"Messay" Process Your college essay might be a mess before it's amazing. I have many students freaking out when their essay is in the messy inchoate stage. Trust the writing process to move from a-mess-ing to amazing! You know what happens when the sun begins to rise? That's just the idea of the day beginning. It hasn't figured itself out yet. It's a hot mess! The whole sky goes crazy, and it tries out all these different colors. They are not the same colors, or in the same order, as yesterday's sunrise. You know why? Me neither. The sun is just going through a process. The atoms have moved around and swapped outfits. They blaze and reorganize. Take notes for your college essay! Beautiful Oops = Mistake Composting I read my kids a book called Beautiful Oops (if I'm really honest we lost our copy, but stick with me). I recommend everyone get their hands on it and absorb it. This is a how-to book designed to help the perfectionists among us calm the F down. It's also for those who can't handle their mistakes and meanderings as a natural part of the process. This book says-- no such thing as a mistake! Take that coffee spill, that misshapen tree, that sentence that is tomato sauce dribbled on your prom outfit, and turn it into something else. It was getting you to your art all along. In fact, that might be your stroke of genius. It's messy before it's sweet I have a lot of students who come to me very early in the college essay process. They are stressed the F out, because they are not sure what they are writing about, and the essay isn't coming out looking finished, in 650 words. That advice thread on Reddit didn't make their essay get born whole. Prince Ea's magic words didn't conjure it. The messy process of creation is a bit uncomfortable. Hey now! Is the sun making a big deal about its sprawl? Should my kids never scribble scrabble in the process of drawing a dragon (it breathes fire, yo!)? Is it OK that I have to step to the left and right Continue Reading …
State of Mind
To write your college essay, Stay Open
Practice your ability to stay open, and the writing will come In the face of daunting things, like a college essay, it's easy to close up and shut down. But it’s spring now: stay open. If you think writing a college essay is hard, I also help people who are having babies. Now that's a bit hard. And one of the hardest things to do is the necessary thing: to stay open, and open more. Babies require it to emerge. Your writing does too. It’s spring and this is just what creatures do. Rabbits make more rabbits. Branches make buds. Buds crank petals apart and drink up sunshine. The sky seems bigger for longer. Baby turtles linger on their warmed rocks. Teenagers linger on the warmed street. You’re a creature; you can act like one. Continue Reading …
Your story matters more than ever
Does anything matter now? Yes! It's hard to think straight some days about what matters, when we've lost so much in the past year of the pandemic. We're at the 500,000 mark, in February; where is the sun, again? But in this context, your story matters more than ever. It can be hard to think well about future, about goals, when getting through the day sometimes takes all we have-- or as my friend and mentor Margaret Klawunn put it, while we're "fluctuating between boredom and terror." Colleges are trying to keep up with the new landscape, adjusting their admission requirements to accommodate student realities, the boring, the terrible and the indelibly altered. Your story, when you find it, is neither boring, or terrifying. It's perfect, and your job is to unearth it. Continue Reading …
Writing About Your Weaknesses in Your College Essay
A piece in which I say YES YOU CAN and tell you a story about my sour relationship with math. Will My Weaknesses Work Against Me in My College Essay? I had a parent reach out and ask if their kid was hurting their chances in their college essay by writing so articulately about their weaknesses. The answer is: no. Not if other ingredients are there. To be articulate about your weaknesses, to reckon with them honestly and without self-pity, to show transformation in your character (as this student did), these themselves are strengths. (And also commendable qualities in grown-up people: I know many who still can’t do this without elaborate defenses, and yelping ego). To also write well in the process, and think methodically? Well, these are prized traits in college admissions essays. So I want to take a minute to experiment with writing about one of my weaknesses--starts with an M, ends with an H, and has AT in the middle. 4 letters. Guess it yet? Continue Reading …
Frog and Toad Write Your College Essay
Frog and Toad Write Your College Essay In one episode of the children’s book series Frog and Toad, Toad is concerned. His friend Frog has gone alone to their favorite rock, unannounced. Frog and Toad announce everything to one another, so, yes, this is a little strange. Toad does what any anthropomorphizing amphibian would do in a vacuum of information: he starts making stuff up. Does Frog not like him anymore? Is Frog mad? Does Frog think Toad is not a good friend? Did the flies they had at their last dinner party suck? (They are not true to their species: they eat sandwiches, cookies and ice tea). Did Toad do something wrong? Continue Reading …
Strategies for College Supplements
My 5 year old asked me, "Isn't it funny, that 1 + 2 = 3, and when we count we go 1, 2, 3?" It was a statement framed as a question. I'm only supposed to agree: it's funny. And when I thought about it: maybe. He's at an age when saying ordinary things that are true is still remarkable to him. I wish we never grew out of that age, but here we are, grown up, and faced with what feel like harder supplemental essay questions. But I'd like to help you make your supplemental essays feel easier and maybe, if you hit your stride, compelling. Writing all the college supplements requires strategy. Continue Reading …