A Short Essay on Essays, or, Why I Find It Difficult To Write What Has Already Been Written

The essay has for centuries been an integral part of the education process. Every student in practically every country could probably tell you of a time when they've locked themselves in a room for days on end in order to research and write an essay set months before, and due to be handed in and marked within hours or even minutes of finishing. Many of us could probably also relate to stories of shameless lying, begging, and even fraud when deadlines seem to just pass us by. Personally, I'm guilty of every single trick in the book when the situation demands it, but I'm not here to make excuses, nor am I here to apologise for it. If anything, I'm writing this to explain why I personally have a real problem when to comes to writing an essay. If anything.
Consider the materials one uses to write an essay. Books and other literature concerned with the subject, newspaper articles, websites, journals, films and T.V. Documentaries to name but a few. The one thing relating them to each other: They all tend to be written by professionals. It's not that I have a problem with researching, in fact I believe that it is one of, if not the, most important part of any piece of work. Indeed, where would these paid professionals be if they didn't bother researching their subjects. Well, they wouldn't be paid professionals for a start. No, my main issue is with adapting and concisely re-writing all of these sources in order to show what I have learned. Now I completely understand the reasons for this, after all, how is a teacher supposed to find out if the student has been working if there is no way of presenting the information the student has gathered? I simply just cannot get over the fact that someone out there has already written what I'm writing, has obviously done a much better job of it than I could do, hence why I used the material for my research, and at the end of it all received either payment, professional respect and kudos, or both.
Don't get me wrong, I want to be able to sit down and write an essay. Indeed, if I could do it then I would almost certainly not be 21 years old and only just starting my first year of university. It's simply the fact that everything I am technically forced to write counts to nothing in the long run. When I sit down to write an essay I find it difficult to ignore the words of the Roman scholar Pliny The Elder:
“True glory consists in doing what deserves to be written; in writing what deserves to be read; and in so living as to make the world happier for our living in it”
I think we can all agree that Pliny is onto something here. Surely, if I am merely writing what has already been written then I am adding nothing to the world. How can I learn to get past this dead end? Do I want to learn to get past this dead end?
I can't ignore the fact that I'm not going to pass any university course without writing essays. Indeed it is a real shame that this one obstacle may be one I simply cannot cross. I applied for a journalism course because I want to write what deserves to be read, and indeed what deserves to be written. It is unfortunate that to do this one has to concede that everything they do write for three years will be merely a substandard copy of what is already out there, through no real fault of my own. This to me is far too ironic to ignore for any longer.