Free College Admissions Essays: The Notebook

With its uncurling spiral and soft, tattered pages, to most, it was just a worn-out seventy-five cent notebook from Wal-Mart.

To me, it was the eighth wonder of the world.

In sixth grade, my best friends and I, tired of books and movies misrepresenting our brilliant twelve-year-old minds, decided to start a shared journal to record our thoughts.

Expanding day by day with indentations made by our gaudy glitter gel pens and strawberry-scented smencils, The Notebook boasted pages upon pages of zany middle-school-musings. The writings ranged from theories concerning the disgusting cafeteria food, “If we threw these rock-hard pizzas at the cement walls, could they make a dent?”, to discussions about books we read, “Why doesn’t Harry just use a time-turner to stop Voldemort?”.

My friends and I spent recesses writing about our idiosyncratic observations about the world we lived in and I loved every single page. I was fascinated by the fact that I would never experience the world through their lenses, or even through the lens of any other human being on this planet. With even a slight variation in experience, people’s opinions and viewpoints diverge into something completely distinctive.

I thought that this was awesome.

I spent mornings discussing customs and traditions with my classmates, afternoons curled up on the couch reading books about life across the globe, and evenings inquiring my parents about their lives growing up in villages in Pakistan. Everything was so new and exciting; I absorbed all of this newfound knowledge like a sponge, always thirsty for