I CONCLUDED MY FINAL COLLEGE ESSAY AND OMG WHAT A JOURNEY. Hi, welcome to today’s blog. As you may already know, I started applying to colleges last semester and I have been writing college essays ever since. I even wrote essays for schools I didn’t end up applying to. Fun fact, I finished my JHU essay because it was kinda easy but the rest of the application was just not it for me. That said, I wrote a whole lot and I honestly loved every moment of it. I can go on and on about my experience but I don’t think there are enough words to truly express the joy I felt while writing.
I have truly grown to love writing, especially my blogs because I get to write however I want without being graded. I mean… last week I read one of my blogs and the number of grammatical errors scared me. I actually read a sentence and it sounded like I had a seizure in the middle of typing this because it made no sense. It’s fine though because I didn’t even bother to change it.
Back to college essays. My college essays helped me rediscover myself, however cringe that may sound. The questions some schools asked, but especially Jack Kent Cooke helped me dig deep into memories from my childhood that I have tried to suppress. It was interesting to sort of analyze my life experiences but also make connections to my life right now and how I got here. There were so many stories that I told in my essays that shaped my future and while I didn’t realize it at the time, I have seen how significant they are now. I wrote about how I made the switch from medicine to Nursing and for some schools, I talked about how I want to make the switch back to medicine. The writing process generally starts by brainstorming and I find It genuinely incredible I am able to type up random words that sometimes make no sense but I read it back and make certain corrections and with every correction comes a huge smile because I realize that I JUST DID THAT. I made something out of nothing and with every correction comes the relief that I am almost done.
As I wrote my essays, I was able to do some research on the colleges and that made it easier to fall more in love with them. I absolutely loved writing all my essays but I would say writing essays for Emory, JKC, Stevenson, and Cornell hit a little differently. They were not easy but the process was very engaging and I fell in love with the end products. I also fell in love with these schools and realized how much of a dream it would be to attend any one of them. So far, I do not have a definite acceptance from any of these colleges but I am very much satisfied with what I submitted. Was I done with it? No, and I don’t think I ever could be but I submitted. You can never be done with your essays but you can try your best to capture your life and wrap it in a little bow and that’s what I did. I am not saying I am the best writer if anything I am saying otherwise but I loved every essay I submitted because I was able to tell my story the way I wanted it told. I am not saying that is how you write a stellar essay but I am definitely saying that is how you write an essay and if you get rejected because of your essay, then the school was not worthy to be a part of your story, to begin with.
One thing someone told me was that they didn’t think they had much of a typical story to talk about and that bothered me. I have since asked myself what the typical essay is and unless you have an answer for me, I’ve got nothing. There is no typical story, there’s just your story and it DOESN’T has to be dramatic or sad or happy, it just has to be well written. You might not have a well-written essay the first try, in fact, you will not have a well-written essay the first try and I think you need to train your brain to understand that. I know for me, I like starting my essays with whatever comes to mind but I make sure I type it double spaced, times new roman 12 font because that’s how the final copy will look and that way I can train my brain into thinking I am actually writing a stellar essay. I then edit and edit and edit some more until my hands are sore or until I exhaust every last brain cell that I have, either way, I get it done.
Lastly, I would like to thank everyone that took a look at my essay and took time out of their day to proofread it. You did not have to but you did anyway and you have no idea how much that means to me. I will never not be grateful and I will never forget it. Thank you. My essays were garbage at first and without the help of the professors, advisors, and friends that read it, I don’t think I would have written a good enough essay or even type this blog right now.
