Sample essay from https://www.collegeessayguy.com/blog/college-essay-examples: I am on Oxford Academy’s Speech and Debate Team, in both the Parliamentary Debate division and the Lincoln-Douglass debate division. I type screenplays, short stories, and opinionated blogs and am a regular contributor to my school literary magazine, The Gluestick. I have accumulated over 300 community service hours that adds work at homeless shelters, libraries, and special education youth camps. I have been evaluated by the College Board and have placed within the top percentile. But I am not any of these things. I am not a test score, nor a debater, nor a writer. I am an anti-nihilist punk rock philosopher. And I became so when I realized three things: 1 ) That the world is ruled by underwear. There is a variety of underwear for a variety of people. You have your ironed briefs for your businessmen, your soft cottons for the average, and hemp-based underwear for your environmental romantics. But underwear do not only notify us about who we are, they again influence our daily interactions in ways most of us don't even understand. For example, I have a specific pair of underwear that is holey, worn out but surprisingly comfortable. And despite how trivial underwear might be, when I am wearing my favorite pair, I feel as if I am on top of the world. In any case, these articles of clothing affect our being and are the unsung heroes of comfort. 2 ) When I realized I can not understand the world. I recently debated at the Orange County Speech League Tournament, within the Parliamentary Division. This specific branch of debate is an hour expanded, and consists of two parties debating either side of a present political issue. In one unique debate, I was assigned the topic: “Should Nation States eliminate nuclear arms ?” It so developed that I was on the negative side and it was my job to convince the judges that countries should continue manufacturing nuclear weapons. During the debate, something outlandish arose: I realized that we are an extraordinary breed of species, that so much effort and resources are invested to ensure mutual destruction. And I assumed that this debate in a negligible college classroom had elucidated something indeed further profound about the scale of human existence. In any case, I won 1st place at the tournament, but as the crowd cheered when my name was called to stand before an audience of hundreds of diverse debaters, and I flashed a victorious smile at the cameras, I couldn’t help but fabricate that somewhere at that moment a nuclear bomb was being manufactured, adding to an ever-growing stockpile of doom. And that's when I realized that the world was something I will never understand. 3 ) When I realized I was a punk rocker philosopher. One summer night, my friend took me to an underground hardcore punk rock show. It was inside a meager abandoned church. After the show, I met and became a part of this paltry community. Many were lost and on a constant soul-search, and to my surprise, numerous, like myself, did not have a blue Mohawk or a nose piercing. Many were just ordinary people conferring Nietzsche, string theory, and governmental ideologies. Many were conjointly artists conceiving promotional posters and inventive slogans for stickers. They were all people my age who could not afford to be part of a record label and did something extraordinary by playing in these abandoned churches, making their own CDs and making thousands of promotional buttons by hand. I realized then that punk rock is not about music nor is it a guy with a blue Mohawk screaming protests. Punk rock is an attitude, a mindset, and very much a culture. It is an antagonist to the conventional. It indicates making the finest with what you have to contribute to a community. This was when I realized that I was a punk rock philosopher. The world I arrive from consists of underwear, nuclear bombs, and punk rockers. And I care for this world. My world is inherently complex, mysterious, and anti-nihilist. I am David Phan, somebody who spends his weekends debating in a three piece suit, additional days immersed within the punk rock culture, and some days composing opinionated blogs about underwear. But why college? I want a higher education. I want more than just the textbook fed classrooms in high school. A community which prizes revolutionary ideals, a sharing of multi-dynamical perspectives, an environment that ultimately acts as a medium for movement, comparable to the punk rock community. I do not see college as a mere stepping stone for a stable career or a prosperous life, but as a supplement for knowledge and self-empowerment; it is a social engine that will jettison us to our next drastic changes.