My common app essay turned me into a journalist for a second

Recently, I've been spending a lot of time working on college applications, which unfortunately means I've also been spending a lot of time thinking about my life.

Specifically, I've been working on my personal statement.

One thing I didn't expect while writing it was how many random memories would suddenly come back to me. Moments I hadn't thought about in years somehow became relevant again as I tried to figure out where some of my interests came from.

little me in the factory

A memory that kept resurfacing was a trip I took to Guangzhou, China when I was in fourth grade.

My mom is a shoe designer, and growing up, she traveled to China several times a year to visit factories and oversee production. Usually, I stayed home, but this one time she decided to bring me along.

At the time, I thought it was the coolest thing ever.

I got to walk through giant factory buildings, see stacks of materials piled up everywhere, and watch shoes being assembled piece by piece. It felt like I was getting a behind-the-scenes look at a world that most people never get to see.

Of course, being a fourth grader, I wasn't exactly analyzing global supply chains. But was amazed by how many shoes there were. Seriously. There were shoes everywhere.

At one point, I remember my mom explaining that factories often charged less per pair when companies ordered larger quantities. As a kid, this sounded completely reasonable.

If something becomes cheaper when you buy more of it, why wouldn't you buy more?

To fourth-grade me, it seemed like a great deal.

Then I forgot about that conversation for years. Fast forward to high school. As I became more interested in sustainability and started learning about fashion's environmental impact, that memory randomly popped back into my head. I started wondering: if factories charge less when brands order more products, doesn't that encourage companies to produce more than they actually need?

After looking into it, I realized that the answer is often yes.

Factories become more efficient when they produce at larger scales. The machinery is already running, the workers are already there, and materials can often be purchased more cheaply in bulk.

The problem is that consumers don't necessarily buy more products just because they were cheaper to manufacture. So sometimes brands end up with excess inventory.

And when that happens, those products can sit in warehouses, be heavily discounted, or become waste. Looking back, I think that's one of the reasons sustainability interests me so much.

What fascinates me isn't necessarily the environmental problem itself, but the chain of decisions that creates it. Nobody in that factory was trying to create waste. The factory was trying to operate efficiently. The brands were trying to lower costs. Everyone was making decisions that made sense from their perspective. But when those decisions happen across an entire industry, the effects become much bigger.

It's funny because when I first visited that factory, the thing I remember most is how exciting it all felt. Now, years later, while writing college essays and reflecting on where my interests came from, I find myself looking back at the same experience through a completely different lens.

Anyways, thanks for joining me in this post!