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Hey everyone!
I wrote this essay for Northwestern, and thought that maybe it would be acceptable for Harvard(maybe Yale too)? Any ideas?

Habitually, I would say, imagination and I never really got along too well. Exactly why that is the case had never been very clear to me, but I do know that for as long as I can remember, I always had a certain apathy towards activities and assignments that required any use of creativity. Whenever I tried to be creative, anything I did came out to be trite and dull. This doesn’t mean I am devoid of creativity in every sense: academically, I would say my creative skills are phenomenal. When it comes to developing a clever solution to a math problem or an efficient procedure for a computer program, I would say that my own skills are fantastic in developing original techniques. During my junior year, though, I managed to push that hostility and reluctance aside and, without knowing it, I began to think beyond the limits of my usual academic thought processes.
During the January of that year, my French teacher assigned a creative group film project to the class. Considering my own history with anything involving the word creative in it, I felt that failure, on my part, would be inevitable. As expected, when the group first began to meet for script writing and production planning, I revealed no ability to effectively contribute. Yet, since the group consisted of perhaps some of the most creative people within the school, it seems that some of that creativity started to wear off onto me. As the days and weeks passed by, I realized that I became more effective and willing to participate in our group discussions. I didn’t feel nearly as secluded or afraid that one of my ideas would come out as being lame. Slowly, but surely, my communication and creative skills started improving.
Soon, I even landed a starring role, and the jobs of special effects and editing were also assigned to me. I discovered that although I sure of my own banality, especially in such areas like creative writing and artistry, I was very capable of expressing originality and imagination when it came to putting the movie together on a computer.
Now that I reflect back on those days, understanding why I always found creative work and using imagination difficult is now easy. By being in such a free environment as that of my group, one without the bounds imposed by points and grades, I began to start thinking more freely, more creatively. Though my ability to do the most typical creative activities still didn’t quite develop, by placing myself on the computer, somewhere I really enjoy being, and by working with a really great group of people, I ended up putting together some really original and great sequences through the clever use of editing and special effects.
As Emily Dickinson once wrote, "The Possible's slow fuse is lit/By the Imagination.'' Connecting this with the quote is really not a difficult matter at all. At first, I felt that my value to the group would be negligible; but as the imagination involved in creating a movie began to register within my mind, I started to think more out of the box than I had before. Now, I understand that the biggest constraint was me, myself, and if I had not tried as much, I could do anything I want with originality. My attempts to control the creative thinking process only caused me to remain within the ordinary and expected. Slowly, with time, I understood how to overcome this problem, and I believe that my imagination flourished and contributed an important part to this project. The movie was a great hit.

I really have no clue if this is even acceptable, perhaps I ought to just scrap it. Well, any input would be appreciated. Thx.

By Duperme (Duperme) on Monday, December 01, 2003 - 01:04 am: Edit

ok, dude, here is what you have to do:


Make it less boring!!!!!!!!

what you have to do is completely scratch that essay, do a new one, but keep the same topic.

Describe a specific example of how you suddenly used your creativity, DESCRIBE it, not tell them you did it. Lead the reader through, and show him your thoughts, and along the way, get your point across!!

By Frostmourne (Frostmourne) on Monday, December 01, 2003 - 01:54 am: Edit

i agree, that it's boring. u use the word "creativity" or "creative" a little bit too much.

u dont have to scratch the whole essay, just spice it up a little more.