Is there more than one kind of personal essay? Are these always about experiences and narratives? Can a personal essay be something different? Can it focus more on opinions, ideas, and beliefs in an informal tone without the evidences and citations you need for academic essays?

Your story was excellent. I’ve archived it. What would be super-helpful would be taking an essay apart, showing how the parts of it demonstrate the instructions you’re giving so we could have a concrete example. Maybe you could even show the brainstorming or mind-map that leads to the outline and the outline itself?