College Admission Essays: Favorite Activity Short-Answer Essay Example

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Below is an example of a favorite activity short-answer college application essay.

The most important activity in my high school years has been my job at Records For You, a small music company in my home town. Because life in my sheltered suburban community consisted of a string of material handouts, my father thought that I should learn “the value of hard work.” I objected, for I had completed a challenging first year in high school and had spent over half of my summer studying chemistry so that I could fit AP Art History into my sophomore schedule. I insisted that as a student, I knew what it meant to work hard, and I was being deprived of a summer vacation, but he still forced me to take the job.

For the first three weeks, I delivered boxes of records and posters across the hot city. I was not paid and had to cover my transportation and meals, since they were supposedly doing me a favor by providing me with this work opportunity. My boss took no interest in me; the time we spent communicating was when he gave me orders or told me how to do things better. While I yearned to quit after the first week, I knew that my parents would have been ashamed and angry, so I labored on.

After the first three weeks, I was assigned to build a large computer database. I spent eight hours a day in front of a computer, mindlessly inputting data. I pleaded with my boss to let me carry on with deliveries, and he agreed, on the condition that I finished the database first, a task so large that after two weeks it was still incomplete.

During my five weeks working at Records For You, I had hardly any pleasure. After I left the job, I complained to my father about his making me take it, but he just smiled, for he knew he had succeeded.

In retrospect, it was a positive experience. I had adopted a better work ethic. I had worked hard in school because I was genuinely interested, but the job taught me to work for the sake of working. I learned the valuable lesson that the world did not revolve around me, and that in this time in my life I had to take orders and not question them. The discipline that my boss instilled in me has stuck. I have learned to do a good job at everything that is assigned. My father was right, those painful five weeks taught me something new, which has had a positive effect on my life.