Journaling Club Essay #8 Notes & Prompt

Prompt: What topic could you learn about for hours without getting bored?

This topic helps find out what kinds of things you might want to learn more about in college. Many courses are very long and have assignments that take weeks to complete, so it’s best if you can dive into things you care about. You can also consider this for extracurriculars- many colleges have niche groups that study or volunteer regarding topics ranging from kidney disease to vegan cooking! Heading into the next step of your life with more direction about what you genuinely are curious about is always a plus!

I add the critically measured sugary tea mixture to the gallon jar containing the slimy, white, disc-shaped layers of the symbiotic culture of bacteria and yeast.

Now to wait.

After exactly seven days, I pour the liquid into a fermentation-grade glass bottle with a ratio of 20% pomegranate juice and 80% fermented tea. I place it on my kitchen counter, periodically checking it to relieve the built-up CO2.

Finally, after an additional seventy-two hours, the time comes to try it. I crack the seal on the bottle, leaning over to smell what I assume will be a tangy, fruity, delicious pomegranate solution. and it smells like rotten eggs. The insufferable stench fills my nostrils and crushes my confidence. I’m momentarily taken aback, unable to understand how I went wrong when I followed the recipe perfectly.

My issue wasn’t misreading the recipe or failing to follow a rule, it was bypassing my creative instincts and forgetting the unpredictable nature of fermentation. I needed to trust the creative side of kombucha- the side that takes people’s perfectionist energy and explodes it into a puddle of rotten egg smelling ‘booch (my preferred name for the drink- not “fermented, effervescent liquid from a symbiotic culture of acetic acid bacteria and yeast”). I was too caught up in the side that requires extreme preciseness to notice when the balance between perfectionism and imperfectionism was being thrown off. The key, I have learned, is knowing when to prioritize following the recipe and when to let myself be creative. Sure, there are scientific variables such as proximity to heat sources and how many grams of sugar to add. But, there’s also person-dependent variables like how long I decide to ferment it, what fruits I decide will be a fun combination, and which friend I got my first SCOBY from (taking “symbiotic” to a new level).

I often find myself feeling pressured to choose one side or the other, one extreme over the alternative. I’ve been told that I can either be a meticulous scientist or a messy artist, but to be both is an unacceptable contradiction. However, I choose a grey area; a place where I can channel my creativity into the sciences, as well as channel my precision into my photography.

I still have the first photo I ever took on the first camera I ever had. Or rather, the first camera I ever made. Making that pinhole camera was truly a painstaking process: take a cardboard box, tap it shut, and poke a hole in it. Okay, maybe it wasn’t that hard. But learning the exact process of taking and developing a photo in its simplest form, the science of it, is what drove me to pursue photography. I remember being so unhappy with the photo I took; it was faded, underexposed, and imperfect. For years, I felt incredibly pressured to try and perfect my photography. It wasn’t until I was defeated, staring at a puddle of kombucha, that I realized that there doesn’t always have to be a standard of perfection in my art, and that excited me.

So, am I a perfectionist? Or do I crave pure spontaneity and creativity? Can I be both?

Perfectionism leaves little to be missed. With a keen eye, I can quickly identify my mistakes and transform them into something with purpose and definitude. On the other hand, imperfection is the basis for change and for growth. My resistance against perfectionism is what has allowed me to learn to move forward by seeing the big picture; it has opened me to new experiences, like bacteria cross-culturing to create something new, something different, something better. I am not afraid of change or adversity, though perhaps I am afraid of conformity. To fit the mold of perfection would compromise my creativity, and I am not willing to make that sacrifice.

Tip: This author gave many engaging details about their experience making kombucha and also integrated an overall lesson the process taught them. When writing your “Why This Major” college essay, pairing engaging experience details with lessons learned is a great way to stand out. However, this essay was not explicitly about choosing a major, so you will have a bit less room for detail. Building up through the experience and lesson is a good way to structure the first two-thirds of the essay, while explaining your intended major and future goals should make up the final third.

Another reason this essay works well is that every detail reinforces the same central theme instead of introducing unrelated stories. The kombucha experiment, photography, and reflections on perfectionism all build toward one larger idea about the author’s way of thinking. Notice the progression throughout the essay: engaging experience → personal reflection → broader insight → academic direction. For a “Why This Major” essay, the goal is to help readers understand how a specific experience changed the way you think and why that thinking now points toward the subject you want to study.

In your own essay, choose one meaningful experience that reveals how you think, not just what you like. Then connect that experience to the academic questions, skills, or problems you want to explore in college.

No more guessing who to ask. Ivystar helps families build a trusted mentor team from the Ivy League and other leading universities, with anonymous-first, camera-optional sessions. Join our top 1% community at at ivystar.io.