Academic Changes (e.g. switching majors) | Academic Failures |
Academic Turnaround (e.g. dramatically improving grades) | Accidents |
Accountability for Failure | Aesthetic Pursuits (e.g. street fashion) |
Aging (e.g. adapting to new physical limitations) | Alienation |
Apologies & Atonement | Artistic Projects |
Auspicious Circumstances (i.e. Good Luck) | Awkward Social Moments & Embarrassment |
Being Misunderstood | Being an Outsider |
Biases & Discrimination | Building Trust |
Career Changes | Caring for Family Member |
Caring for a Pet | Challenging Groupthink |
Challenging Mediocrity | Changing Someone's Mind (i.e. influencing) |
Changing Your Mind | Civility |
Coaching a Team | Community Life (e.g. helping a neighbor) |
Competition | Concerts, Festivals & Events |
Conflict Resolution | Craft (e.g. a woodworking project) |
Culinary Adventure (e.g. seeking out challenging foods or interesting restaurants) | Cultural Participation (e.g. traditional performances) |
Culture Shock | Dance |
Dealing With Misinformation (e.g. rumors) | Dealing with Difficult People / Bullies |
Debates | Decision Making |
Defending Someone | Design Projects |
Design Projects (e.g. architecting a city in a video game) | Destructive Events (e.g. witnessing a crime) |
Difficult Conversations | Disasters |
Divorce & Separation | Diy Projects |
Doing Good / Doing The Right Thing | Empathy For Others |
Entrepreneurial Ventures | Environmental Issues (e.g. experiencing an environmental emergency) |
Establishing / Discontinuing a Routine | Exercise |
Experiments | Extracurricular Activities |
Failures | Family Outings / Trips |
Family Traditions | Forgiveness |
Founding Institutions & Clubs | Friendship |
Getting Respect | Giving Up on a Failing Project / Routine / Situation |
Goal Achievement | Grandparents / Relatives |
Granting Others Freedom | Health Problems |
Hobbies | Holidays & Celebrations |
Honest Acts (e.g. telling a difficult truth) | Humorous Episodes |
Imaginative Experiences (e.g. counterfactual thinking) | Immigration |
Important Conversations | Injuries & Pain |
Kind Acts | Leading Teams |
Learning from Failures | Lifestyle Changes |
Literary Adventures (i.e. experiences of writing and reading) | Loss & Grieving |
Mastering an Art | Maturing (i.e. cultivating character strengths) |
Media Projects (e.g. producing a documentary video) | Military Service |
Mistakes | Moments of Spontaneity |
Moral Failures | Moving / Relocating |
Music Composition / Performance | Nature Experiences (e.g. a difficult hike with unexpected weather) |
Negotiation | Nightlife |
Office Politics | Overcoming Behavioural Problems (e.g. anger management) |
Overcoming Biases | Overcoming Negative Emotions |
Overcoming a Bad Habit | Overcoming a Constraint (e.g. little time or money) |
Overcoming a Fear | Parenting |
Performance Art | Personal Reflection |
Philosophical Leaps (e.g. realizing something you value or believe) | Play |
Political Participation & Protests | Poor Choices |
Pregnancy & Birth | Problem Solving |
Promotions | Public Speaking |
Pursuing Freedom | Pushing for Change |
Quality Time | Rational Thought (e.g. the process of understanding why you were wrong about something) |
Recognition & Awards | Regrets |
Rejection & Disappointments | Religion & Spirituality |
Research Projects | Rest & Recovery |
Reverse Culture Shock | Risk Taking |
Rites of Passage | Romance |
Science Projects | Showing Respect |
Social Isolation | Social Issues (e.g. experiencing poverty) |
Social Rejection & Acceptance | Sports |
Storytelling | Strategy & Planning |
Studying | Subculture Participation (e.g. cosplaying) |
Taking Responsibility | Teamwork & Comradery |
Technical Challenges | Technology Projects (e.g. robotics, coding ...) |
Traditional Experiences | Travel |
Unfortunate Circumstances (i.e. Bad Luck) | Video Games & Immersive Experiences |
Volunteering | War, Conflict & Oppression |
Adversity
Situations that are difficult that represent a temporary or sustained disadvantage in life. These can include systemic things such as discrimination and poverty. Adversity can also include individual life circumstances and events such as an injury.- Disadvantages in life and how you have coped with this.
- Problems that you have managed or overcome.
- Disappointments that you have faced.
- Hardships or sudden changes that kinda derailed you for a while.
Personal Life
Things that you have done in your personal life that end up being a learning experience. This includes things that you regard as meaningful experiences that have defined your life and experiences that changed you.- Dealing with conflict and difficult people.
- People who lifted you up and made you who you are today.
- People who influenced you in one way or another.
- Personal failures and how you tried to recover.
- Successes and disappointments.
- Goals that you achieved.
- Mastery in your personal life such as getting good at influencing others.
Academic Experiences
Experiences related to learning, research and school life.- Academic successes and accomplishments.
- Academic challenges and how you recovered.
- Teachers and others who inspired or otherwise influenced you.
- Participation in school culture and life.
- Successes and challenges related to extracurricular activities.
- Major decisions such as switching majors and how these may have changed the path of your life.
Professional Experiences
Work experiences and how these built you up as a professional or person.- Stepping into challenging roles and projects and how this felt at the time.
- Things you have achieved in your career.
- Times you worked very hard for an extended period and how this may have transformed you.
- Career changes and how this influenced your life.
- Recovering from career setbacks.
- Professions and talents that you have truly mastered over time.
Meaningful & Transformative Experiences
Experiences that you have come to regard as defining your life thus far.- Moments of friendship or comradery.
- Adventures and things you have explored.
- Things that you realized.
- Good things that you have done.
- The process of redemption after doing something bad.
- Moments of wonder.
- Intensively difficult situations where you performed surprisingly well.