Writing a college essay about overcoming challenges can be a powerful way to showcase your resilience and ability to handle adversity. Here’s a step-by-step guide to help you how to write a college essay about overcoming challenges.
Remember we did not add any fancy or lengthy details, instead its a very simple and basic easy to follow guide with a short 1 page example at the bottom.
- Pick a challenge that genuinely impacted you. It could be an academic struggle, a family issue, a health problem, or an emotional difficulty.
- Make sure it’s a challenge where you learned something valuable or grew as a person.
- Start with famous Hooks for essays such as interesting facts, quote or situation to grab the reader’s attention.
- Give a quick overview of the challenge you faced, setting the stage for your story.
- Explain the nature of the challenge. What exactly happened? How did it affect your life, emotions, and daily routine?
- Make it clear why this challenge was tough for you. Use specific examples.
- What steps did you take to face this challenge? Did you seek help, change your approach, or learn new skills.
- Emphasize the hard work that you did, your persistence or even setbacks you experienced along the way.
- How did this challenge change you?
- Did you become more resilient, confident, or understanding?
- Explain how this experience will help you in future challenges, like college or your career.
- Briefly restate how the challenge helped shape who you are today.
- Mention how you’ll use the skills and lessons learned to face future obstacles.
how to write a college essay about overcoming challenges – Example Essay
When I was in eighth grade I started to feel like the letters on the page were playing a cruel game against me. The simple act of reading a sentence seemed like climbing a steep hill. I never thought that a learning difficulty could affect my life so drastically. Later, I was diagnosed with dyslexia. It is a disease that impacts concentration capabilities.
Reading had always been difficult but I didn’t experience this much difficuty as in senior grades. In class I struggled to keep up with reading assignments and tests that required fast comprehension. I felt embarrassed and frustrated because my friends seemed to breeze through tasks that took me hours to complete. It wasn’t just about schoolwork but it was about feeling different and inadequate.
When I realized that I needed help I began working with a reading specialist who taught me strategies to improve the reading skills. I dedicated extra time to practicing phonics and reading aloud every day. It wasn’t easy at first as I saw little to no progress and even thought of giving up. But slowly I statrted witnessing small improvement that encouraged me to keep going. I learned to break my reading tasks into smaller chunks and take regular breaks to avoid feeling overwhelmed. At last the hard work paid back, the words on the page began to make more sense and my grades started to improve.
This experience taught me the value of persistence and the importance of asking for help when needed. It also showed me that even the most daunting challenges can be overcome if you approach them step by step. Now, I feel more confident in facing academic difficulties knowing that I have the skills to work through them. I plan to use these strategies in college where I know there will be new and different obstacles to face.
Overcoming dyslexia was not just about improving my reading skills it was about reshaping my mindset. I learned that every setback is an opportunity for growth and this lesson has become a driving force for my life. As I prepare for college I feel ready to embrace new challenges while knowing that I can conquer all challenges step by step.