It is 8:20 on Monday night, and I, like many other students are either beginning or completely stressing over how to write this personal statement. Writing a personal statement is something that is some what vaguely familiar to all of us. We know how to write about ourselves. We've done it every single year that we've been in school. Let's be real: we are pretty good at it. At this point, though, I feel completely stressed and honestly freaked out.
It's like I almost forgot who I was for a second and began to indulge on what someone else would like to see me as. I began to write for an admissions officer when I should be writing for myself. I was throwing in vocabulary words I have never used in my life and using all types of crazy punctuation. Rather than throwing who I am onto that computer screen, there were 12 years worth of English education that I thought would wow some random old guy who would accept me into his school. But that isn't what I would like to submit to the school of my dreams or something they would like to read either. I deleted the page, disregarding the "would you like to save this document before exiting?" pop-up.
I remember what you said earlier today in class, Fletch. My first draft is going to be shit (was I allowed to say that?) and it will be okay. Regardless on how long I spend trying to write this personal statement tonight, I've concluded that it indeed will be some form of shitty. So I've started over and it won't be great, but it will be a start.
Anyways, this was me stalling and trying to gather my thoughts and get some blogging done. I can't wait to read some of your personal statements this week.
Come on, y'all. Give this writer some love. Thank you VM for taking the leap.
ReplyDeleteWell, you are allowed to say it since I said it, and I said it because Anne Lamott said it, so we'll just push the responsibility for our potty mouths down the road. But here is what she says (I found my book at home): "Now practically even better news...is the idea of shitty first drafts. All good writers write them. This is how they end up with good second drafts and terrific third drafts...I know some very great writers, writers you love who write beautifully and have made a great deal of money, and not ONE of them sits down routinely feeling wildly enthusiastic and confident. Not one of them writes elegant first drafts. Alright, one of them does, but we do not like her very much...
ReplyDeleteVery few writers really know what they are doing until they have done it..." and so on. The whole chapter is very encouraging. THIS IS WHAT IT MEANS TO WRITE. To write is to struggle. Embrace it. Get used to the idea. You may never feel perfectly at ease. I wrote something the other day, and it took me a long time to get it right...and it's still not exactly what I want.
Oh good grief. My dog just came in to wipe his wet whiskers on my pants. He doesn't like it when his beard gets drippy from his water bowl, so he uses me as a napkin. I love this boy so much.
I completely agree with your post! As it came time to write my personal statement, I felt like seventeen years of life was wiped from my memory! Doing the superlatives really helped jogging my memory though. I'm uncertain about my final draft for my personal statement, even though I think it's good I'm continuously questioning it. Am I properly responding to the prompt? Should I talk about college in my statement? Honestly, the Julie Cho (?) essay sparked my uneasiness, but at the same time I don't want to over think this assignment.
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ReplyDeleteWow I just now read this but yes yes yes. All of this is great. While writing my personal statement I also found myself trying to impress "some old dude" rather than myself and I wrote this awful paper I thought would be "impressive". No it wasn't. I trashed that paper immediately. Yeah, I was super stressed because after spending so much time on what I like to call crap, I had very little time to actually create something brilliant. It didn't help that I HAD NO IDEA WHAT TO WRITE ABOUT. Instead of actually thinking of something to write about, I sat around thinking of all the things I couldn't write about which was no help at all. I'm glad I got it all figured out now though. Today in class, Ms.Fletcher talked about how she pushes herself to at least write a structured essay that's pure bs (so she at least has something) and then when she goes to rewrite it, all she has to do is switch out the bs with great things. A lot of times our mind doesn't work with due dates and it takes a couple days to get a good idea. Love Ya vick. Nice blog post.
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