Time to Get Started on that PERSONAL STATEMENT

Every year, right around this time, I chase down my 11th graders for drafts of their CommonApp essay. Any draft, just get writing!

It’s always daunting when we take the first step towards anything, especially towards something when stakes are high, and when the end is unknown. This sounds like we’re embarking on some major journey in our lives. Yes, indeed it is. Writing is a journey. Any good writer will tell you the final product is often an emergence of unexpected details that came up through the actual process of writing.

If you don’t take those tiny first steps, you will never make progress towards your final destination. Sounds utterly cliched, but just get writing. WRITE, JUST WRITE. You can always abandon your paragraphs. You can throw out ideas. You can delete details. But, surely, in the process of not knowing what to include, of deciding what to keep or not keep, your personal statement is taking shape. You are moving along.

Just do it. Just get started.