Inception Required

Yay…time for college applications. Which means time to apply to UCs. Which means time to write personal statements.

Personal Statement Prompt One:

Describe the world you come from — for example, your family, community or school — and tell us how your world has shaped your dreams and aspirations.

Your typical fuzzy, vague, too-much-freedom prompt. If you followed the logic of the sentence, you would start analyzing your world and start digging up sad stories about how your bird sponteanously died in a pool of blood after you left it outside for air, how you had to suffer the hardships of being middle class, or how your mom keeps force-feeding you papaya. All of that you have to focus into a coherent goal, and good luck with that.

So really what the prompt is asking for Inception. You have to start with the seed first, and from there make up your world. That’s what you should do of course. Except write it backwards, because you always have to follow the prompt.

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