When you think of suffering, you might think of war, genocide, or famine. Suffering that is forced upon someone, with no escape, no control over the situation, is absolutely deplorable, absolutely incomprehensible, and also absolutely not the focus of this article.

The suffering I’m concerned with is elective. The kind you sign up for. College admissions committees love this kind: “What obstacles have you overcome?” “What challenges have shaped you?” If you wrote about real agony, they would gasp and clutch their pearls. We must not overshare, lest the rawness make the reader uncomfortable. Save it for your therapist. But elective agony, they eat that shit up. Write about how an ACL tear in your varsity soccer game led you to an interest in sports medicine: instant Ivy League material. Wr

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