Word Count: 400

Kyle Reisner
Capstone A2

CommonApp Essay

Prompt: Describe a place or environment where you are perfectly content. What do you do or
experience there, and why is it meaningful to you?

Essay:
Road Trips
The view out the car window is more of a view of my own reflection - tired, but refusing to give
in to sleep - than anything outside as my dad drives persistently through the night. We still have
hours before we reach our destination and everyone in the car save for my dad and I is fast
asleep, leaning on each other or their own windows, but I dont like sleeping in the car. There
are too many things you miss. The blurry forms of trees or unknown cities rushing past, the
music turned low so as not to disturb those asleep, the partially illuminated road which endlessly
forms itself ahead of us; these oft slept through elements of a road trip combine in the hours,
creating a sense of serenity for me. Changing emotions with the colours of the night and the
style of the music around me, its as if my mind is a blank slate, free to experience the moment
without distraction. It is here that I am perfectly content.
When the sun rises, my family follows suit and soon the serenity of the night is no longer. It is
replaced by its opposite: a fun, chaotic, and constant rambling, playful and friendly. The banter
between my siblings and I never ceases, seamlessly transitioning from Doctor Who (and its
religious symbolism) to the rampant issue of human trafficking, from the complicated economics
and politics of tollroads to our new favourite rap song from Iggy Azalea. We have a GameCube
hooked up to a tiny, tiny CRT TV duct taped to the central console when the views and the
conversation arent enough and a stack of suitcases overflowing from the trunk into the
backseat. The 1997 Windstar minivan were driving has been filled to the brim and above with
everything we thought was too important to leave behind for even two weeks. It is filled with my
favourite things and people in the world. The calm of the night alone is gone, but its antithetic
replacement is just as wonderful. And it is here, also, that I am perfectly content.
I like the journey of the road trip. I like the motion and the emotion. I like moving forward. The
introspective serenity by night and the boisterous fun by day; the whole of it makes for one hell
of a ride and thats all I could ever hope for this life to be.