This pep talk is for anyone preparing to write their college essay, at any point in their future: don't keep the bar low. Your college essay should be a work of art because works of art are unforgettable. The work of art comes somewhere deep from within the artist. It is influenced by the matrix in which that artist exists. No two people create the *same* work of art, though themes may be shared. Even professional copyists have revelatory imperfections. Your college essay --humble, precise, maybe even funny-- will be a work of art, too. Fresh, honest, imagistic. With ingredients that do not appear in the same way elsewhere. With a turning point from which there is no turning away, or back. So don't go bullshitting yourself. Start priming your materials, now. Art is not lofty, yo! It's not a lofty goal. Art is for everyone, in every culture, and every life situation. For many of us, art is what gets us through the day. It defamiliarises reality, and offers new light. Through making art, we gain space from ourselves, and closeness to ourselves. We love helping you find the art in your college essay, and making it a work of art. Seed Your Draft We don't recommend beginning to work on your actual formal essay draft too early. What results might be belaboured, and aspects of ourselves still need to mature. But we do recommend seeding your field. Take notes in the field (yourself)-- journal, voice memo, sketching. Notice things about yourself and the environments you spend time in. What makes your body-or mind-- feel most alive, or most not alive? What catches and keeps your attention? When do you feel most you, or most in touch with life at large? What stories do you schlepp around with you, what themes? What is the thing you think you're not supposed to say...but that you secretly know has weight, meaning? Notice, jot, notice, jot. Whisper. Scream. I'm not an artist. Sorry, that's bullshit! We'll see you in the Continue Reading …
self-awareness
How to make your college essay more meaningful
Here's what NOT to do if you want your college essay to be more meaningful False stabs at a meaningful essay go like this: Try to make your writing sound like someone else's, preferably that person you know who got into Harvard early. Write it with one hand the night before it's due while picking your toes and scrolling google for quotes by famous people that feel even marginally applicable. Flip out about it and decide that you have to write with overwhelmingly convoluted lyric sentences and complete absence of ego. OK, now we got that out of the way, go for a walk. Then-- Here's what to do if you want your essay to be more meaningful Remember that you matter. Period. Decide that being stressed out about one more thing purely because everyone else is or tells you to be is boring. Decide you will not treat your college essay merely as something to have completed. Do not aim to use fancypants vocabulary words you would not use if talking to a good friend about a complex movie you loved. Slow down the writing process a little. Ask yourself what you would write about if you knew you would be listened to and understood. Write in order to be listened to and understood. Ask yourself how many things that you do in life are meaningful to you personally. If the list is short, why? Ask yourself what the most true thing is at this moment for you. What makes you sit up, stand up, rev up, tear up? Challenge yourself to describe a scene from your life with skin-tingling presence. Don't check social media accounts while writing your essay. This correlates with spikes in incomplete thoughts, and dips in contentment levels. Share your work with people who don't HAVE to read it, and ask them if they are moved. Then, talk about what you wrote. Drink a hot beverage you love, and go find some grass to look at. Some insects are living out their whole lives in that grass, at this very moment, not giving a damn. Give less of a Continue Reading …
But are you a good person?
The Good-Person Trend? Am I a good person? That question made the rounds this week with this NYTimes piece by a Dartmouth admission's officer, who herself had been rejected from the school when she applied. The article focused on an otherwise-averagely-strong student who was accepted to Dartmouth largely on the strength of his recommendation letter. What set this letter apart, and got his unanimous YES vote by the admissions committee? It was written by the school custodian, praising the student's level of basic respect, friendliness, and awareness for all people--ALL People-- at the school, the custodian included. Wait, but-- Am I a good person? Well, if you have to ask... You could go all politician-semantics and say, "Depends on how you define good." But you could also just look at yourself and what you do, take some notes, and evaluate. The writer warned that she expected a rash of applicants to follow the publication of the article with letters of support from their local garbage man, their school security guard, and so on. She was fine with that, if that trend tipped the balance of behavior and values in favor of students generally being truly good. But the thing is, a truly good person is not good BECAUSE OF WHAT IT GETS YOU. A truly good person is just good JUST BECAUSE. A Good person is good material I'm lucky-- my husband is this type of person. The other day, I was having a moan-y morning, feeling inadequate (hey, it happens sometimes), when he stopped me in my yowling tracks. You are good and loving, he said. What more do you want? Oh, gosh-- too bad I already applied to (and long finished) college! This would have been GREAT MATERIAL! No, you see, I am only kidding. Not everything can be used. Because I doubt this featured student was thinking, "I know: I'll clean up classrooms for four years, greet the custodians in the hall every time...so I can look good on my college application!" Good people do stuff Continue Reading …
Sample Essay: What makes a dad?
“He Doesn’t Know Me”: What Makes a Dad? A Personal Essay I got out of the car so that he could find parking. The tension between us was so thick, you could cut it with a knife. My father and I had been at each other’s throats for weeks. I didn’t like the way he treated me and he was sick of hearing me talk about it. Looking at it now, it amuses me that he believed that a pair of sneakers and a trip to Chipotle would make it all better. A part of me wanted to believe that our relationship would improve. That he wouldn’t forget my birthday and that he wouldn’t forget the days that he was supposed to come and visit. But I knew that it wasn’t going to change. One lunch wasn’t going to fix anything. Even though I was 11, I already knew that the damage had become irreversible. We entered Chipotle and I immediately smelled the aroma of guacamole. It was particularly busy and there was almost nowhere to sit. There was a sense of joy in the room, something that didn’t exist between me and my father. I walked over to the only empty table, while he ordered our food. There was a small puddle of hot sauce left by the last customer who didn’t have the decency to clean it up. I took a brown napkin from the dispenser and wiped it away, restoring the table to its shiny, silver condition. He walked over with a blank expression on his face as he placed our food on the table. I said, “Thank you,” but there was no response. My father stared at me from across the circular metal table with his cold dark brown eyes. The light bounced off the middle of his sweaty, bald caramel-colored head. Part of his chest tattoo was visible through his white t-shirt. He scratched his stubble before beginning to unwrap his burrito. We ate in silence for about five minutes until he got bored and decided to stir the pot. “I don’t like your hair that way,” he said in a harsh tone. “Sorry, but it’s not your hair so why does it matter?” I asked. “You are my child and I don’t like your Continue Reading …
Use your imagination to give up
Tony Morrison's "Give Up!" I have a crush on where your imagination can get you. I also have a crush on Toni Morrison, largely for her refined art of the simple sentences that slap you. This kind of writing startles you into productive awareness (ahem: aim for that in your college essay!). Take this quote: "Wanna fly, you got to give up the shit that weighs you down." (Song of Solomon) Oh, right. Continue Reading …
Face Your Inner Teenager
What's your Inner Teenager telling you? Even the most docile teenager, which I'd say I was (though my mom might put it otherwise), has a reactive streak, the impulse to reject or explode or "take things personally" that seems to come from nowhere. It's the reactivity of the teen that seems to get under the skin of their grown-ups. And the grown-up's inner teenager jumps into the ring. Especially when there is an important, high-stakes task to be completed (college essay, anyone?) for which the full-grown adult feels ultimately responsible and maybe overly-invested. Add to that the teen's fluctuation between grandiose self-importance (feeling the center of the universe-- because individuation sometimes requires laser focus) and tough plummets in self-esteem (feeling like the outcast of the universe--when someone's comment sent you headlong into self-loathing) and you have a cocktail for colossal arguments. The crux of the problem is with our own blind spots Turns out the crux of the problems might lie not with the teen, but in getting their full-grown adults (guardians, parents, care-givers) to embrace their inner teenager-- or rather, the inner truths that having a teenager around can force us to face. Some of the interpersonal conflict teens are blamed for might actually come from adults needing to be more introspective and honest about our feelings about our lives. In other words, you teens are smart, and onto something we full-grown adults just might need some of. Our discoveries could and should happen in tandem. Cutting-edge Neuroscience Says So! Luckily, smart neuroscientists and psychologists like Dr. Dan Siegel are doing some radical investigation of the teen brain. And what we're learning not only redeems (yup!) some of these behaviors, but let's us know that the reason for the adults getting so triggered lies as much with their own sense of self as with the teen's ___________ (fill in the blank-- insolence, mood swings, brashness, Continue Reading …