Personal Essay

Last Monday, I had to write a personal essay for a school application. The question asked who I was, what my story was, and why did it bring me here to this program. The essay was to be graded based on comprehension of task and storytelling ability as well as basic spelling and grammar.

The essay was handwritten in about 30 minutes. It was to be a page and a half, single-spaced.

Here is roughly what I wrote about:

• My name is Annie Chen and I am applying to the Copywriting program. 
• For so much of my life, I have written. It is my personal and academic life. It is the stack of black Moleskine journals sitting on my shelf. It is the countless hours sitting in plain, uninspiring old gymnasiums writing 3-hour exams for my political studies degree. 
• Writing is describing everything since I was 16. It is my first degree, my first heartbreak, my first time having sex, my first time living on my own. It is all the moments of joy but also wrinkled with tears. Some of my Moleskine journals are bursting at the seams, filled with personal anecdotes and movie stubs. 
• Writing is my political studies degree that I cannot even call a science. It is countless hours of writing in exam rooms, and watching the sun rise as I try to finish my next paper that does not include much bias. Political studies is arguing for a point, but it is not to show too much bias. It is to convince someone, but to do so without too harsh of an opinion. 
• I have struggled for almost two years since I graduated in June of 2015. I have struggled trying to rediscover my bias, my opinions, my passion. My political studies degree has stripped me of my bias. It has stripped me of the indignation and fire of the 16-year-old. I want my bias back. 
• What better way is there than advertising, where bias and persuasion is set and undeniable?

This is some of the points of my personal essay. I compared my personal writing to my academic writing. I talked about the bias present in my own writing and the bias that is supposed to be hidden in my academic writing. I talked about bias as a sense of direction, and one that I have since lost after being told that it cannot be shown. I say that I enjoy writing, and I want to rediscover it. I want to go to the Copywriting program. 

On February 15th, I was emailed my offer. Starting September 2017, I will be going back to school.