Hi there! Keep in mind that med schools desire applicants that can effectively manage stress, overcome challenges, and navigate their way through life's curveballs. So, successful applicants must prove they can endure the rigors of both medical school and a career as a physician. The secondary application adversity essay is a way for the admissions committee to evaluate your resilience as an applicant, so you shouldn’t be afraid that they might think you’re oversharing. Instead, you should write a very strong essay that gives them what they are looking for. When drafting an adversity essay, you want to begin by reflecting on your past experiences, which is something you have already done. You have successfully identified a topic that will help you showcase that resilience I’m talking about. You faced an obstacle in your life and took the necessary steps to overcome that challenge. When you write your essay, remember to answer these questions: What happened? What were the steps you took to overcome the challenge? What did you learn from the experience? Often, you won't have a lot of available words or characters to answer the question, so you need to make sure your answer is direct and to the point. Overall, highlighting the main takeaways and the skills you developed because of this experience is essential. You seem to have identified the qualities that you enhanced because of this experience, so make sure you show rather than just tell. Also, avoid framing yourself as the victim and, rather, show how your conflict resolution and problem-solving skills, and that grit you mention helped you overcome this difficult situation and mention how you can apply all this learning moving forward. Hope this helps! Best of luck.
