“Cardboard” in 300 words

“Cardboard” in 300 words

Joshua Steely 2/22/2026

I really love writing, if you couldn’t tell by a voluntary blog.

As a college student, part of that writing goes toward the famous “essay scholarship” format for earning money. Lucky for me, the topics are typically “write about yourself” or even better, “write about something that interests you”. Piece of cake.

When I was applying for my initial round of scholarships back in 2024, I was sure I would be an artist. After all, those scholarships would be contributing to my Bachelor’s in Studio Arts. However, plans changed and now I’m transferring to an out-of-state school to pursue paper engineering, met with new incentive to apply for more scholarships.

One of the first I have submitted prompted me to answer one of the following three questions:

1. What are your career goals, and why did you choose this path?

2. What is an extracurricular activity you have participated in, and how has your participation in this activity impacted your life?

3. Tell us about a personal experience and how that has shaped who you are today.

I was prepared to produce pages and pages talking about my aspirations in the paper industry, my cardboard workshops, and the cardboard-themed birthday party for a 12-year-old this past fall that quenched my imposter syndrome as a cardboard artist (I should write a post about that soon). But this application had a catch:
I had to write it in “roughly 300 words”.

To put that into perspective, the blog post draft I have waiting for final revisions is sitting at 2500 words. And that is just answering three questions with some follow-up expansions, all practically written in one sitting.
Writing only 300 words about things I could blather on about for hours (and do on this website) was a challenge.

342 words was as condensed as I got it:

"He who has a why to live for can bear almost any how," said Nietzsche. My name is Joshua Steely, and cardboard is my why. With five siblings eating a lot of food and ordering a lot of packages, it was the cheapest building material 9 year old me could use for art and in a sixth-grade "Moosey Club" I started. We made cardboard crafts together until I moved 2 hours away for seventh grade. The club ended, but cardboard followed. I started making funko pop-esque figurines out of cereal boxes, selling them to classmates in 8th grade–enough to buy my own phone and computer within a year. Cereal boxes opened up more doors than I thought possible. Once, I displayed my figurines at the local library so professionally that they offered me a job! I was 15, and in the next two years I would teach half a dozen art workshops at that library, leading kids through self-designed cardboard crafts and curriculum. At my first year of college, I didn't expect to win a runway show with a cardboard spaceship. Then, through a connection made at that show, I taught half a dozen more cardboard workshops through a church's outreach program. The group of boys at that church, in my second "Cardboard Club," were immediately everything to me. And apparently I had an impact on them too, because Josiah decided he wanted his 12th birthday party to be "Cardboard" themed. His parents asked me to help decorate and lead a craft, and I was honored to construct a room-sized cityscape and show the guests and birthday boy how to make cereal box cars. I was newly 19.

You see, I could try and move on with my life, leaving cardboard behind. Or I could take the question, "aren't you that cardboard guy?" and run with it. I'm choosing to study and pursue Paper and Packaging Engineering because cardboard is MY why that I'm not about to box up and leave in the attic like a childhood toy with so much potential.

It’s a bit cheesy, but scholarships are an emotional game—poetry for the pockets. I wouldn’t mind if my ranting about cardboard could earn me my keep.

I await adjudication.