My Application Essay Journey

Dear Mrs. Windust and Mr. Arleth,

It’s been a great journey to reaching the finished product of my application essay. For me, it was one of the most difficult writing styles to try. I learned a lot from this process about writing and myself as a writer.

My piece definitely isn’t perfect, but I’m proud of how I was able to show something that was unique to me. I came up with this idea while my grandma was skyping me, but I was setting myself up to be the perfect character and my essay had little meaning to me as a writer. However, by reading Mrs. Windust’s essay and “Armpit Hair”, I learned how to set myself up as imperfect. The whole point of my essay was how I realised that I was not being a good person and I changed, and that change is a big part of who I am now. If I hadn’t had mentor texts and guidance, I wouldn’t have had the element in my essay that I’m most pleased with. Here's an excerpt from my essay where I am the...let's say antihero.

" I used to imagine my grandma as invisible; like I could see right through her. However, in that moment, when my grandma was trying to remember the word spaghetti, I thought maybe, it’s possible, I was transparent one; too shallow to notice. "

One thing that I wasn’t expecting to learn, though, how much I depended on the opinions of others. The application essay was about whether the reader could get a piece of the writer or not; every time I wrote something, I would wonder whether it would make sense to a reader. I went to my friends for advice and told them not to sugarcoat the edges. Also, while assessing myself, I mainly thought, “If I was reading this, would I like it?”.

Assessing myself was incredibly hard, because I felt like I looking at my piece with the eyes of a writer instead of the reader. The first time I looked over it with the eyes of a reader, I realised my writing was bad. And boring. However, if I hadn’t taken the time to read over my story, I wouldn’t have seen how bad it was. I fixed a lot of it, and when I read it over again, it was a lot better, in my opinion.

After a weekend without working on my application essay, I can think of a few things I want to fine tune. I would cut out some of the cliches in my writing, but mainly work on clarity and repetition. I know myself well enough to know I have a bad habit of saying the same thing in different words to fill up space. When it comes to clarity, I would explain parts that wouldn’t make much sense to people who don’t know me. Also, my conclusion may be a bit confusing or off topic; I wish I could come up with a stronger one.

I still have areas of my essay that need work, but I’m so proud to have my finished product. It’s been a long ride with ups and downs (I’m exhausted), but I’ve learned a lot.

Your Dedicated RLA Student,

Anushka