Common Reading Essay Contest
Common Reading Essay Contest
As you begin this new phase of your life away from your family and friends in a new environment, consider Boyle’s notion of the “frightened self.” Write a letter to yourself at an earlier time in your life when you were “frightened” in the way that Boyle describes. How did your “frightened self” dictate or limit your actions? Now that you’ve read Boyle’s book, what advice do you have for your former self? Even if your own experiences are vastly different from the people Fr. Boyle works with, you should connect your personal experiences to at least one of the book’s major themes (listed below), and use at least one example from the text to show how Boyle’s narrative and experience informs your own.
Important Themes
Resilience
Social/Formal Education
“Slow work” (patience, slowing down)
Compassion
Acceptance (“the no matter whatness”)
The purpose of work
Opportunity
Inclusion/solidarity/kinship
Varying definitions of success/failure
The role of faith and/or fidelity
Tattoos
Death and grief
Fatherhood/motherhood
Community
The “outcast” and the “other”
Criteria
Essays should be 650-775 words. Essays will be judged based on originality, engagement with the text, and clarity of both purpose and expression.
Essay submissions are due no later than Thursday, Aug. 15 at 11:59 p.m.
