When I was 17, I wrote the now famous College Application Essay. I was just a kid, very bored, and thought a college essay was a dumb thing to have to write, so I just entertained myself. I made up all this ridiculous stuff, and entered it in a high school writing contest. It won first place and launched my writing career, at the age of 18. (see Journalism Page for details). When the Internet started, my college application essay became one of the most popular attachments of the Nineties. Everyone was emailing it around, and millions of people read it. Most of them don't know I wrote it. People don't believe I sent it to colleges, but I did. At one point, my essay was printed in a book of Urban Legends, which said I didn't exist. My lawyer informed them that I did, and the book was pulled off the shelves. I like to think of my college essay as an Urbane Legend: that little piece of writing opened so many doors for me. It's made millions of people laugh. Even today, almost twenty years after I wrote it, my essay is the top most plagiarized work on dating sites.( See video). I was lucky. I nailed it. Sometimes that happens. I'd love to write more on this, but I'm late for my full contact origami match.