Make time to read these! I love when sites I respect go ahead and compile their best-of essays! Why? Because writers need to read. And there is so much good stuff out there, it's easy to miss. Check out the links in this post to bump up your personal essay range, and to see what 2017 dished up that's good to read. And if you're applying to one of these schools whose application deadlines are still looming, maybe one of the essays will inspire a new approach to your supplement. Maybe. Mostly, it's just important to read your face off. Because the work is so good. And so, naturally, you can write your head off. If an idea or thought stream comes to you while reading-- put that essay down and write, write, write. Some Go-To Essays to read for 2017 The "most moving" (does anyone not want to be moved?) essays of 2017 according to Bustle can be found here. Longreads, a great place to learn. Each essay tells you (approximately) how long you'll need to spend reading, and you won't be sad-- can be found here. This one, "Mothering Class" is from Salon's best, which can be found here. Collections you might want to pick up, especially if you're not even sure you like to read essays-- can be found here. (But be awesome and order from local bookseller!) Enjoy, and remember, if holiday season plans aren't leaving you enough time to read, no one can stop you from locking yourself in the bathroom, can they? We'll be reading right with you. Engage! If you have something to say about one of these essays, why not throw your comments on our FB page? Because the point of good writing is to stir us, move us, make us think, feel-- and connect. Want a prompt customized for you from one of these essays? Request that right here. Use the code IREADITNOWHAT in the body of your message to have a free Essay Intensive prompt sent to you-- but be sure to specify which essay you read! And, of course, pass on links to your favorite essays to everyone Continue Reading …
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How to wait for your college letter
Don’t (just) wait for those college admissions letters Are you caught up in the Big Wait, so your college admissions letters can determine your self-worth and direction? Are you just trying to kill time until Spring when those (crap, they are totally going to reject me) letters arrive? Nah. Nah-nah. You never know how it’s going to go. The admissions process is more arbitrary than you'd like. We have less control than we wish (over, well, everything). Accepted? Rejected? Why would you give all your power away to those labels? You've got more that that, I know it. Also-- poll your peers in college: even if you get into the school you're hoping desperately for, you STILL might not get what you thought you wanted (transfer apps, anyone?). So what can you do for the next four agonizing, god awful, interminable months, while you wait for your letters? A-ha! Refuse to live in anything but the now (pretty bad-ass, pretty hard) You can lean away from the collective anxiety. Be adamant about your right to be in this moment fully. It's a human right. It's annoying to hear and exhilarating to realize. The very best thing you can do in this waiting period is not wait at all. Instead, ask yourself what makes you want to go to college in the first place. Feed the person you wish to become. Guides to action are proliferating across the internet right now. Here's mine, for you: Ways to Not Just Wait (for Spring, or anything) Really give a crap about what your (good) teachers are saying. Learn as much from them as you can. Forgive your bad teachers. They don't know the damage they do, but you can be grateful to them as material for your writing and as counterexample. Ask your parents stuff. Learn about your family history. Push for details; listen with open mind. Challenge yourself. Not for that admissions brag sheet, not because anyone's looking. Just because. Not feeling school? Learn something online. This is the internet, a Continue Reading …
Powerful People Pause
The "fail" pause and the perfect pause I start almost every essay support session asking students to read-aloud their college essay drafts, and for most it's like asking them to read the omens in my baby's dirty diapers. I can't count the number of times my students lower their eyes and barrel through the read-aloud, with nary a pause. Well, that's not true: they take one pause at the beginning, the "fail" pause, and the last and only time they'll inhale for the duration of their read. A puree of words, no connection to the audience (me), no pacing to measure impact or resonance. I can hardly hear them, and they can hardly hear themselves. They zoom through the read, like the Dalai Lama will condemn them to Samsara, or Obama exile them from the US, if they take too long or stumble on a sentence. (That's why DL and BO are sitting up there in the photo looking so compassionate, right guys?). Lose me or hold me? By contrast, my Whole Heart Connection teacher, Thea Elijah, can hold a whole room with her pause. Nobody snickers, squirms, or gets nervous. No one checks their phone or doubts her credibility. The silence is not awkward. It is very very very full. Everyone just waits for her to begin speaking again. How come? Two kinds of pauses Thea describes it this way: there are two kinds of pauses. There is the pause where the speaker disconnects from the room (the audience), goes inside, and gets lost in their own stuff. They have "lost touch with the field" (i.e. the rest of us. Hellooooooooo, come back!). But then there is the very different kind of pause where the speaker stays connected to the room (the audience) but stops speaking long enough to check-in inside. Like an energetic, mighty octopus, the speaker is still completely aware and part of "the needs and the nature of field" (i.e. the rest of us). The first kind of pause is the lost cause. You can make a come-back from it, but basically you've given your audience a Continue Reading …