30 College Essays in 30 Days
Day 1: NYTimes Crossword in Ink
When I re-discovered the eraser, everything changed. You see, I’ve always hated the NYTimes crossword puzzle. This might seem surprising given that I’m quite the word maven and love linguistic puzzles. The Assistant Head of my old school used to have a standing date with his wife every Sunday morning when they’d do the crossword …
Day 2: 20,000 Steps or the Joy of Measuring
I really like measuring things. Estimating is cool and all, but knowing something exactly brings me inordinate pleasure. That is one reason I was immediately hooked when I jumped on the Fitbit bandwagon back in February 2019. The first day I wore my Fitbit, we had a field trip at United Skates of America. During …
Day 3: Tectonic Plates
Although I am no marine biologist, from what I understand, the area where two tectonic plates meet is rich with flora and fauna. Of course, this area is also the epicenter of earthquakes. I have often longed for a metaphor that would encapsulate my identity as a WASM (White Anglo Saxon Muslim). I used to …
Day 4: What's Your Name?
There are a lot of seemingly simple questions that I have a hard time answering. One of the most basic is, “What’s your name?” Even before my conversion to Islam, this question was unusually fraught. I was born John Marshall McCormack Henshaw. Despite its primacy in order, John is one of my least-used names, showing …
Day 5: Weight Loss Journey
I really like the NFL. As a New England resident during the Patriot’s dynasty, this came naturally. But I also really like insightful analysis and good writing. For many years, my favorite football writer was Bill Barnwell, first with Grantland then The Ringer and now ESPN. He is the Nate Silver of football writers who …
Day 6: Applying to College
Winter break of 1996 was just about the most stressful time in my high school career. I had applied early to Harvard and gotten deferred. With my own students I now liken the early application deadline of November 1 as the headwall of the admissions season hurricane. It is followed by a mid-cycle lull, the …
Day 7: Mind the Gap
When Harvard z-listed me, accepting me for the class of 2001 instead of 2000, I was ecstatic because it meant I was “forced” to do something I had already been planning to do: take a gap year. Gap years are big in England and across Europe. They are a bit less common here in the …
Day 8: Dad
The other day I got one of the strangest emails I have ever received. “I know this is very heavy,” my oldest brother wrote, “but we need to finish editing dad’s gravestone.” What made this so strange is that my father is still living. Sadly, however, he now spends his days at Vicarage-by-the-Sea, a wonderful …
Day 9: Grades
Academics have always been my drug of choice. When I was in first grade, I received the Scholarship Award at the end of the year. Ever since I’ve been chasing that dopamine hit of the A (or increasingly ubiquitous A+). And I think that’s a damn shame. Grades do have some positives. Just like capitalism, …
Day 10: Finding my Forehand
My healthiest obsession is tennis. Love of racket sports runs deep in my family. My father was a champion player of Rackets, a now defunct game that was a cross between squash and racquetball. It was he who first introduced me to tennis probably around the age of seven. He issued a challenge to his …
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