<<<If you want to call me sniveling and unworthy of an education because of this fact, I'd have to question your logic. The problem isn't that I had to write it, the problem was that I couldn't write anything for months out of the terrible gnawing at my stomach that these things that I told them were "important to me" weren't and that I was being a phony bastard. >>> Yes yes yes. This is how I felt, although my case is probably one less severe than ecas's. Its hard for me to accept the fact that what college profs want to read is not at all what I want to write, but I guess I'll have to. I'm not going to write something incredibly personal as a college entrance essay, even though every fibre in me tells me to. <sigh> I'm trying to somewhere find a happy medium in this, but its hard when my parents and everyone else frowns on the parts of my essays that I love. I do need to accept the fact that sometimes I need to write to a prompt, in a certain way, even though I dread doing so. I think thats what Will was getting at. Eric BTW, that "nice" essay I wrote in an hour was not some of my proudest writing, but its done. Its done.