Monday, October 21, 2013
Harder Time with The Second Paper
I am trying to write this second personal statement, and it seems to have taken me off the rails of my writing train and thrown me into the ditch of writer's block. For the first prompt, the world you come from, I don't think I should write about that because the world I come from is pretty generic. For the second prompt, the personal quality, talent, or accomplishment, I keep thinking to myself Do I even have any? What have I done that is noteworthing? For the next one, the personal background or story, I have been a girl who's lived in southern California her whole life and the biggest thing I'll do is graduate so far. Woo hoo! I can't write on that! Talking about failure is depressing and sad, and I haven't overcome the big failure in my life yet. As for the rest, I just don't have answers for them. Am I the only one struggling with this? Also, because I had Mr. Bacani for English last year, whos deadlines were never concrete, I am definitely struggling with the fact that after you finish the second draft of the first essay, it is time to turn in the next one! I understand that senior year isn't supposed to be easy, but I feel like I'm getting slammed. I guess it is that I didn't have the AP classes that you write essays in to help me prepare for this. I am not the greatest writer in their senior year, but I don't think I am the worst. (***who's^^) It is just nerve racking to think that we will leave the comfort of high school sometimes because of these essays we write. The nerves are finally setting in and doubt has creeped into my mind with this second paper, saying that I won't do good enough and I'll fail for the rest of my life. Okay, now I'm ranting. Got to go work on that personal statement guys! Wish me luck :/
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I also had a harder time writing my second personal statement because I couldn't decide what to write about. I also haven't encountered a big failure that has changed my life yet either. I even freewrote for an hour to figure out what topic I should pick, but during that time I didn't find any ideas that really popped out to me. The ideas that I ended up with at the end of my freewrite were pretty simple and insignificant ideas. I struggled a lot more with what to say in this personal statement. So no Amy, you weren't the only one struggling with the second personal statement.
ReplyDeleteHey, Amy!
ReplyDeleteI don't think you should worry about any of that. Like Ms. Fletcher said, there HAS to be some point in our lives that sparked enlightenment or realization that helped us grow and mature in some shape or from- however small.
If you ever feel down just remember that Albert Einstein once said, "Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid."
Just like in Graff's "Hidden Intellectualism," everyone has their own niche and talent that they love to do and absolutely thrive in. The whole point of the personal statement is to be proud of that accomplishment, talent, or growth in maturity.
There is SOMETHING that you are absolutely amazing at, Amy, or have grown from. You just have to remember.
I actually found something helpful looking at the University of Chicago prompts. They really are fun to use! Just answer them directly and apply them to the "mature, intellectual, cool, calm, and collected" young adults we grew to be.
I agree with both Kaylin and Kalei. I also had a hard time writing my second personal statement, in which I wrote about one of my failures. I couldn't really figure out one of my failures that was substantial or relevant. I had to dig deep and really think. Also, there is something that you are amazing at like Kalei said you just have to dig deep and think about it and how it makes you feel. I really advise you to go to essayhell.com if you ever need help with essays or a personal statement. It is an amazing website that helps enormously.
ReplyDeleteI think we are all on the same page because i feel like we put all of our effort on the first one and there's none left for the second one. Let's just do our best on writing the second one because most of us are having a hard time writing it. Also, thanks Dakota for suggesting essayhell.com because I read your blog and it sound like it was very helpful. I will definitiely check it out and hope to make my PS 2 better (:
ReplyDelete