Personal experiences with prejudice?

For the UC personal statement (I'm not sure what prompt this would fit into better), I was thinking about writing about surviving high school as a lesbian. I have many specific instances that I could refer to: one day I wasn't feeling good and my girlfriend of 2 years was only rubbing my back when a car pulled up in front of us and told us to "be careful, because not everybody believes in our lifestyle", being ostracized, etc. and talk about how it's changed me as an overall person in being able to better look at things through various perspectives and how I came to accept myself as well. I'm going to revolve it around also playing piano for 11 years and how I learned to really take music as a creative outlet, and how the black and white keys can be symbolism for the music that can result from both the black and white keys playing together in unity.

However, I'm not sure if I should base my acceptance letter on something so controversial. What if the reader doesn't agree with it on a personal level? I think it would make a very honest essay, but I'm not sure if I should risk being rejected to attending a UC for the next 4 years based on it.

Good afternoon.

I think if you place the emphasis on how these experiences have helped you become a stronger person able to empathize with others rather than on the details of the relationships and events themselves, the essay will be much more appropriate, thus removing the worry about too much controversy. It has more potential if you can associate this strength with your piano talent, thus including other topics in the piece. Try a rough draft, see how it works out; you'll know right away if it's something you want to continue on with or not.

Best of luck!

Regards,
Gloria
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