One of the hardest things to do is to write about yourself. This is why most students find a personal essay extremely challenging. There are so many life experiences and ideas that you may want to write about. So, narrowing it down to one topic can be confusing at times. To help you get more ideas and write a crisp and interesting personal essay, here is a list of 173 personal essay topics.
What Is A Personal Essay?
A personal essay is one of the most common college and high school assignments. These writing assignments include a variety of subjects including life experiences, opinions, and real stories.
The personal essay topics that you choose determine how much you can write in the body of the essay and how interesting it can be.
A personal essay is a subjective paper, which means that it is always written in the first person. There are different types of personal essays including persuasive personal essays or argumentative personal essays. Before we get into the actual topics for personal essay, here are some themes that they usually follow:
- Opinions about a certain issue
- Documentation of real-life observations
- Real-life stories
- Descriptions of objects, events places, or people
- Issues in relation to their own lives.
Based on the theme, you can create a host of college personal essay topics. The ones mentioned below give you an idea of how to get started.
Personal Narrative Essay Topics
Narrative topics for a personal essay, talk about real-life experiences that are significant to you. They usually revolve around memorable events that occurred in your life.
- Write an essay about your first trip overseas
- What was the most unfortunate incident that occurred in your life
- Tell us about your first day in school
- What is your earliest childhood memory
- Write a personal essay about the most memorable and important family event.
- Share your experiences of failure
- Write about your favourite games to play as a child
- Recall and write about your first birthday party
- What do you do in order to learn something new
- Share an experience of encountering a wild animal
- Write an essay about the first time you stayed home alone
- How was the experience of cooking your first meal
- Write about an incident where you helped someone
- How do you overcome your fears?
- What is one of the biggest challenges you faced and overcame?
- What was one of the most pleasant surprises you have ever experienced?
- What was the most embarrassing day of your life
- One day that you would like to relive again
- Share your experience of taking your first flight
- What was the most disappointing life lesson
- Things that make you happy
- Habits that you would like to build
- Habits that you would like to quit
- How did you feel when you drove a car for the first time ever
- What makes you sad?
Personal Argumentative Essay Topics
These are topics for personal essay that allow you to state your opinion about certain issues. The idea is to present your point of view and back up your stance with your own experiences, data, or observations.
- Your thoughts on getting a tattoo?
- What is more important to you: Happiness or wealth?
- Is fashion really important?
- How important is personal growth
- Your opinion on feminism
- What does it really mean to be human
- What are some of the most precious things in your life and why?
- Do we need to spend money on branded products?
- Do you think cosmetic surgery is a good thing or a bad thing?
- How are male and female roles distributed in your family?
- Is ethnic identity important?
- What are some things you could live without?
- Why do you care about environmental issues?
- How much wealth does one need to be happy?
- Are healthy lifestyle choices important?
- Your take on increasing substance abuse
- Would you choose a good career or a good family life?
- Is physical appearance important?
- Does your wealth define your success?
- What does success mean to you?
- Why should people travel more often?
- What is your favourite holiday destination?
- Your take on stereotyping ethnicities.
- Should gay marriage be allowed?
- What is the role of religion in your life?
Personal Persuasive Essay Topics
These are among the best personal essay topics for high school as they are very challenging. You not only get to present your opinion but also have to make a strong case to persuade the reader to accept your point of view.
- Does listening to music make you more efficient with work?
- Should we ban drugs?
- One restaurant that you think everyone should visit
- What can we do to make the world better?
- How do we save our planet?
- Is online shopping making people spend more money?
- Should the concept of zoos be banned?
- Do hobbies help you in your career?
- One travel destination that can change a person’s life
- Why you don’t smoke
- Is drinking socially acceptable?
- Can one truly avoid stress?
- Are exams and tests important?
- Your take on the current system of education
- Should youngsters be involved in politics?
- Your opinion on online and in-classroom learning
- Has the pandemic changed the way you look at life?
- Was the pandemic good for the world in a way?
- Why should people do more volunteer work?
- Is buying products that are tested on animals ethical?
- Should wearing fur be a punishable offense?
- Are mobile phones a good thing or a bad thing?
- Do you think you can do without technology?
- Are people becoming lazier because of technology?
- Will robots take over the world someday?
Personal Cause and Effect Essay Topics
These personal essay topics for middle school, high school, and college give reasons for certain habits or beliefs that you have in your life. You must write about how certain decisions affect your life.
- Reasons why I love sports
- Why I prefer not to watch TV
- Why exercise is so important to me
- How books changed my view of the world
- Why I have chosen this field of study
- The importance of learning new skills to build a successful career
- The effects of being the only child
- The effect of living in a joint family
- How my parents influence the life choices I make
- Why I prefer to live by myself
- Reasons I learn about future technology
- How failures made me a stronger person
- The impact of social media on my daily routine
- Some bad habits that negatively impacted my life
- Some habits that have helped me immensely
- Reasons I rebel against my parents
- How going to college made me more important
- Things that make me feel burned out
- How having a pet changed my life
- How traveling has improved my personality
- Why social work helps me
- How technology helps make my life better
- How learning to present myself better, changed my life
- Why I choose to wake up early in the morning
- Reasons I feel stressed sometimes
Personal Experience Essay Topics
These are the most interesting personal essay topics as they let you tell stories and talk about your own experiences in life. You can write about how these experiences shaped you as an individual or changed your outlook on the world.
- Why did you decide to move out of your parents’ home?
- How do you celebrate holidays with your family?
- One incident that truly hurt you.
- Have you ever been in love?
- Describe some disastrous travel experiences
- Things I learned from my enemies
- Have you ever reduced an animal? What was the experience like?
- What made you decide to live a healthy lifestyle?
- Have you ever had a near-death experience?
- Share your experience of meeting a celebrity.
- One music concert that you thought was fantastic
- What makes someone your best friend
- Can you think about one instance when you really experienced kindness?
- Have you ever had a paranormal experience?
- How do you react when you are provoked?
- What are your regrets in life?
- Can you describe your most pleasant dream?
- Can you describe your worst nightmare?
- One experience when you felt like a leader
- Experience of a friendship breaking up.
- One of the most heartbreaking incidents of your life
- What makes you want to be successful?
- One experience that motivated you to push yourself
- Your first job ever
- Have you ever been in a fistfight?
Personal Belief Essay Topics
These are topics for personal reflective essays. They give you a chance to introspect, understand your beliefs, and whether these beliefs still hold good. This is also one of the most interesting topics to talk about in a personal essay because you can write about various personal experiences that led to these beliefs.
- Do you believe in god?
- I believe that dreams do come true
- Do you believe that a real connection with people around you is important
- Your opinion on universal powers
- Why you believe in commitment to work
- Do you think there is life on other planets?
- I believe that women and men deserve equal pay at the workplace
- I don’t believe in discrimination because of sexual orientation.
- I believe that if you are happy, you are successful
- I believe in myself
- I believe that I am a unique person
- Tomorrow can be a better day. I believe in persuading.
- I believe that inspiration is all around us
- I believe that I can turn all my weaknesses into my strengths with time.
- I believe in my family
- I believe that ethnic identity is an important part of who you are
- I believe in embracing people irrespective of their color, religion, sexual orientation, or any other parameter.
- I believe that we should all seek spiritual awareness
- I believe in the importance of mental wellness
- I believe that everyone possesses a great inner strength
- I believe that discipline is the route to success
- I believe in life after death
- I believe that heaven and hell exist
- I believe in love
- I believe in the power of spoken words.
Essay Topics About Personal Goals
This is a subject that also makes for the best personal essay topics for college applications. You get a chance to explain your goals and how you wish to achieve them. You can also combine it with personal challenges essay topics and how you overcame them to achieve your goals.
- Procrastination is one of the biggest obstacles in achieving goals and how I overcome them.
- A dream is a wish your heart makes. The best lesson I learned from Disney’s ‘Cinderella’.
- The reasons I want to work in this particular field of study.
- How I stay motivated to pursue my goals
- Some personal goals that I failed to achieve and how it turned out to be a good thing.
- What I am most passionate about
- My dream job and how I plan to get it
- One thing that I have always dreamt of achieving
- Achievements that I am very proud of
- Skills I wish I had learned at an early age
- Why college is the best route to achieving my dreams
- The difference between goal and purpose
- Where I see myself 10 years down the line
- My goals for my family
- How I want my life to be when I am 85 years old.
- My goal for a healthier and fitter life.
- How my parents influence my goals and dreams
- How my personal goals have changed with time
- Introspection is important to find your life’s purpose
- Do we really have a purpose to fulfill?
- Why is success important to me?
- Life experiences that have shaped my life goals
- How I think I can change the world one step at a time.
Whether you are writing essays on personal goals or personal expository essays, there are many benefits besides getting you a good grade in college. Personal essays are great to:
- Improve your critical thinking and communication skills
- Demonstrate your ability to be persuasive
- Learn a little bit more about yourself and your personality
If you are still having trouble finding inspiration or the right personal statement essay topics, get in touch with an expert today. We provide end-to-end online homework assistance for school and college students at the most affordable prices.
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