Common App Essay
PROMPT #5: Discuss an accomplishment, event, or realization that sparked a period of personal growth and a new understanding of yourself or others.
The middle of junior year. The time to start thinking about college and my future. What do I want to do? Will I get bored with it? What am I good at? Will that profession make money? My mind was a complete mess. I was at home, laying on my couch, wondering what in the world I want to pursue. I had so many interests, but it was difficult seeing myself doing that for the rest of my life. Had my heart set on being a doctor for the past two years, but I realized that I didn't have the same motivation that some aspiring doctors had. I asked myself why I wanted to be a doctor and my mind was blank. Where did the idea of being a doctor even come from? It was so stressful that I needed to clear my mind of all college related subjects. The obvious way to do that was to bake. I got up and padded my way to the kitchen. Automatically I started to pull out ingredients from the shelves and drawers. My hands moved like clockwork, sifting the dry ingredients into a bowl, combining the wet. I was in a complete trance as I put the brownie into the 350 degree oven. It was only when the timer rang, signaling the end of a long forty minutes that it struck me. Baking. I love baking. I stress-bake. I bake when I'm happy, sad, angry, or tired. The one thing that I do with the most passion and love is bake. I couldn't think of why that hadn't crossed my mind when I realized that it had. For most of my childhood, I wanted to be a chef. I thought about the first memory I had of when I baked something: I made an orange and chocolate cake with my mom in our tiny kitchen in Toronto. We put it in the oven when she realized that we forgot to add chocolate chunks. I immediately had no problem with taking the batter out, adding the chocolate, and putting it back into the oven. When it came to baking, I never had any problems that I couldn't fix. It came naturally to me. My friends even called me "the baker" because I made them treats all the time. I realized that this was what I was meant to do. I decided then and there; I was going to bake for the rest of my life.