Common App Essay #1 Prompt: Describe a place or environment where you are perfectly content. What do you do or experience there, and why is it meaningful to you? "Apurale mi hija" says my grandmother "ya terminaste de hacer los tamales?" It's an ongoing tradition in my family for the grandchildren to help my grandmother make tamales the night before Christmas Eve. It's the only time of the year my family and I get to visit her in Mexico, so we...

“Bam! Another door panel fell to the ground, nearly hitting me in the head. My partner next to me apologized saying his hand slipped and he wasn’t quick enough to catch it. It’s been three hours since we started moving and organizing the door panels, my arms were tired from all the lifting. My next job was to clean the refrigerators that were dropped off a few days before, most of them were fairly new but a few...