug. My eyes have since been opened to the true challenges of...

Dear Future Roommate: Hello there! I can't wait for the year ahead of us! I am assuming you will also be a freshman, but regardless I will appreciate having someone to navigate these unknown waters with me, or at least point me in the right direction. Any who, I'm sure we will get along just fine. I promise I'll find somewhere besides our room to practice my saxophone, as long as you allow me a good night's sleep in return,...

1. "What Matters to you and Why?" 2. Intellectual Vitality 3. Future Roommate These are the actual essay topics, there wasn't a good enough choice for the second two essays.

During my college application process I only interviewed for Princeton. We met in a coffee shop in downtown Ann Arbor, and the young man I met had just come from a game of ultimate Frisbee. My meeting was extremely relaxed and we got very deep. I felt things went well, and I got a good reception from my interviewer. Shortly after this interview occurred I realized I was unable to do an interview for Stanford, as...