family restaurant college essay

Is working at a family restaurant a good topic to write about for college essays?

So I’ve been working at my family’s restaurant for almost ten years, since I was like 8. I worked there because my parents couldn’t find anyone to hire mainly because we were in a small rural town. I wasn’t technically employed but worked literally every minute that wasn’t spent in school. Would this be a good topic to write about and would this be counted as a family responsibility or work on the common app?

Earn karma by helping others:

I would count this as work and not a family responsibility. I think your story could offer a great anecdote for you to introduce an essay on leadership or how you contributed to group efforts.

You can write about extracurriculars or anything to be honest as long as it impacted you in some shape or form and isn't, well, yk bad or inappropriate. As long as you can write about how your experience working there has shaped you into who you are today then I think your potential college essay will be fine.

Calculate for all schools

Your chance of acceptance, your chancing factors, extracurriculars, community guidelines.

To keep this community safe and supportive:

Be kind and respectful!
Keep posts relevant to college admissions and high school.
Don’t ask “chance-me” questions. Use CollegeVine’s chancing instead!

How karma works

College Writing Prompt involving family restaurant?

Hi all! Like most students here, we are struggling to come up with essay topics and doubt if our idea is good.

I wanted to discuss how my parents owned a small restaurant, and how I despised working there as a child. I hated the disparaging customers and how chaotic it was for (6th grade me). Then, around the late middle school to early high school, I enjoyed the adrenaline rush of customers and made me feel like I was “in the real world.”

Suggestions? I’m a little afraid that I may be jumping around too much or if this is a good “first impression.”

I like it. The one paragraph you wrote shows self awareness and growth. Be sure you don’t stop with early high school though. Tie it in to the person you are today.

What colleges? Hating the reataurant and then enjoying an adrenaline rush may not easily show how you fit into their campus life and contribute qualities they want and need. It’s also risky to hint you either didn’t know the real world or the restaurant is your main provider of this persepctive.

If you want to use this for context, a springboard to show how you evolved as an individual, or some other points, that’s one thing. But just a few lines about the restaurant can set it. Make the ultimate point relevant to life at the college and the qualities you bring. Eg, how you enjoy new people more, have expanded your interactions in school and the community and have taken on some new challenges. Show, not just tell.

Thanks for your suggestion.

I really wanted to point out how when I was young, I was an EXTREME introvert. That was the main reason why I couldn’t handle customers criticisms that well or why I didn’t it when it was busy.

However, after investing more years into it, I became more comfortable talking to strangers, and being more open (not sure if I should include this, but at heart, I’m still an introvert)

So from your perspective, my “theme” should be how I changed, and use the restaurant as an anecdote.

My issue is that I don’t have a specific day/moment that was a realization or aha moment It just naturally happened over time. So, I’m unsure how I go about summing it up.

Any suggestions?

Find a day.

but I’m not sure if that is even possible. It is impossible to go from talking to no one to suddenly interacting with customers.

I simply just toughed it out and eventually, it got better.

I think it is an intriguing focal point. Perhaps you can use both insights you gained from your time working in the restaurant (both about yourself, other people and the “real world”) as well as how your view points and perceptions have changed over time using the restaurant as the stage/source of anecdotes/examples.

This may or may not work for you, but you might want to write a draft essay with this theme to see what direction it takes. No point in worrying about refining an essay that doesn’t exist yet.

You don’t need “a day” or an incident to mark your change in attitude. This is more “that was then, this is now.” You can give a few lines explaining the prior feelings, then move to the present. That contrast. Explore it. Have a little fun with it.

You realize, this is also a topic in which you can show family closeness, appreciation, etc. It’s not the point but a “between the lines” thing. “Grounding.” Or your flexibility, ability to laugh at yourself, whatever bits, on top of the growth, the evolution in attitude.

POPULAR STATES

Search sat scores, search act scores, search gpa’s, subscribe to our newsletter.

Stay informed with the latest from the CC community, delivered to you, for free.

CONNECT WITH US

Want to share this page with your friends?

Interested in partnering with the family dinner project, bring us to your community with workshops, partnership programs, and more learn more, the familydinnerproject.org, on the path to college, reflecting on family dinner.

Note: This essay was originally written by teen Paul Clancy as part of the college application process. He included it in his Common Application as a response to the question “Describe a place or environment in which you are perfectly content, why is it meaningful to you?” Paul is currently studying at the University of Illinois — Champaign.

I did not always appreciate our family dinner. When I was younger and more selfish I was not interested in spending that much time with my family. Now, I understand that my family is the cornerstone to my success and family dinner is the cornerstone to my family’s success. Family dinner creates a sense of community and stability. Even if everything in my life seems to be crumbling to pieces, I know that mahogany table set for dinner will stand tall among the rubble. I can always look forward to a beautifully prepared meal filled with laughter and conversation to glue me back together.

One of the best aspects of our family dinner is that it has morphed over time. It has seamlessly aged with the rest of my family. At first, dinner would last ten minutes. Conversation topics changed quicker than lightning could strike. It started with “how was your day?” and ended with “where is your shirt?” My parents struggled to control four children under the age of 6. The combined attention span of us kids was less than a nanosecond. None of us kids knew what we truly needed but we certainly knew what we liked. The room would echo with screams for dessert, television and story time. Inevitably a glass or two of milk would be spilled. Afterwards my dad worked to clean off all of our faces and my mom struggled to clean the dishes. We were a messy bunch, wearing each meal’s color on our faces.

As my brothers, sister, and I began to enter the tween and teenage years, the intensity of conversation was amped up by agreement and debate from across the table. Fights at a Clancy family dinner are unique because my mother is an attorney and my father is a judge. Pulling hair and throwing food was not tolerated, so we kids learned to use our words as weapons and as shields. My parents reinforced the notion that a well-placed adjective is just as powerful as a sucker punch. Synonyms of stupid and annoying were as plentiful as the creamy mashed potatoes, yet my parents always managed to exhibit a sense of control over dinner. Groundings were handed out not only for bad behavior but also for taboo language. Although the weekend of a 12-14 year old is nothing incredibly enticing, the reactions of a Saturday night quarantine rivaled those of capital punishment. However, by the end of dinner, tensions would usually fall and most problems could be soothed with some ice cream and words of wisdom.

Now with three kids in high school a 7 o’clock dinner time is hard to come by. However, everyone makes sacrifices to be present. I find that once I sit down I no longer want to leave. Family dinner creates this fulfilling energy that I cannot find anywhere else. I always leave that mahogany dining table feeling happier than when I sat down.

Family dinner has helped make me the young man I am today. It has taught me the importance of listening, but it has also showed me how to make my point heard. I have become more loyal, responsible, and accountable. Most importantly, I have created a unique bond with my family that will not be broken. Lee Iacocca summed it up best stating, “The only rock I know that stays steady, the only institution I know that works, is the family.” I could not agree more.