The adversity question for the program I am applying ED for emphasizes that the experience be non-academic. I’m stuck between these ideas, and wanted to know which (if any) would be better to pursue. Thanks in advance!
1. After having emergency surgery and taking time off from the semester during midterms week while battling a toxic relationship that cut me off from my support system during my sophomore year, I turned to writing and creating a chapbook to work through the isolation I felt. Ultimately inspired me to salvage my support system and cut off the toxic partner...
2. Dealing with administrative standoffs during the process of putting together a service event for the organization I am president of. They wanted to downsize our organization to make it easier for them to manage, we were running on a skeleton staff of essentially me and my VP, and I had to confront lots of staff members to pull the event off and prevent exploitation of my employees’ work.
3. Racist incident my junior year with an alum who I met with to get feedback on a scholarship she had won in the past and that I was currently applying on. She literally said she was shocked that I was not of a refugee background (my home country has not had a refugee crisis since the 50s) and that one of my grandparents had a professional degree (he is a vet for farm animals), and it was a shame I didn’t come from a more disadvantaged background so I could “use” it in my app. I was horrified and upset by her words and my advisor’s referral to someone who was so callous. Ended up speaking to the advisor about my experience despite her personal connection with the alum and moving forward in the scholarship competition without her “advice,” despite insinuation that I wasn’t “oppressed enough” to make it.
