Great First Lines from Stanford and Johns Hopkins Essays
 

1. I change my name each time I place an order at Starbucks.

2. When I was in the eighth grade I couldn't read.

3. While traveling through the daily path of life, have you ever stumbled upon a hidden pocket of the universe?

4. I have old hands.

5. I was paralyzed from the waist down. I would try to move my leg or even shift an ankle but I never got a response. This was the first time thoughts of death ever cross my mind.

6. I almost didn't live through September 11th, 2001.

7. The spaghetti burbled and slushed around the pan, and as I stirred it, the noises it gave off began to sound increasingly like bodily functions.

8. I have been surfing Lake Michigan since I was 3 years old.

9. I stand on the riverbank surveying this rippled range like some riparian cowboy -instead of chaps, I wear vinyl, thigh-high waders and a lasso of measuring tape and twine is slung over my arm.

10. I had never seen anyone get so excited about mitochondria!

11. I had never broken into a car before!

12. Do you have body bags?  The leakproof kind…. we need as many as you can spare!

13. I’ve recently come to the conclusion that community service just isn’t for me.

14. I nearly crashed a plane.

15. My fingers slowed down, softly coming to a stop on a major 7th chord, finishing my therapeutic song of healing.