I wrote about my experience on the debate team at my high school and the community that I had found in it. I opened the statement with a description of how I felt right before and during the championship round that I was in at one of the regional competitions. I went on to describe how being a founding member of the debate team and the people that I met there was a formative experience that shaped my high school...

UChicago asked us to invent a past for a present (as in a gift we had received).

I wrote about a wooden truck that my grandfather made for me and gave to me at Christmas when I was four or five. I traced the truck all the way back to when my grandfather was a boy and received his first toy truck. He was very handy and creative. He made jewelry as a hobby in addition to being a dentist. I traced the origins of the truck through his life. I had him adding features to the...