A couple of my kids are struggling with their college essay prompt. My understanding is that they have a lot of freedom to express who they are in those 600 words. They asked me what they should write it on, and I suggested something a little bit morbid. I suggested that they write their own obituary or eulogy. That does two things, number one gives them the opportunity to say Coach Kelley passed away at the ripe age of 104 surrounded by her family and friends. She was a graduate of Catholic University, earned her doctorate physical therapy from MGH IHP (insert their college here)
The other thing it does is it gives them a picture to manifest. It lets them set the terms for their life. It lets them decide what success will look like. Mine sounds like this “She coached hundreds of young women in soccer and basketball, winning several state championships along the way and attending dozens of weddings of her former players. She owned a successful outpatient orthopedic clinic or she helped hundreds of thousands of people recover from injuries and avoid them in the first place. She revolutionized the idea of movement and exercise by encouraging people to move a little bit every day, similar to how they brush their teeth. She was a loving mother, grandmother, and great grandmother. She took great pride in donating both time and money to the Humane Society, The Seeing Eye and gun violence prevention. She officiated at the Division I College women’s level, including a national championship game. She loved her family, her players, her patients, and her dogs. Her memory will live on through her podcast, Every Coach Needs A Coach, and in a scholarship that helps PT students who have been placed in clinical settings that move them across the country at the IHP.
