A valid idea? [CommonApp Essay]

Im planning on writing my Common App essay on "Evaluate a significant experience, achievement, risk you have taken, or ethical dilemma you have faced and its impact on you."

Im thinking Ill write it on my trip to Eastern Europe and my experience at Auschwitz (concentration camp).

I want to write it as if my view is changing and changing the deeper I experience the camp and the further I walk into it. So when I'm scared to enter the camp (as a Jew was scared to enter it during WWII) up until Im holding my last breath in the gas chamber.

Ill also write, for each room, an experience that relates to how Ive thought differently since the visit.

Im rushing to write this so Im leaving out detail on how I plan to write this but I hope I can get some info out of you all by the time I get home and begin this essay.

Thanks,
Joe

Joe,

Are you Jewish? I know this is a random question, but it might be interesting to write how it feels to be Jewish and to walk the same steps that your ancestors took... etc. Does that make sense?

Other then that, great. It sounds like it was an interesting experience. I hope to read the final product.

This is an excellent idea! Write it!


Just FYI, not only Jews but also Roma ("gypsies"), homosexuals, people with disabilities, and leftists were incarcerated and killed at the camps. While the number of Roma was lower than the number of Jews, they lost a much larger proportion of their population, which was smaller to begin with.

Yeah, I'm a Jew :)

I dont know if Ill tie it in yet or not... Prolly get writing soon

Remember to focus on how this experience changed you. Don't write about how sad you are for the ppl who suffered there or something that effected you emotionally. Don't write about how sad it made you. Be careful because if you decide to tell a story of your first person experience, make it captivating.

good luck