College Essay 1

What is the best piece of advice you have ever received? Why? Did you follow it?

Everyone in the world has problems, and many of these people like to share these problems with their friends and consult them for solutions. My seeming lack of personal problems has created a persona that draws people to ask for my advice; whether it be on how to bake the best pies (a passion of mine) or on their newfound crush. However, although I give what I consider reasonably sound advice, it tends to not help the person in the long run, sometimes leaving them in an even worse position than when they began. One of these people once came back to me after her pie-baking turned out to be a fiasco and told me, "Your advice sucks, you should stop giving it." I was about to argue back, saying that my advice was perfectly acceptable, when I realized that she was right. Potentially not about my advice "sucking" but about not giving it out freely anymore. This had put me in the position of being a scapegoat; if my advisee's wondrous plan to learn French went haywire, then they could blame it on the fact that I reccommended the wrong French tutor. He or she might not follow my advice at all; I could be casting pearls before swine and have absolutely no effect on the outcome of their goal. This is actually what I find to be the most common case, where you give someone crystal-clear advice and they change even one small part and the entire piece is rendered useless. All this I thought about after she told me, and realized just how true it was. However, I quickly dismissed it; if my advice was terrible, then hers must be even worse.