"Nature deals with our genetic properties" - Stanford: Intellectually Engaging

Hi whoever is reading this!

I am having writers' block when it comes to choosing an intellectually engaging topic to write about for Stanford. Below is what I came up with, but i know it needs work (for one it is lacking a concluding sentence). Please read and leave any comments and suggestions (does it bore you? What can i do to spice it up?)--they are very much appreciated :) Thanks

Stanford students are widely known to possess a sense of intellectual vitality. Tell us about an idea or an experience you have had that you find intellectually engaging.

It was a cold, rainy day when I was reading the novel my AP Lit teacher assigned to the class. I was sitting in my hotel room with the heater set up to seventy-five degrees. Winter in Portland was brutal-the rain hammering against the window confirmed it. I was reading the conversation between Sam and Lige where they were discussing "Whut is it dat keeps uh man from getting' burnt on uh red-hot stove-caution or nature?" (Their Eyes Were Watching God, 64). Basically, they were asking "Are people who they are because of what nature makes them to be or are they who they are because what they are brought up to be?" and it got me thinking about the effects that Nature and Nurture have on each other. Nature deals with our genetic properties. Our genes help make up our personality, physical, and behavioral traits. However, the environment in which we grow up in is essentially what shapes us--nurture. For me, living in Southern California in a city called Rancho Cucamonga, I was able to go to great schools. The most pronounced evidence of my upbringing in that area is my speech. Some may say that I speak "properly" compared to the way many other African Americans speak. Growing up in the suburbs helped shape my personality and my speech. Compared to living in a bad part of Los Angeles, I am different from what is expected from me.

hey thanks for looking over my essay
i think what you should go deeper with your example at the end as it is a little cursory
you should make it branch off the reading session more naturally rather than introduce it as a new topic
this would help reinforce the fact that those thoughts are part of the experience that was intellectually engaging
i dont know the book you were reading but maybe there is a direct connection between your experiences with those in the book that is worth talking about