The Difficulty of Thinking Outside of the Box by Mikayla

The Difficulty of Thinking Outside of the Box by Mikayla - October 2018 Scholarship Essay

My mom ruined books for me when I was thirteen. It wasn't intentional, but I had just finished watching my third Cinderella remake, and had asked her why there were so many versions of the the same story line. She sat me down and explained to me that, to her, there were only about seven major plots in the history of literature. Once you have the 'sacred' outline, there's really any number of details you can add into it that make it different from all the rest.
At first I thought she was crazy, it couldn't be true that so many books were following the same patterns. However, the longer I started to think about it the more it made sense. You have the boy meets girl but can't be with her, the boy saves girl from a metaphorical or physical monster, the journey to find honor, money, or love. There's more out there but when you get down to it, they're all in the same box.
Thinking outside of the box can be really difficult when you're not quite sure where the box starts and ends. As someone dreaming about being an author today, this question comes up. Am I able to create something outside of the box that is these major writing ideas? So far it has been a struggle not to follow one of the patterns, but I keep working on it with my moms voice pushing me forward every step of the way. Thinking outside of the box can be really difficult when the box holds almost everything you know about literature. But that is the whole idea of thinking outside of the box; pushing yourself to be more creative and original when everything is getting more and more conformed. It might not always be easy to think outside of the box, but the important thing is to continue to try and be the best you can be even if it sometimes means not always succeeding in thinking outside of the box and just always trying.