Everyone’s a Superhero: How to Get Started on Your College Essay

Tap into your backstory to jump start your college essay writing process

No one is born a hero(ine). In the case of comic book superheroes, there’s a singular moment, or series of events, that puts them on the path to pursuing the life of a zealous do-gooder. That’s called an origin story. Whether superheroes gain their powers through irradiated spider bites, mutated genes, cosmic rays, or mysterious wizards, origin stories are about transformation, identity, and motivation (Hatfield).

Everyone has an origin story

It isn’t just comic book protagonists who face experiences that lead down the heroic path. Everyone has an origin story. You have had experiences and people in your life that have shaped who you are and helped you get you where you are now.

If you're struggling with where to start your college essay, consider tapping into your own origin story. After all, the college essay provides you a chance to tell admissions officers who you are, what's important to you, and why. Your origin story offers you a way to communicate, in a clear and concise way, insights into your personality and character.

At this point you might be thinking to yourself: “that’s a nice idea, but I don’t happen to have superpowers so I can’t have an origin story.” Remember, though, that even sans superpowers, the origin story is about change. Batman — a character strongly associated with the concept of the origin story — doesn’t have any powers to speak of. After witnessing the murder of his parents at gunpoint, Bruce Wayne vows to wage a war on crime and dons the cape and cowl, striking fear in the hearts of evildoers as the terrifying vigilante known as Batman (Holmes). The lack of fantastical elements, if anything, makes the origin story more relatable.

A high school teacher once divided the classroom into pairs. "Tell your partner something momentous in your life," she instructed her seniors.

One student spoke up. "I don't have anything like that in my life. I'm just an ordinary person."

"Are you the same person now that you were in third grade?"

"No, of course not."

"Then something happened to make you grow, that shaped who you are: something wondrous, even miraculous. You aren't who you were. How did you get from there to here? That's your momentous occasion. Tell us how it happened, and tell it dramatically" (adapted from Gallo ch. 4).

Reach into your past. Write about how you've changed since you were a child, the start of high school, or last year. Stories of personal transformation contain a strong emotional appeal.

The intensity and scope of the transformation can vary, of course. The transformation might be subtle, over a long period of time. For example, you might reflect on how doodling on rainy days as a child as a pastime became, over years of practice and training, a real devotion to drawing and painting. It’s hard to pinpoint in this case when the transformation happened. Or the scope can be more dramatic and nearly instantaneous. For instance, you could reflect on the day an elderly woman under your care at the local retirement home couldn’t breathe; you felt helpless and froze. Fortunately, the quick thinking of the on-call nurse likely saved the woman’s life. That’s when you realized you wanted to learn — not medicine exactly — but how to act with poise and confidence in emergency situations. The long years of study and practice vs the instant transformation (Dr. Strange vs Captain America). Regardless of how they happen, transformations help readers see themselves in the story.

How to write your origin story

But just how do you write an origin story? Consider Iron Man, one of the most charming and beloved comic book cinematic superheroes. What's his origin story?

When we meet Tony Stark, he's an arrogant war profiteer and philanderer. He's not particularly relatable or likable. When he's nearly killed by shrapnel, captured by terrorists, and forced to make weapons for them, though, he recognizes the kind of world his decisions helped create. With Dr. Ho Yinsen's help, he makes the Iron Man armor to escape, promising Yinsen that he'll try to make something of his life.

Tony returns to New York and holds a press conference to announce that Stark Industries is no longer a weapons manufacturer. His traumatic capture transformed him; "never was there a more perfect phoenix metaphor personified," as Stark himself puts it in Iron Man 2. He can no longer just design weapons of death as if they had no consequence, continue to have a blasé attitude, and lead a hedonistic lifestyle. He needs to redeem Yinsen’s sacrifice. He creates the Mark II armor and then uses it to destroy his own weapons that have fallen into the hands of the same terrorist group that imprisoned him. Iron Man, the avenger, was born when Tony Stark learned a bit of selflessness and decided to use his genius to protect, rather than harm, those around him. That’s when Tony Stark became Iron Man.

Like Iron Man, you have had a momentous experience or event, something that put you on the path to where you are today. You can use Iron Man’s origin as a template for your own story. Notice that it has a classic, three-part narrative structure: a 1) catalyzing event; 2) transformation; 3) lesson learned. Let’s state those three parts explicitly: 1) Tony Stark’s captured by terrorists, shrapnel threatening to puncture his heart; 2) He creates the Iron Man armor, powered by the miniaturized Arc reactor, to stop the shrapnel from advancing and escape; 3) Iron Man recognizes he must turn away from designing weapons and his self-centered, pleasure-seeking lifestyle to pursuing peace and living sacrificially, defending the vulnerable and powerless.

What’s the momentous event that catalyzed your transformation? What were the lessons that you took away from that experience?

Doubts and Responses

Even superheroes face doubts about their identity. Spider-Man’s hyperaware of his past failures, especially regarding Uncle Ben, and has had to repeatedly overcome guilt and self-doubt. The emotionally troubled Raven, the half-human half-demon Teen Titan, has faced her share of doubts about her heroine status. At this point, you may also have some doubts about your own identity and origin story. Entirely understandable. Here are some responses to common concerns.

• “I don’t have a life. Everything has been chosen for me."

Response: While the contours or outline of your life may not have been entirely up to you — the start and end of the school day; time set for outside mandatory sports/activities; chores and family obligations, etc. — how you’ve colored within the lines — the electives you’ve opted for, the activities you choose, and your level of engagement — reveal a great deal about who you are as a person. There’s also what you choose to do during your unstructured time, the friends you keep, the conversations you have online and in person. Your attitude and approach to the day, as an enthusiastic participant or passive recipient, are all choices you make. On the whole, you choose much more than is chosen for you because you are in charge of your internal thought life. That is your domain, and it is an expansive one.

• "Nobody cares about my opinions."

Response: "They’ll care if you tell them something interesting" and if you say what comes naturally, stay true to yourself — then you’ll be interesting (Zinner 21). The world wants and needs to hear what you have to say.

• "I don't want to come off as egotistical or too self-important."

Response: Believing in yourself and giving reasons for your opinions isn't the same as being arrogant or boastful. Writing the college personal essay is, like all writing, "an act of ego" and it's alright to just admit it (Zinner 24).

• "I can't remember much of what happened earlier in life. It feels like it happened so long ago."

Response: If you have trouble remembering the distant past, focus on more recent events. Ask yourself: What has caught my attention lately? Maybe it was a line from a novel/song or a particularly poignant scene from a movie/ TV show. Maybe it's something inspirational a teacher said or a classmate's offhand comment that stuck with you. What made it memorable? Why did it strike you as odd? In what ways did it defy expectations or represent a different way of seeing the world? Explore that comment, thought, or experience and see where it takes you. Perhaps it will reveal something about your values or central beliefs, something that matters to you--your truth, which often has a relationship to Truth. It may go nowhere, but it may lead down a rabbit hole into an entirely unexpected and wonderful place.

What's your origin story?

What’s your origin story, the narrative of transformation that explains, to a degree, who you are? The college personal essay asks you to share something about your values and worldview. Your past is a gift. Use it to find the story you have to share, which is exactly the story the world needs to hear. What you’re trying for as you construct your origin is to expose the truth, face your fears, communicate hope, or perhaps do something entirely unexpected. And that would make a great origin story.

References

Gallo, Carmine. The Storyteller’s Secret: From TED Speakers to Business Legends, Why Some Ideas Catch On and Others Don’t. New York, NY: St. Martin’s Press, 2016.

Hatfield, Charles, Jeet Heer, and Kent Worcester, eds. “[Section One Introduction]” in The Superhero Reader, 3–6. Jackson, MS: University Press of Mississippi, 2013. http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt24hvr5.5.

Holmes, Adam. “10 Classic Superheroes, Ranked By Their Origin Stories.” April 30, 2015.
https://www.cinemablend.com/new/10-Classic-Superheroes-Ranked-By-Their-Origin-Stories-71173.html

Zinsser, William. On Writing Well. 30th ed. New York, NY: HarperCollins, 2006.