1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:06,560 Hi everyone, this is Albert Chen of The Pop Out, and if you made it this far, that tells 2 00:00:06,560 --> 00:00:12,880 me that, for one, you are not completely turned off by my personality, but two, you're finding 3 00:00:12,880 --> 00:00:17,680 at least some of the information here, or some of the discussions here, useful, aside 4 00:00:17,680 --> 00:00:21,480 from maybe my Tyre Tuesdays. 5 00:00:21,480 --> 00:00:26,360 I do have a sincere request of everyone who's listening. 6 00:00:26,360 --> 00:00:31,320 That is that I ask that you do some things to support this particular podcast, and I 7 00:00:31,320 --> 00:00:36,920 want to first give you the reason for it, and then make the request. 8 00:00:36,920 --> 00:00:43,720 So ideally, one of the reasons I started this podcast is I wanted to get in contact with 9 00:00:43,720 --> 00:00:46,400 students who actually needed assistance. 10 00:00:46,400 --> 00:00:54,240 One of the things that's hardest in the private sector of education is the connecting up of 11 00:00:54,240 --> 00:00:57,520 the student to the right instructor. 12 00:00:57,520 --> 00:01:02,040 It's hard to know the right people to draw the right sort of connection so that students 13 00:01:02,040 --> 00:01:07,400 get paired up with the people that could help them the best for what they need help with. 14 00:01:07,400 --> 00:01:11,960 And I started this podcast in part because I didn't know where to find these students. 15 00:01:11,960 --> 00:01:17,080 I've gotten students handed to me, essentially, through word of mouth. 16 00:01:17,080 --> 00:01:21,400 People that I've worked with, people who trust me, have said, hey, I found a student, they're 17 00:01:21,400 --> 00:01:25,360 going through some things, and I think you could be of real help to them, and then they'll 18 00:01:25,360 --> 00:01:27,480 send them over my way. 19 00:01:27,480 --> 00:01:31,040 But I wanted to just do something a little bit more proactive to try to reach out to 20 00:01:31,040 --> 00:01:36,960 see if there's anybody that I vibe with where I can be of some use in helping them in their 21 00:01:36,960 --> 00:01:38,160 journey. 22 00:01:38,160 --> 00:01:45,720 So since that was the goal of this podcast, my hope was that this podcast spreads as much 23 00:01:45,720 --> 00:01:51,920 as possible to students, to parents, to fellow educators who needs a space to talk to somebody 24 00:01:51,920 --> 00:01:56,940 about whatever it is that they're having to work through, just have someone to bounce 25 00:01:56,940 --> 00:02:00,440 ideas or thoughts off of. 26 00:02:00,440 --> 00:02:06,000 And so I really would like there to be enough people so that we could actually start doing 27 00:02:06,000 --> 00:02:11,600 some live streams where I can just go directly to the people who need assistance and provide 28 00:02:11,600 --> 00:02:18,160 my honest feedback, or to get them connected with the right resources so that they get 29 00:02:18,160 --> 00:02:20,920 the help they need if it's something that I cannot provide. 30 00:02:20,920 --> 00:02:25,440 I hope that at least I could direct them to the right places. 31 00:02:25,440 --> 00:02:31,960 So with all that said, what I would like from the listeners who actually do enjoy this podcast, 32 00:02:31,960 --> 00:02:38,600 and only if you actually enjoy it and you find this to be useful, is for you to like, 33 00:02:38,600 --> 00:02:44,320 subscribe, share, find ways to kind of just spread the word. 34 00:02:44,320 --> 00:02:49,080 And specifically, I would prefer to be, you know, I know that this podcast is on a lot 35 00:02:49,080 --> 00:02:53,400 of different platforms, but I prefer that you try to find us on YouTube. 36 00:02:53,400 --> 00:02:55,760 And the reason for that is just more logistics, right? 37 00:02:55,760 --> 00:03:00,160 I just wanted one place where I could handle the live streams, but also make sure that 38 00:03:00,160 --> 00:03:02,520 the rest of the community kind of was there. 39 00:03:02,520 --> 00:03:07,360 And I've played around with different platforms and I have a preference for YouTube. 40 00:03:07,360 --> 00:03:11,640 Just for the comments section where people could just directly ask questions, I could 41 00:03:11,640 --> 00:03:16,560 take a look into and prepare responses to them. 42 00:03:16,560 --> 00:03:20,480 But also because the live streaming is just going to be a little bit smoother. 43 00:03:20,480 --> 00:03:23,600 They just have the resources to handle larger groups. 44 00:03:23,600 --> 00:03:32,560 So if you do enjoy it and you want to find ways to support us, please like, share, subscribe 45 00:03:32,560 --> 00:03:33,960 on YouTube. 46 00:03:33,960 --> 00:03:40,040 Additionally, and this is only if you have the resources, I would ask that you find ways 47 00:03:40,040 --> 00:03:41,040 to donate. 48 00:03:41,040 --> 00:03:46,560 I put the information on all the different platforms of the different methods of payment 49 00:03:46,560 --> 00:03:51,680 like Cash App, PayPal, Venmo, whatever is preferable to you. 50 00:03:51,680 --> 00:03:54,600 But you know, creating these podcasts do take time. 51 00:03:54,600 --> 00:03:58,440 And as you can see, the sound quality is not necessarily the greatest. 52 00:03:58,440 --> 00:04:02,300 I'm a one man operation and I know nothing about anything that I'm doing. 53 00:04:02,300 --> 00:04:07,240 This is all the first time, including making the intro music. 54 00:04:07,240 --> 00:04:08,240 What is it? 55 00:04:08,240 --> 00:04:09,240 Doing the audio editing. 56 00:04:09,240 --> 00:04:11,920 I've never done that before, so this is all just new to me. 57 00:04:11,920 --> 00:04:17,280 And I know that some of the sound sounds muddy and it doesn't sound as crisp and professional. 58 00:04:17,280 --> 00:04:18,680 That's because I'm not a professional. 59 00:04:18,680 --> 00:04:20,360 I'm a complete amateur. 60 00:04:20,360 --> 00:04:26,280 So you know, ideally it would be nice if I could hire one of my former students or current 61 00:04:26,280 --> 00:04:32,680 students who are well versed in these areas to help out with some sound editing to help 62 00:04:32,680 --> 00:04:34,760 improve the experience for the listeners. 63 00:04:34,760 --> 00:04:42,240 But also, you know, especially as more and more people start to come on with their comments 64 00:04:42,240 --> 00:04:49,240 and feedback that I could hope to have somebody here that will help out with the compiling 65 00:04:49,240 --> 00:04:50,640 of all the different requests. 66 00:04:50,640 --> 00:04:55,800 And then we could also do some more research on assisting people in the ways that is needed. 67 00:04:55,800 --> 00:05:00,000 But all of this takes time and resources and it's time and resources that I individually 68 00:05:00,000 --> 00:05:01,920 do not have. 69 00:05:01,920 --> 00:05:04,960 As you know, I have a day job, a full time job. 70 00:05:04,960 --> 00:05:09,360 So this is just something more on the side to do. 71 00:05:09,360 --> 00:05:15,920 And so if you could find ways to support this channel, this podcast, I would greatly appreciate 72 00:05:15,920 --> 00:05:16,920 it. 73 00:05:16,920 --> 00:05:21,440 But I've always wanted this podcast to be something where I ensure that everybody has 74 00:05:21,440 --> 00:05:22,560 access to the same thing. 75 00:05:22,560 --> 00:05:26,080 So I'm not going to create any special memberships or perks. 76 00:05:26,080 --> 00:05:30,240 I think everybody should be deserving of the same information. 77 00:05:30,240 --> 00:05:34,440 So if you believe in the mission, if you believe in what we're trying to do here and you want 78 00:05:34,440 --> 00:05:38,120 to support us monetarily, we greatly appreciate it. 79 00:05:38,120 --> 00:05:39,680 It will remain anonymous. 80 00:05:39,680 --> 00:05:44,600 I'm not here to kind of, you know, shout out people's names, though it is greatly appreciated. 81 00:05:44,600 --> 00:05:46,640 But I will keep it anonymous. 82 00:05:46,640 --> 00:05:50,200 We'll send you direct thank you notes separately. 83 00:05:50,200 --> 00:05:58,040 And we'll make sure to use those resources you send over to good use, including improving 84 00:05:58,040 --> 00:06:00,880 the podcast experience here. 85 00:06:00,880 --> 00:06:01,880 I really do. 86 00:06:01,880 --> 00:06:04,360 I'm hoping that we could get some guests on at some point. 87 00:06:04,360 --> 00:06:07,960 I do know some people who I think would be great additions to our conversation. 88 00:06:07,960 --> 00:06:09,520 So there's a lot of great things coming up. 89 00:06:09,520 --> 00:06:15,600 But again, how much I do and how quickly I do it will depend heavily on the support from 90 00:06:15,600 --> 00:06:18,280 you, the listeners. 91 00:06:18,280 --> 00:06:24,920 So yeah, most importantly, please like, subscribe, turn on the notifications so that you get 92 00:06:24,920 --> 00:06:27,120 notice of when we're going to do these live streams. 93 00:06:27,120 --> 00:06:31,920 I'll also try to give you ample opportunity by making the announcements ahead of time. 94 00:06:31,920 --> 00:06:35,960 And I hope that you join in and I will create this community where we could really be a 95 00:06:35,960 --> 00:06:38,600 resource for one another. 96 00:06:38,600 --> 00:06:58,360 So I'll see you now for the next show. 97 00:06:58,360 --> 00:07:00,680 Welcome everybody to the Pop Out. 98 00:07:00,680 --> 00:07:09,000 I'm your host, Albert Shin, and I am here to talk about personal statements part two. 99 00:07:09,000 --> 00:07:13,120 This is going to be a discussion of how to actually write one of these personal statements. 100 00:07:13,120 --> 00:07:17,640 Now, last time I talked to you a little bit about what the purpose of a personal statement 101 00:07:17,640 --> 00:07:18,760 is, right? 102 00:07:18,760 --> 00:07:25,480 And I was trying to break some of the myths that exist around personal statements. 103 00:07:25,480 --> 00:07:31,480 And you'll notice this about me that I tend to focus less on the exactly what you talk 104 00:07:31,480 --> 00:07:37,480 about and focus more on the purpose behind what you're talking about, right? 105 00:07:37,480 --> 00:07:42,760 And last time I tried to explain to you that personal statements are not necessarily about 106 00:07:42,760 --> 00:07:44,280 showing off how wonderful you are. 107 00:07:44,280 --> 00:07:47,600 I mean, it should show you yourself in a positive light. 108 00:07:47,600 --> 00:07:53,080 But the purpose of a personal statement is really to contextualize everything in your 109 00:07:53,080 --> 00:08:00,560 application and to fill in gaps to be informative of the details that are missing in the rest 110 00:08:00,560 --> 00:08:02,600 of your application, right? 111 00:08:02,600 --> 00:08:06,440 And so what I'm going to talk about today in terms of exactly how to write a personal 112 00:08:06,440 --> 00:08:11,720 statement, this is a particular style of writing and a type of writing with a very particular 113 00:08:11,720 --> 00:08:17,760 purpose that it'll be helpful for you to get better at, not just for college applications, 114 00:08:17,760 --> 00:08:24,520 but especially for those of you who are trying to go into professional and graduate schools 115 00:08:24,520 --> 00:08:29,360 later on, you're going to be asked to write a personal statement at some point again. 116 00:08:29,360 --> 00:08:33,800 And even those of you who are just going to go straight into the workforce and want to 117 00:08:33,800 --> 00:08:39,640 be able to present yourself in a way that clearly demonstrates the right kind of fit 118 00:08:39,640 --> 00:08:44,480 with wherever it is you're applying to, knowing how to write a personal statement can be extremely 119 00:08:44,480 --> 00:08:45,480 helpful. 120 00:08:45,480 --> 00:08:46,480 Okay. 121 00:08:46,480 --> 00:08:47,480 All right. 122 00:08:47,480 --> 00:08:53,640 So what exactly is the approach to personal statements and how is it different than other 123 00:08:53,640 --> 00:08:54,920 kinds of writing? 124 00:08:54,920 --> 00:08:56,760 Well, the name says it all. 125 00:08:56,760 --> 00:08:59,200 It's a personal statement. 126 00:08:59,200 --> 00:09:01,200 You're going to have to get personal. 127 00:09:01,200 --> 00:09:02,200 Okay. 128 00:09:02,200 --> 00:09:06,820 So which means that you need to have a good sense of who you are. 129 00:09:06,820 --> 00:09:08,520 This is going to be the starting point. 130 00:09:08,520 --> 00:09:09,520 Okay. 131 00:09:09,520 --> 00:09:13,240 I cannot tell you the number of times I have met students who look great on paper. 132 00:09:13,240 --> 00:09:14,800 They are very intelligent. 133 00:09:14,800 --> 00:09:16,000 They know how to write. 134 00:09:16,000 --> 00:09:25,440 They have really honed their skills in writing and in the work that they do and receiving 135 00:09:25,440 --> 00:09:26,440 a bunch of accolades. 136 00:09:26,440 --> 00:09:29,040 They're just like on paper, they just look great. 137 00:09:29,040 --> 00:09:31,120 And then I am trying to help them with their personal statement. 138 00:09:31,120 --> 00:09:33,760 I look at their personal statement and I'm like, okay, this is trash. 139 00:09:33,760 --> 00:09:38,280 Well, I don't say it necessarily like that, but it's clearly not a high quality personal 140 00:09:38,280 --> 00:09:39,760 statement. 141 00:09:39,760 --> 00:09:44,320 And then so I have to kind of start from the bottom up to figure out what is this student 142 00:09:44,320 --> 00:09:48,520 about, what makes them tick, what drives them, what motivates them, where is this coming 143 00:09:48,520 --> 00:09:51,240 from? 144 00:09:51,240 --> 00:09:56,360 And I would work with them and months and months of working on it and editing and they're 145 00:09:56,360 --> 00:10:00,400 frustrated and I'm frustrated because there's not very much progress. 146 00:10:00,400 --> 00:10:05,920 And part of the reason there's not a lot of progress is that there's not a sense of self 147 00:10:05,920 --> 00:10:11,720 awareness that allows them to tap into their own life experiences to be able to properly 148 00:10:11,720 --> 00:10:14,520 explain who they are. 149 00:10:14,520 --> 00:10:15,520 Right. 150 00:10:15,520 --> 00:10:21,320 Talking personally in this way is a skill set that needs to be developed. 151 00:10:21,320 --> 00:10:25,560 And by the time you get to college applications, it's going to be too late for you to really 152 00:10:25,560 --> 00:10:26,560 develop it. 153 00:10:26,560 --> 00:10:27,560 This doesn't happen overnight. 154 00:10:27,560 --> 00:10:32,900 This is something that you develop after years and years of really kind of reflecting on 155 00:10:32,900 --> 00:10:40,000 your experiences, which means that if you really want to write a good personal statement, 156 00:10:40,000 --> 00:10:47,160 the place to actually start is really thinking about who you are, figuring out your identity, 157 00:10:47,160 --> 00:10:48,560 figuring out what makes you tick. 158 00:10:48,560 --> 00:10:49,560 Right. 159 00:10:49,560 --> 00:10:50,560 There's a lot of different ways to do this. 160 00:10:50,560 --> 00:10:51,560 Right. 161 00:10:51,560 --> 00:10:55,920 I mean, children do it at an early age by doing, you know, writing diaries. 162 00:10:55,920 --> 00:11:01,400 Some people I know, I have friends who have journaled well into their adult years as just 163 00:11:01,400 --> 00:11:05,120 a good exercise for slowing down and reflecting on life. 164 00:11:05,120 --> 00:11:06,120 Right. 165 00:11:06,120 --> 00:11:11,800 And especially in this climate in education, students are so busy doing a lot of things 166 00:11:11,800 --> 00:11:15,560 without really considering the meaning behind what they're doing. 167 00:11:15,560 --> 00:11:16,560 Right. 168 00:11:16,560 --> 00:11:22,120 Like what are they actually getting out of the experience that is deeply moving and meaningful 169 00:11:22,120 --> 00:11:23,620 for them? 170 00:11:23,620 --> 00:11:28,680 If you're too busy just doing stuff, you're not really taking the time to appreciate what 171 00:11:28,680 --> 00:11:29,780 it is that you're doing. 172 00:11:29,780 --> 00:11:34,880 And so you're not going to have a good sense of why you're doing what you're doing because 173 00:11:34,880 --> 00:11:38,360 it's not connecting to anything about you in any way. 174 00:11:38,360 --> 00:11:40,360 Instead, it's just stuff you're doing. 175 00:11:40,360 --> 00:11:41,360 Right. 176 00:11:41,360 --> 00:11:43,640 Kind of like mindless activities that we might do. 177 00:11:43,640 --> 00:11:44,640 Right. 178 00:11:44,640 --> 00:11:48,840 It might show up on the resume as you've done a bunch of stuff, but there's nothing particularly 179 00:11:48,840 --> 00:11:54,680 special or, you know, revealing about those activities, revealing at least in the sense 180 00:11:54,680 --> 00:11:57,280 of revealing about you as a person. 181 00:11:57,280 --> 00:11:58,280 Okay. 182 00:11:58,280 --> 00:12:02,920 So if you want to write a better personal statement, the first place to start has nothing 183 00:12:02,920 --> 00:12:03,920 to do with writing. 184 00:12:03,920 --> 00:12:06,520 It actually has to do with you getting to know yourself. 185 00:12:06,520 --> 00:12:07,520 Right. 186 00:12:07,520 --> 00:12:11,840 So last time I suggested an exercise where you kind of go through your life experiences 187 00:12:11,840 --> 00:12:16,000 and really track the things that were most meaningful for you, the things that would 188 00:12:16,000 --> 00:12:21,760 stick out in your memory, the things that are ever present when you think back on your 189 00:12:21,760 --> 00:12:22,760 life. 190 00:12:22,760 --> 00:12:23,760 Right. 191 00:12:23,760 --> 00:12:28,520 I was suggesting that a lot of these moments probably have impacted you in some sort of 192 00:12:28,520 --> 00:12:29,520 way. 193 00:12:29,520 --> 00:12:31,220 There's a reason that these memories stick. 194 00:12:31,220 --> 00:12:37,560 It's because it touched something in you, some core aspect of you, or it was important 195 00:12:37,560 --> 00:12:43,160 for shaping your identity or shaping your interest or whatever it might be. 196 00:12:43,160 --> 00:12:44,460 Okay. 197 00:12:44,460 --> 00:12:46,280 So that's one exercise that you can do. 198 00:12:46,280 --> 00:12:51,080 Like I said, you could do journaling if you'd like, but my personal favorite, and this is 199 00:12:51,080 --> 00:12:54,840 something that I've been doing for over a decade now, is getting therapy. 200 00:12:54,840 --> 00:12:55,840 Right. 201 00:12:55,840 --> 00:13:00,040 Now, I know there's still a bit of stigma, although over the last few decades that stigma 202 00:13:00,040 --> 00:13:01,720 has kind of diminished a bit. 203 00:13:01,720 --> 00:13:06,200 But I think there's a lot of ideas going around around therapy thinking that, oh, I need to 204 00:13:06,200 --> 00:13:10,480 have suffered through something horrible or have a mental illness to go seek a therapist, 205 00:13:10,480 --> 00:13:14,400 to seek a psychologist and go to these sessions. 206 00:13:14,400 --> 00:13:21,000 That's actually not at all what these sessions are, or at least need to be. 207 00:13:21,000 --> 00:13:22,000 Right. 208 00:13:22,000 --> 00:13:23,000 Yeah. 209 00:13:23,000 --> 00:13:26,280 In some cases, somebody might be suffering from severe depression and then so need to 210 00:13:26,280 --> 00:13:27,720 go seek a therapist. 211 00:13:27,720 --> 00:13:34,720 In some cases, it could be an underlying neurological or physiological issue, in which case you 212 00:13:34,720 --> 00:13:39,120 might seek a psychiatrist because you might need the medication of some sort. 213 00:13:39,120 --> 00:13:40,360 Okay. 214 00:13:40,360 --> 00:13:46,960 But other times, the therapists are there to help improve the way that you navigate 215 00:13:46,960 --> 00:13:54,840 life by better understanding your emotions, your responses to stimuli, to situations, 216 00:13:54,840 --> 00:14:00,720 and it gives you a better sense of control and agency over yourself. 217 00:14:00,720 --> 00:14:04,080 That's really what ideally it should lead you to do. 218 00:14:04,080 --> 00:14:07,640 Now, I will say this from the beginning that this is a luxury. 219 00:14:07,640 --> 00:14:11,760 This is absolutely a luxury because therapy in the United States is extremely expensive. 220 00:14:11,760 --> 00:14:15,520 It is actually difficult to find a good therapist. 221 00:14:15,520 --> 00:14:17,920 There are a lot of good therapists, but sometimes it's a matter of fit. 222 00:14:17,920 --> 00:14:18,920 Right. 223 00:14:18,920 --> 00:14:23,360 Some therapists you can trust because of your own personal experiences. 224 00:14:23,360 --> 00:14:28,040 You find it easier to trust than others or some therapists who feel like their approach 225 00:14:28,040 --> 00:14:30,280 kind of fits in with your worldviews. 226 00:14:30,280 --> 00:14:33,880 And so you find that you click with a particular therapist. 227 00:14:33,880 --> 00:14:36,440 There's a lot of trial and error that happens. 228 00:14:36,440 --> 00:14:37,440 Right. 229 00:14:37,440 --> 00:14:42,600 But I think that it's an extremely helpful experience in part because in the sessions, 230 00:14:42,600 --> 00:14:48,920 if you really want to make it worthwhile, you're forced to confront your true self. 231 00:14:48,920 --> 00:14:49,920 Right. 232 00:14:49,920 --> 00:14:52,120 Your truest, most authentic self. 233 00:14:52,120 --> 00:14:53,760 That's not necessarily the prettiest picture. 234 00:14:53,760 --> 00:14:54,760 Right. 235 00:14:54,760 --> 00:15:03,440 It could reveal that you get jealous and are petty sometimes or, you know, you are insecure 236 00:15:03,440 --> 00:15:04,720 about something or another. 237 00:15:04,720 --> 00:15:05,720 Right. 238 00:15:05,720 --> 00:15:08,720 Like it could reveal things that you don't necessarily like about yourself. 239 00:15:08,720 --> 00:15:10,160 OK. 240 00:15:10,160 --> 00:15:11,160 But here's the thing. 241 00:15:11,160 --> 00:15:18,040 If you do not take the time to address those, you know, now, then it's not as if it's going 242 00:15:18,040 --> 00:15:19,040 to go away. 243 00:15:19,040 --> 00:15:21,800 It's just going to manifest itself in other ways as you grow older. 244 00:15:21,800 --> 00:15:24,600 And in fact, as you grow older, it probably gets worse. 245 00:15:24,600 --> 00:15:27,960 If anything, you spend too much time trying to cover up your insecurities, for instance. 246 00:15:27,960 --> 00:15:29,400 That's how you breed narcissists. 247 00:15:29,400 --> 00:15:30,400 Right. 248 00:15:30,400 --> 00:15:31,400 That's where narcissists come from. 249 00:15:31,400 --> 00:15:35,480 This is rooted in this deep seated insecurity that they're trying to constantly cover up 250 00:15:35,480 --> 00:15:38,760 by putting down others or puffing themselves up. 251 00:15:38,760 --> 00:15:39,760 Right. 252 00:15:39,760 --> 00:15:43,000 So, look, what I'm saying is the following. 253 00:15:43,000 --> 00:15:44,000 Right. 254 00:15:44,000 --> 00:15:49,760 Whatever method you use, you know, whether it's conversing with others, with professional 255 00:15:49,760 --> 00:15:57,160 or friends or family or doing some journaling or, you know, like I said, to each their own. 256 00:15:57,160 --> 00:15:58,160 Right. 257 00:15:58,160 --> 00:16:04,520 You find a way that you feel comfortable with, that you find, you know, a way that you can 258 00:16:04,520 --> 00:16:09,100 challenge yourself to dig deeper into who you are, but also at the same time with people 259 00:16:09,100 --> 00:16:15,160 that you can trust so you don't you're not in an unsafe position emotionally, especially. 260 00:16:15,160 --> 00:16:21,000 You know, just find the time and make it a priority to do some of this work. 261 00:16:21,000 --> 00:16:25,880 Which means it's going to take time away from doing a bunch of stuff. 262 00:16:25,880 --> 00:16:26,880 Right. 263 00:16:26,880 --> 00:16:29,860 It's going to require you to slow down and just be attentive maybe to the things that 264 00:16:29,860 --> 00:16:31,640 you're doing or why you're doing it. 265 00:16:31,640 --> 00:16:32,640 OK. 266 00:16:32,640 --> 00:16:35,680 It's going to mean that you're going to have to be more selective with things like extracurricular 267 00:16:35,680 --> 00:16:40,040 activities or what you do with your free time, hobbies, that you are going to be a little 268 00:16:40,040 --> 00:16:46,240 bit more mindful in what it is that you pick and choose to spend your time on. 269 00:16:46,240 --> 00:16:53,280 This is all a product of you kind of slowing down and focusing on yourself, focusing on 270 00:16:53,280 --> 00:16:55,600 what it is that you really want. 271 00:16:55,600 --> 00:16:59,760 What is it that you're doing because other people have told you you should do it and 272 00:16:59,760 --> 00:17:05,160 other things that you are doing just to do it like mindlessly, thoughtlessly, just doing 273 00:17:05,160 --> 00:17:06,880 it just because. 274 00:17:06,880 --> 00:17:08,940 Right. 275 00:17:08,940 --> 00:17:11,280 And so this is where it's going to start. 276 00:17:11,280 --> 00:17:17,440 If you have trouble with this area, your personal statements will always feel lacking. 277 00:17:17,440 --> 00:17:18,440 Right. 278 00:17:18,440 --> 00:17:19,800 It'll always feel lacking. 279 00:17:19,800 --> 00:17:25,200 I have found that the students that have written the best personal statements are not necessarily 280 00:17:25,200 --> 00:17:27,000 the best writers. 281 00:17:27,000 --> 00:17:33,080 They're students who have spent time reflecting and have come to kind of accept and understand 282 00:17:33,080 --> 00:17:36,360 themselves, both their strengths and their limitations. 283 00:17:36,360 --> 00:17:37,360 Right. 284 00:17:37,360 --> 00:17:38,840 They know what they like. 285 00:17:38,840 --> 00:17:40,560 They know what they don't like. 286 00:17:40,560 --> 00:17:42,840 They know what they want to do. 287 00:17:42,840 --> 00:17:45,040 They know what they don't want to do. 288 00:17:45,040 --> 00:17:49,120 Or if they don't know what they want to do, they know at least some of the things about 289 00:17:49,120 --> 00:17:53,880 themselves so that they have an understanding of what direction would make the most sense. 290 00:17:53,880 --> 00:17:54,880 Right. 291 00:17:54,880 --> 00:17:57,720 We often learn a lot of this from in the context of relationships. 292 00:17:57,720 --> 00:17:58,720 Right. 293 00:17:58,720 --> 00:18:02,800 This includes relationship with parents, which sometimes could be contentious. 294 00:18:02,800 --> 00:18:08,000 Other times it could be a source of great support with friends who sometimes might call 295 00:18:08,000 --> 00:18:09,000 us out. 296 00:18:09,000 --> 00:18:10,640 I will say this. 297 00:18:10,640 --> 00:18:14,600 You have good friends if you have friends who will call you out for your bullshit and 298 00:18:14,600 --> 00:18:18,400 will force you to look in the mirror and accept some ugly sides of you. 299 00:18:18,400 --> 00:18:19,400 Those are good friends. 300 00:18:19,400 --> 00:18:20,400 Okay. 301 00:18:20,400 --> 00:18:21,680 Friends who just pump you up. 302 00:18:21,680 --> 00:18:24,300 And you know, those are not real friends. 303 00:18:24,300 --> 00:18:26,800 Friends will challenge you because they care. 304 00:18:26,800 --> 00:18:27,800 Right. 305 00:18:27,800 --> 00:18:31,320 If you care about a friend, you will make sure that they don't move in a direction that 306 00:18:31,320 --> 00:18:32,600 is harmful to themselves. 307 00:18:32,600 --> 00:18:33,600 Right. 308 00:18:33,600 --> 00:18:38,840 And you know, friends could be a good source of resource and a good big help in this area. 309 00:18:38,840 --> 00:18:44,360 Whatever method you use, like I said, you need to start taking time to really get a 310 00:18:44,360 --> 00:18:46,320 good grasp of who you are. 311 00:18:46,320 --> 00:18:47,320 Okay. 312 00:18:47,320 --> 00:18:51,600 So all these suggestions are just, you know, some of many. 313 00:18:51,600 --> 00:18:52,840 Whatever you find works for you. 314 00:18:52,840 --> 00:18:55,080 Please, I would say, start doing it. 315 00:18:55,080 --> 00:18:58,800 Ideally, I mean, you know, you can't do it at a too early of an age. 316 00:18:58,800 --> 00:19:03,240 You know, just human brain develops at a certain rate and just, you know, physiologically, 317 00:19:03,240 --> 00:19:07,520 I just know that it's probably going to be starting in high school at some point where 318 00:19:07,520 --> 00:19:13,280 you can do a lot more deeper reflection on yourself, on your identity. 319 00:19:13,280 --> 00:19:14,280 Right. 320 00:19:14,280 --> 00:19:17,360 Oh, one other exercise that I thought was interesting that actually helped me a lot 321 00:19:17,360 --> 00:19:22,280 was talking to older family members. 322 00:19:22,280 --> 00:19:23,280 Right. 323 00:19:23,280 --> 00:19:28,480 So older cousins, uncles, aunts, grandparents, if they're available. 324 00:19:28,480 --> 00:19:29,480 Right. 325 00:19:29,480 --> 00:19:35,440 So conversations about family history, learning about, you know, where you come from. 326 00:19:35,440 --> 00:19:37,560 That's been super helpful. 327 00:19:37,560 --> 00:19:40,720 But you know, you could also learn it by talking to people in your community, because if you 328 00:19:40,720 --> 00:19:46,520 grew up in one area for a really long time, knowing what other people in that community 329 00:19:46,520 --> 00:19:50,680 you're seeing could help you make better sense of your own experience, because there might 330 00:19:50,680 --> 00:19:55,280 be some points of intersection between your experiences and theirs. 331 00:19:55,280 --> 00:20:00,880 And so they might give you the words or, you know, a way to kind of explain your experience 332 00:20:00,880 --> 00:20:03,880 in ways that others might not have been able to. 333 00:20:03,880 --> 00:20:06,520 OK, so get to know yourself. 334 00:20:06,520 --> 00:20:07,520 That's the first thing. 335 00:20:07,520 --> 00:20:12,560 OK, second thing, when you're writing your personal statement, the first thing, the first 336 00:20:12,560 --> 00:20:16,360 thing that needs to come out is the fact giving. 337 00:20:16,360 --> 00:20:20,500 You need to make a list of all the things that are not in your application. 338 00:20:20,500 --> 00:20:22,920 That is a central part of who you are. 339 00:20:22,920 --> 00:20:27,320 So once you've got a good sense of who you are, you want to make sure that that comes 340 00:20:27,320 --> 00:20:29,880 out on the paper. 341 00:20:29,880 --> 00:20:32,320 And how do you let that come out on the paper? 342 00:20:32,320 --> 00:20:36,320 Well, strategically speaking, now we're doing a little strategy here in terms of what we 343 00:20:36,320 --> 00:20:37,620 choose to put in. 344 00:20:37,620 --> 00:20:42,880 You'll want to pick things that are not present or at least not really clear in other parts 345 00:20:42,880 --> 00:20:43,880 of your application. 346 00:20:43,880 --> 00:20:46,120 OK, doesn't make sense. 347 00:20:46,120 --> 00:20:52,440 So like if you are somebody who really cares about stand up comedy, let's say, and then 348 00:20:52,440 --> 00:20:55,880 you've even done some stand up comedy on your own time just for fun. 349 00:20:55,880 --> 00:20:58,440 OK, like you're really big about it. 350 00:20:58,440 --> 00:21:02,720 OK, it might there might be something on your application somewhere that says like, yeah, 351 00:21:02,720 --> 00:21:05,320 I've done a couple of gigs of stand up comedy. 352 00:21:05,320 --> 00:21:06,320 Right. 353 00:21:06,320 --> 00:21:11,360 But if that's like a real deep, intimate passion of yours and it's like something that you're 354 00:21:11,360 --> 00:21:14,720 not only proud of, but it's like a core part of your identity. 355 00:21:14,720 --> 00:21:15,720 Right. 356 00:21:15,720 --> 00:21:19,760 You need to mark that down like that needs to come out somewhere in one of these many 357 00:21:19,760 --> 00:21:20,760 essays. 358 00:21:20,760 --> 00:21:21,760 We'll talk about this. 359 00:21:21,760 --> 00:21:24,120 I mean, it's going to come out in any one of them. 360 00:21:24,120 --> 00:21:29,720 And so you want to add it to your list of things like I really want this to be something 361 00:21:29,720 --> 00:21:35,720 that I talk about because it's genuinely who a key part of who you are. 362 00:21:35,720 --> 00:21:36,720 Right. 363 00:21:36,720 --> 00:21:44,080 If you are, I don't know, like huge on sports or if you're huge on like there's one particular 364 00:21:44,080 --> 00:21:48,520 activity that shows up on your application, but it's it doesn't really exemplify. 365 00:21:48,520 --> 00:21:49,520 Right. 366 00:21:49,520 --> 00:21:52,680 Let's say it just shows that you did four years of some activity. 367 00:21:52,680 --> 00:21:55,720 It doesn't really show the extent of your passion for it. 368 00:21:55,720 --> 00:21:56,720 Right. 369 00:21:56,720 --> 00:21:59,520 Like the personal statement would be a place where you could bring it in. 370 00:21:59,520 --> 00:22:00,520 Right. 371 00:22:00,520 --> 00:22:04,680 The actual what you talk about won't matter all that much. 372 00:22:04,680 --> 00:22:10,120 What matters here in this first stage is making sure that you pick out as many of the things 373 00:22:10,120 --> 00:22:15,000 that you think would be helpful for completing the picture of who you are. 374 00:22:15,000 --> 00:22:16,000 Right. 375 00:22:16,000 --> 00:22:17,080 We're filling in the gaps. 376 00:22:17,080 --> 00:22:18,080 That's the first thing we're doing. 377 00:22:18,080 --> 00:22:19,680 We're filling in the gaps. 378 00:22:19,680 --> 00:22:20,680 Okay. 379 00:22:20,680 --> 00:22:24,640 And it's important to do this because, look, we're all humans. 380 00:22:24,640 --> 00:22:29,480 The people who are reading your personal statement are humans and humans connect to other humans 381 00:22:29,480 --> 00:22:31,480 when they sound like a human. 382 00:22:31,480 --> 00:22:32,480 Right. 383 00:22:32,480 --> 00:22:38,260 But resumes and these applications by design don't present a human being at all. 384 00:22:38,260 --> 00:22:43,960 What they present is a list of accomplishments, a list of, you know, interests, a list of 385 00:22:43,960 --> 00:22:44,960 accolades. 386 00:22:44,960 --> 00:22:48,080 It doesn't present an actual person, person, right? 387 00:22:48,080 --> 00:22:53,240 It doesn't feel like the reader is going to be, you know, as the reader isn't necessarily 388 00:22:53,240 --> 00:22:56,120 seeing a real person in front of them. 389 00:22:56,120 --> 00:23:00,320 The personal statement is one of the few places where you can actually present yourself as 390 00:23:00,320 --> 00:23:02,000 a real person. 391 00:23:02,000 --> 00:23:04,320 And what constitutes a real person? 392 00:23:04,320 --> 00:23:07,640 Well, a person is made up of experiences. 393 00:23:07,640 --> 00:23:13,280 It's made up of, you know, memories and feelings and all of these other things that cannot 394 00:23:13,280 --> 00:23:16,080 be expressed in other parts of the application. 395 00:23:16,080 --> 00:23:20,940 So it's going to be important for you to make sure that you fill in the gap by presenting 396 00:23:20,940 --> 00:23:25,600 all of the things about yourself that make you who you are, make you a human being. 397 00:23:25,600 --> 00:23:26,600 Right. 398 00:23:26,600 --> 00:23:31,200 So when you get advice for things like don't list down your, you know, accomplishments 399 00:23:31,200 --> 00:23:34,600 and so on, there's a couple of reasons that you shouldn't do it. 400 00:23:34,600 --> 00:23:40,040 It's not because, like, you know, your accomplishments are like trash and that's just like you shouldn't 401 00:23:40,040 --> 00:23:42,000 be talking about it or sounds like you're bragging. 402 00:23:42,000 --> 00:23:45,440 I mean, those could be concerns, but that's not the primary reason. 403 00:23:45,440 --> 00:23:50,520 The primary reason you don't want to list your accomplishments is A, you sound not like 404 00:23:50,520 --> 00:23:52,000 a person again. 405 00:23:52,000 --> 00:23:53,120 Right. 406 00:23:53,120 --> 00:23:55,240 And B, it's going to bore the shit out of the reader. 407 00:23:55,240 --> 00:23:58,480 It's going to bore the reader because it's not going to sound like a person. 408 00:23:58,480 --> 00:23:59,480 Right. 409 00:23:59,480 --> 00:24:04,280 Look, if I'm having conversation with a robot that gives me robotic responses, I'm going 410 00:24:04,280 --> 00:24:05,920 to lose interest pretty quickly. 411 00:24:05,920 --> 00:24:06,920 Right. 412 00:24:06,920 --> 00:24:10,160 If I'm going to have a real conversation with somebody, I'm going to want to do it with 413 00:24:10,160 --> 00:24:15,040 another person who has their own perspective, their own set of experiences, their own thoughts, 414 00:24:15,040 --> 00:24:16,560 and they're bringing something to the table. 415 00:24:16,560 --> 00:24:17,560 Right. 416 00:24:17,560 --> 00:24:19,120 That's what's going to make the conversation more engaging. 417 00:24:19,120 --> 00:24:20,120 Right. 418 00:24:20,120 --> 00:24:22,600 So think of it like having a conversation with somebody. 419 00:24:22,600 --> 00:24:27,440 You're going to be bored if somebody just talks at you with a bunch of facts about themselves. 420 00:24:27,440 --> 00:24:28,440 OK. 421 00:24:28,440 --> 00:24:31,920 If you've ever been on a date like that, oh my goodness, it's the worst kind of day where 422 00:24:31,920 --> 00:24:35,000 somebody just talks about themselves and all the things that they've done. 423 00:24:35,000 --> 00:24:36,000 Right. 424 00:24:36,000 --> 00:24:40,160 So they're talking about themselves, but in a way where it just sounds so you're not a 425 00:24:40,160 --> 00:24:42,040 real person and you're just a resume. 426 00:24:42,040 --> 00:24:43,040 That's what it feels like. 427 00:24:43,040 --> 00:24:45,000 I'm talking to a list of stuff. 428 00:24:45,000 --> 00:24:46,000 Right. 429 00:24:46,000 --> 00:24:48,200 You need to present yourself as a real person to do that. 430 00:24:48,200 --> 00:24:52,880 You need to fill those gaps so that those accomplishments turn into a rather a story. 431 00:24:52,880 --> 00:24:53,880 Right. 432 00:24:53,880 --> 00:24:54,880 That's really what you're presenting. 433 00:24:54,880 --> 00:25:00,040 You're telling a story of a real person who has had experiences, who has interests, who 434 00:25:00,040 --> 00:25:06,240 has desires, who is passionate about something, who has stuff that they value. 435 00:25:06,240 --> 00:25:07,240 Right. 436 00:25:07,240 --> 00:25:08,880 Who has opinions about things. 437 00:25:08,880 --> 00:25:09,880 Right. 438 00:25:09,880 --> 00:25:10,880 Like that's a real person. 439 00:25:10,880 --> 00:25:11,880 Right. 440 00:25:11,880 --> 00:25:12,880 You need to present yourself as such. 441 00:25:12,880 --> 00:25:15,080 Once you don't, that's when you lose the audience. 442 00:25:15,080 --> 00:25:16,560 That's when the reader starts to get bored. 443 00:25:16,560 --> 00:25:17,560 They start falling asleep. 444 00:25:17,560 --> 00:25:18,840 You got to understand. 445 00:25:18,840 --> 00:25:19,840 Right. 446 00:25:19,840 --> 00:25:23,000 These readers are going through like hundreds of thousands of essays. 447 00:25:23,000 --> 00:25:24,000 Right. 448 00:25:24,000 --> 00:25:25,000 It's exhausting. 449 00:25:25,000 --> 00:25:26,480 I could tell you as an instructor. 450 00:25:26,480 --> 00:25:27,480 Right. 451 00:25:27,480 --> 00:25:30,280 When I have to grade a paper with the same topic. 452 00:25:30,280 --> 00:25:31,280 Right. 453 00:25:31,280 --> 00:25:36,120 And I have to grade like a hundred of them, I lose interest after every like five, six, 454 00:25:36,120 --> 00:25:40,760 just because I'm so exhausted from reading one essay after another that's talking about 455 00:25:40,760 --> 00:25:42,800 more or less the same kind of stuff. 456 00:25:42,800 --> 00:25:43,800 Right. 457 00:25:43,800 --> 00:25:46,040 Like it could drain you. 458 00:25:46,040 --> 00:25:51,640 The essays that will spark interest and give me life again are ones that actually sound 459 00:25:51,640 --> 00:25:52,640 real. 460 00:25:52,640 --> 00:25:53,640 Right. 461 00:25:53,640 --> 00:25:56,280 Where especially for a personal statement where a student is actually bearing. 462 00:25:56,280 --> 00:25:57,280 Right. 463 00:25:57,280 --> 00:26:00,680 And then being vulnerable and exposing themselves as a real person. 464 00:26:00,680 --> 00:26:01,680 Right. 465 00:26:01,680 --> 00:26:03,960 That's when you start hearing a real story. 466 00:26:03,960 --> 00:26:09,000 That's when it's like, okay, I am interested not because there's anything particularly 467 00:26:09,000 --> 00:26:14,960 special about this person, but because they're actually talking to me like I'm a fellow human 468 00:26:14,960 --> 00:26:15,960 being. 469 00:26:15,960 --> 00:26:16,960 Right. 470 00:26:16,960 --> 00:26:22,800 So the goal is to make yourself into a real person in these essays. 471 00:26:22,800 --> 00:26:27,000 And the way to do that is first by filling in those gaps so that it's not just a resume 472 00:26:27,000 --> 00:26:28,200 that you're giving to them. 473 00:26:28,200 --> 00:26:29,200 Right. 474 00:26:29,200 --> 00:26:33,080 Where you're adding all this information that is what constitutes a person. 475 00:26:33,080 --> 00:26:34,080 Right. 476 00:26:34,080 --> 00:26:35,840 Your feelings behind why you did what you did. 477 00:26:35,840 --> 00:26:36,840 Okay. 478 00:26:36,840 --> 00:26:39,200 This is why I always tell students, right, like you might feel like you haven't gone 479 00:26:39,200 --> 00:26:43,760 through any special experience, but I keep on stressing to them like, look, you don't 480 00:26:43,760 --> 00:26:49,480 need to go to go through anything like, you know, amazing or traumatic or unique to have 481 00:26:49,480 --> 00:26:52,200 something interesting to write in a personal statement. 482 00:26:52,200 --> 00:26:54,040 You just need to talk about your own life. 483 00:26:54,040 --> 00:26:56,040 You just need to talk about yourself. 484 00:26:56,040 --> 00:26:57,040 Right. 485 00:26:57,040 --> 00:27:01,840 So once you've got a good sense of knowing yourself, so if you're doing it step by step, 486 00:27:01,840 --> 00:27:05,040 once you've got a good sense of knowing yourself, then you should have a good idea when you're 487 00:27:05,040 --> 00:27:06,040 looking at your application. 488 00:27:06,040 --> 00:27:07,040 Right. 489 00:27:07,040 --> 00:27:10,440 Like what is missing in these resumes that doesn't like, you know, when you're looking 490 00:27:10,440 --> 00:27:14,400 at your own resume, it doesn't really explain me as a person. 491 00:27:14,400 --> 00:27:15,400 Right. 492 00:27:15,400 --> 00:27:16,400 So what would that be? 493 00:27:16,400 --> 00:27:20,240 What would the stories be that would help explain why I'm the kind of person that I 494 00:27:20,240 --> 00:27:27,040 am or, you know, what can I explain about my family background or my community or whatever? 495 00:27:27,040 --> 00:27:28,720 Fill in the details here. 496 00:27:28,720 --> 00:27:29,720 Right. 497 00:27:29,720 --> 00:27:35,240 What is it that would make this turn into a real story, a narrative about a person who 498 00:27:35,240 --> 00:27:38,720 has real desires, real goals? 499 00:27:38,720 --> 00:27:43,840 And once you hit those personal notes, that's when the reader will maintain their interest 500 00:27:43,840 --> 00:27:44,840 throughout the essay. 501 00:27:44,840 --> 00:27:46,440 They don't have a lot of time to read your essay. 502 00:27:46,440 --> 00:27:52,160 So you really need the first, like, you know, few sentences to already tell the reader, 503 00:27:52,160 --> 00:27:55,240 hey, I'm not just going to be talking in this robotic way. 504 00:27:55,240 --> 00:27:57,640 I'm going to be talking like a real person. 505 00:27:57,640 --> 00:27:58,780 Okay. 506 00:27:58,780 --> 00:28:01,960 Which means, this goes to my third point, right, when you first write your first draft 507 00:28:01,960 --> 00:28:09,000 of your essays, okay, what you need to do is speak like a teenager. 508 00:28:09,000 --> 00:28:13,480 You need to speak like you are an actual, like don't try to impress them with flowery 509 00:28:13,480 --> 00:28:14,480 language. 510 00:28:14,480 --> 00:28:15,480 This is not the space for it. 511 00:28:15,480 --> 00:28:19,320 The whole same is not the space to show how eloquent of a writer you are. 512 00:28:19,320 --> 00:28:24,280 Now there is one exception, which is if you're super into writing, right, especially creative 513 00:28:24,280 --> 00:28:30,120 writing and you want to showcase it because that's just kind of like how you are, right, 514 00:28:30,120 --> 00:28:31,120 then fine. 515 00:28:31,120 --> 00:28:34,400 Go for a concept where you present that because that's really reflective of who you really 516 00:28:34,400 --> 00:28:35,400 are. 517 00:28:35,400 --> 00:28:36,400 Right. 518 00:28:36,400 --> 00:28:40,760 But I think a lot of students try to, you know, again, this kind of like this faking 519 00:28:40,760 --> 00:28:42,160 themselves, right? 520 00:28:42,160 --> 00:28:48,520 Like they're acting like they are smarter or more intelligent or more college ready. 521 00:28:48,520 --> 00:28:52,680 They try to present themselves in a certain light and that's not the primary goal of a 522 00:28:52,680 --> 00:28:53,680 personal statement. 523 00:28:53,680 --> 00:28:55,300 So you need to cut that shit out, right? 524 00:28:55,300 --> 00:28:59,520 You need to focus on actually talking to this person like they're a fellow person, right? 525 00:28:59,520 --> 00:29:04,560 So I always tell students it's actually helpful to start off by speaking in your everyday 526 00:29:04,560 --> 00:29:07,760 conversational voice, right? 527 00:29:07,760 --> 00:29:10,240 Right as if you're having a conversation with a friend, right? 528 00:29:10,240 --> 00:29:15,360 So imagine that your friend asked you those questions that are on the, you know, College 529 00:29:15,360 --> 00:29:16,360 of Mission Essays, right? 530 00:29:16,360 --> 00:29:20,120 You say like, hey, so why do you want to do? 531 00:29:20,120 --> 00:29:21,600 What do you want to accomplish in college? 532 00:29:21,600 --> 00:29:22,600 Right? 533 00:29:22,600 --> 00:29:25,160 Like just talk to a friend about it, right? 534 00:29:25,160 --> 00:29:28,720 This is where a lot of the information is going to kind of come out, right? 535 00:29:28,720 --> 00:29:30,000 And be honest here, right? 536 00:29:30,000 --> 00:29:33,800 So one of your goals for college might just simply be, hey, you know, I want to meet more 537 00:29:33,800 --> 00:29:36,080 people because I'm super interested in meeting people. 538 00:29:36,080 --> 00:29:39,800 I've lived in a small community and I just really haven't gotten mean to people that 539 00:29:39,800 --> 00:29:42,880 are too different from everybody in my community. 540 00:29:42,880 --> 00:29:45,320 Just more or less seems similar to me. 541 00:29:45,320 --> 00:29:50,360 Or you know, you might have the desire to go to a different city and this is your opportunity 542 00:29:50,360 --> 00:29:51,360 for it. 543 00:29:51,360 --> 00:29:53,160 You've never been outside of your area. 544 00:29:53,160 --> 00:29:58,720 You know, just to share some personal stories, like I remember when I was writing my personal 545 00:29:58,720 --> 00:30:00,560 statement, right? 546 00:30:00,560 --> 00:30:04,560 I wrote about how much I wanted to get out of my neighborhood. 547 00:30:04,560 --> 00:30:08,000 I just hated living in the Inland Empire. 548 00:30:08,000 --> 00:30:11,120 You know, other people, like my brother, I remember had a great experience. 549 00:30:11,120 --> 00:30:12,120 He had friends. 550 00:30:12,120 --> 00:30:13,120 He still goes back there. 551 00:30:13,120 --> 00:30:14,320 He has friends there. 552 00:30:14,320 --> 00:30:18,240 But for me, it was a time of severe depression. 553 00:30:18,240 --> 00:30:20,280 It was really hard. 554 00:30:20,280 --> 00:30:26,320 Not that I was talking about anything particularly uniquely challenging necessarily, but you 555 00:30:26,320 --> 00:30:33,800 know, I talked honestly about how one of the motivations to go to LA was I wanted to get 556 00:30:33,800 --> 00:30:36,080 out of the kind of environment I was in. 557 00:30:36,080 --> 00:30:41,120 There was something about the situation where I felt like it was taking some of the energy 558 00:30:41,120 --> 00:30:42,880 out of me, right? 559 00:30:42,880 --> 00:30:48,820 Whether it was the weather, the hot, hot desert summer weather, whether it was the people, 560 00:30:48,820 --> 00:30:55,600 whether it was something about the environment, like being around people who, at least in 561 00:30:55,600 --> 00:30:59,400 my media circle, right, weren't necessarily very motivated, right? 562 00:30:59,400 --> 00:31:01,280 How it sucked a lot of energy out of me. 563 00:31:01,280 --> 00:31:04,800 I noticed that and I wanted to go to a place that would energize me. 564 00:31:04,800 --> 00:31:09,040 And I felt like a big city would be helpful for it, being exposed to people who are busy 565 00:31:09,040 --> 00:31:13,040 and ambitious and wanting to do stuff, right? 566 00:31:13,040 --> 00:31:16,400 Like that brought me a lot of excitement, right? 567 00:31:16,400 --> 00:31:20,720 The other reason was I wanted to leave home and be away from my parents for my own personal 568 00:31:20,720 --> 00:31:21,720 reasons. 569 00:31:21,720 --> 00:31:25,760 But again, we're going to talk about how we want to be careful about exactly what, how 570 00:31:25,760 --> 00:31:28,160 we present ourselves in these essays. 571 00:31:28,160 --> 00:31:29,360 But the key here is this, right? 572 00:31:29,360 --> 00:31:33,280 As you have those conversations, not all of it, especially in the first few drafts, not 573 00:31:33,280 --> 00:31:36,140 all of it is going to come out in the final draft. 574 00:31:36,140 --> 00:31:39,000 So you don't have to worry about whether or not it's appropriate. 575 00:31:39,000 --> 00:31:40,500 You just need to be honest, right? 576 00:31:40,500 --> 00:31:42,640 And then you need to write in a way that's true to yourself, right? 577 00:31:42,640 --> 00:31:46,600 So write as you speak, the way that you speak, right? 578 00:31:46,600 --> 00:31:50,840 Make it feel like they're talking to a real person because, well, if you are just speaking 579 00:31:50,840 --> 00:31:54,720 how you normally speak, then it should come off that way, right? 580 00:31:54,720 --> 00:31:55,880 That's the best place to start. 581 00:31:55,880 --> 00:31:58,400 Again, I'm not saying that this is the final draft. 582 00:31:58,400 --> 00:32:04,080 So stop getting anxious about what, whether what you're saying is right or wrong or appropriate 583 00:32:04,080 --> 00:32:05,160 or any of these things, right? 584 00:32:05,160 --> 00:32:07,840 Just be honest in the first draft, okay? 585 00:32:07,840 --> 00:32:10,520 The editing process will help you kind of hone it. 586 00:32:10,520 --> 00:32:16,240 You know, it will help you, you know, pick and choose and how to present yourself and 587 00:32:16,240 --> 00:32:17,240 all that. 588 00:32:17,240 --> 00:32:18,240 That's the editing process. 589 00:32:18,240 --> 00:32:23,880 But if you self edit, like if you censor yourself in the first phase, then you're going to produce 590 00:32:23,880 --> 00:32:28,800 garbage because it's already not really you, right? 591 00:32:28,800 --> 00:32:30,680 And the readers are going to feel it. 592 00:32:30,680 --> 00:32:35,240 Students don't realize, like, if you develop as a writer and, you know, develop reading 593 00:32:35,240 --> 00:32:38,800 skills and you've read enough of different types of writings and different, you know, 594 00:32:38,800 --> 00:32:43,880 personal statements, you start developing an eye for, you know, when somebody is being 595 00:32:43,880 --> 00:32:44,960 authentic or not. 596 00:32:44,960 --> 00:32:47,000 Like the writing itself feels different. 597 00:32:47,000 --> 00:32:48,960 And this is one of the places it starts, right? 598 00:32:48,960 --> 00:32:54,400 The writing does not feel authentic if you try to present yourself in a certain way from 599 00:32:54,400 --> 00:32:55,400 the get go. 600 00:32:55,400 --> 00:32:58,640 You need to start by just talking as your normal self, okay? 601 00:32:58,640 --> 00:33:02,520 I personally would recommend that you leave a lot of the editing to, you know, people 602 00:33:02,520 --> 00:33:03,520 you can rely on. 603 00:33:03,520 --> 00:33:08,080 I know a lot of high schools, they have teachers who are willing to assist you with, you know, 604 00:33:08,080 --> 00:33:09,820 looking through your papers. 605 00:33:09,820 --> 00:33:10,820 You could turn to friends. 606 00:33:10,820 --> 00:33:14,960 I mean, it might seem strange, but, you know, friends could give you some feedback, like 607 00:33:14,960 --> 00:33:17,960 they could call you out if they feel like you're lying. 608 00:33:17,960 --> 00:33:21,680 Or they might ask more probing questions like, oh, I didn't know that about you. 609 00:33:21,680 --> 00:33:25,080 And it could lead to some great discussions that give you some great material to add to 610 00:33:25,080 --> 00:33:28,680 your personal statement, right? 611 00:33:28,680 --> 00:33:34,240 So you know, all these things consider, like, just again, just write like you speak, be 612 00:33:34,240 --> 00:33:38,040 comfortable in your own skin, and just present yourself as you are. 613 00:33:38,040 --> 00:33:39,040 Okay? 614 00:33:39,040 --> 00:33:40,360 All right. 615 00:33:40,360 --> 00:33:45,760 Once you have that, you have all of the building blocks to now figure out what to do with the 616 00:33:45,760 --> 00:33:46,760 personal statement. 617 00:33:46,760 --> 00:33:48,040 Okay? 618 00:33:48,040 --> 00:33:54,160 If you don't know, right, Common Essay, UC applications, just college applications in 619 00:33:54,160 --> 00:33:56,840 general, they ask a lot of different questions. 620 00:33:56,840 --> 00:34:00,680 And you could strategize about what, you know, how you want to answer each of those questions. 621 00:34:00,680 --> 00:34:06,000 But once you have a draft of all the many things that you could be talking about, and 622 00:34:06,000 --> 00:34:11,680 the things that you really want to make sure is included in your application, then you 623 00:34:11,680 --> 00:34:20,280 can start strategizing at that point about what story or what essay or what topic fits 624 00:34:20,280 --> 00:34:22,500 best and what combination, right? 625 00:34:22,500 --> 00:34:25,640 You want to try to get at least all the different elements. 626 00:34:25,640 --> 00:34:29,360 You don't want to, and essentially you don't want to repeat yourself in any of these essays. 627 00:34:29,360 --> 00:34:34,400 You want each essay to present some new information about you or present yourself in a different 628 00:34:34,400 --> 00:34:35,960 light, right? 629 00:34:35,960 --> 00:34:37,200 Because that's how people are. 630 00:34:37,200 --> 00:34:38,200 People are multifaceted. 631 00:34:38,200 --> 00:34:39,680 They have a range of experiences. 632 00:34:39,680 --> 00:34:41,900 It's not just one thing. 633 00:34:41,900 --> 00:34:46,440 And so, you know, each essay should kind of touch on something different, right? 634 00:34:46,440 --> 00:34:50,280 It might all be connected to the same thing, like your overall goal for college and what 635 00:34:50,280 --> 00:34:51,640 you want to do with it. 636 00:34:51,640 --> 00:34:56,760 But you do want to start now thinking about how do I get all of these different things 637 00:34:56,760 --> 00:34:58,220 I want to talk about? 638 00:34:58,220 --> 00:35:02,900 How do I get it into all of these different essay topics, right? 639 00:35:02,900 --> 00:35:06,280 How do I pick and choose, you know, so that I have the right combination so that I could 640 00:35:06,280 --> 00:35:11,960 talk about everything I want to talk about, but they're responding to the specific questions 641 00:35:11,960 --> 00:35:12,960 in front of me. 642 00:35:12,960 --> 00:35:13,960 Okay? 643 00:35:13,960 --> 00:35:14,960 I hope that makes sense. 644 00:35:14,960 --> 00:35:15,960 Okay? 645 00:35:15,960 --> 00:35:19,140 What this means is that you need to be very careful with some of the advice that I see 646 00:35:19,140 --> 00:35:20,140 thrown out there, right? 647 00:35:20,140 --> 00:35:24,480 I mean, I'm not doubting that a lot of people have a good understanding of how to write 648 00:35:24,480 --> 00:35:27,920 a personal statement because they might have read through, you know, thousands of personal 649 00:35:27,920 --> 00:35:28,920 statements. 650 00:35:28,920 --> 00:35:34,440 But, you know, I want you to be careful because one, you know, I know that sometimes people 651 00:35:34,440 --> 00:35:37,080 are following like trends and things like that. 652 00:35:37,080 --> 00:35:41,480 If unless they're actually part of admission committees, then they honestly are guessing 653 00:35:41,480 --> 00:35:45,040 why a student got into a college or not, right? 654 00:35:45,040 --> 00:35:48,040 And there's a lot of luck involved in whether or not you get into a particular college. 655 00:35:48,040 --> 00:35:52,080 So if a student gets into a college, you can't assume it's because of the personal statement. 656 00:35:52,080 --> 00:35:55,240 You also don't know how much of the personal statement played a role in it unless they 657 00:35:55,240 --> 00:35:57,720 explicitly tell you it was because of the personal statement. 658 00:35:57,720 --> 00:35:58,720 Okay? 659 00:35:58,720 --> 00:36:01,560 So a lot of people are doing guesswork about the personal statement. 660 00:36:01,560 --> 00:36:07,080 So you need to be very careful when you receive feedback or advice about how to write a personal 661 00:36:07,080 --> 00:36:13,360 statement when it comes to the particular topic or what you talk about because the truth 662 00:36:13,360 --> 00:36:15,760 is people are just guessing. 663 00:36:15,760 --> 00:36:16,860 Okay? 664 00:36:16,860 --> 00:36:23,000 My experience and when I reflect upon, you know, what I consider to be a solid personal 665 00:36:23,000 --> 00:36:26,960 statement versus not, again, it's not about the specific topic, right? 666 00:36:26,960 --> 00:36:28,760 So like, here, let me give you an example, right? 667 00:36:28,760 --> 00:36:32,280 One of the things that in the Asian community, they're told not to put in their personal 668 00:36:32,280 --> 00:36:35,940 statement is don't talk about the immigrant experience, right? 669 00:36:35,940 --> 00:36:37,280 Don't talk about your immigrant experience. 670 00:36:37,280 --> 00:36:41,720 And then the explanation that they're given is, oh, it's because there's so many people 671 00:36:41,720 --> 00:36:46,280 who write about their immigrant experience and so, you know, like they get bored of it 672 00:36:46,280 --> 00:36:51,320 and they don't want to hear it because it's like the same story again and again and again. 673 00:36:51,320 --> 00:36:52,320 Okay. 674 00:36:52,320 --> 00:36:53,320 Fine. 675 00:36:53,320 --> 00:36:54,320 All right? 676 00:36:54,320 --> 00:37:00,360 But my guess, and this is just a hunch, right, based off of the range of different types 677 00:37:00,360 --> 00:37:06,840 of immigrant experience essays I've read, is that very few students actually write a 678 00:37:06,840 --> 00:37:12,800 good personal statement talking about their immigrant experience, right? 679 00:37:12,800 --> 00:37:16,280 Because honestly, sometimes it just doesn't sound personal. 680 00:37:16,280 --> 00:37:21,600 And one of the ways it doesn't sound personal is if they spend a lot of time talking about 681 00:37:21,600 --> 00:37:26,400 their parents and the sacrifice of their parents or their grandparents or their caregivers, 682 00:37:26,400 --> 00:37:29,920 the sacrifices that other people have made, right? 683 00:37:29,920 --> 00:37:34,440 Those stories will not be very good personal statements. 684 00:37:34,440 --> 00:37:35,780 But why is that? 685 00:37:35,780 --> 00:37:39,600 It's not because they're talking about their immigrant experience. 686 00:37:39,600 --> 00:37:43,520 It's actually because they're not talking about themselves. 687 00:37:43,520 --> 00:37:48,920 If you spend the whole time talking about the immigrant experience, but, you know, where 688 00:37:48,920 --> 00:37:54,240 half of the information is really about what your parents or your caregivers went through, 689 00:37:54,240 --> 00:37:56,280 that doesn't say anything about you, right? 690 00:37:56,280 --> 00:37:59,160 That doesn't say anything about you. 691 00:37:59,160 --> 00:38:05,000 And if you say that you're doing it because you feel obligated to do well, that also doesn't 692 00:38:05,000 --> 00:38:10,680 say much about you other than that you have a strong sense of duty to parents or to your 693 00:38:10,680 --> 00:38:13,000 caregivers, right? 694 00:38:13,000 --> 00:38:17,840 So again, like when you hear this kind of advice, like do this or don't that, these 695 00:38:17,840 --> 00:38:22,000 do's and don't lists, I think they're very misleading because it's not necessarily what 696 00:38:22,000 --> 00:38:26,480 you should or shouldn't do in terms of the specific content you should include in your 697 00:38:26,480 --> 00:38:27,480 personal statement. 698 00:38:27,480 --> 00:38:29,800 Rather, it's how you present that information. 699 00:38:29,800 --> 00:38:36,160 I have actually seen immigrant stories that are profound, like really moving and ones 700 00:38:36,160 --> 00:38:45,200 that really present a person in a great light where they focus on things like specific kinds 701 00:38:45,200 --> 00:38:49,840 of, you know, like, I'm sorry, I wasn't thinking of one specific example where a student talked 702 00:38:49,840 --> 00:38:53,600 about their experience in ESL, right? 703 00:38:53,600 --> 00:38:58,800 And how they were put into ESL when they knew that they had the ability to read really well. 704 00:38:58,800 --> 00:39:02,880 So they were facing some kind of a discrimination because they just assumed because they were 705 00:39:02,880 --> 00:39:06,120 an immigrant, oh, they couldn't speak English very well. 706 00:39:06,120 --> 00:39:09,800 And so they had to be put in a program where they didn't get the same opportunities to 707 00:39:09,800 --> 00:39:14,000 advance and to get teaching and to be challenged when it comes to reading. 708 00:39:14,000 --> 00:39:16,640 So they had to challenge themselves. 709 00:39:16,640 --> 00:39:23,720 And this motivated them to better understand how perception often guides people's opportunities 710 00:39:23,720 --> 00:39:28,240 and experiences and connects that up with other things that they've wanted to do or 711 00:39:28,240 --> 00:39:34,320 have done that there's like a continuous story of those experiences and how to let them to 712 00:39:34,320 --> 00:39:36,800 the things that they want to accomplish in college. 713 00:39:36,800 --> 00:39:39,160 That was actually a very, very good story. 714 00:39:39,160 --> 00:39:40,960 The way it was written sounded very personal. 715 00:39:40,960 --> 00:39:41,960 It sounded real. 716 00:39:41,960 --> 00:39:45,320 It sounded like a real person talking about their experience. 717 00:39:45,320 --> 00:39:46,320 Right? 718 00:39:46,320 --> 00:39:51,680 And essentially that was an aspect of the immigration story. 719 00:39:51,680 --> 00:39:53,180 Okay. 720 00:39:53,180 --> 00:40:01,320 So again, take these advice with a grain of salt, but I mean, more specifically, I would 721 00:40:01,320 --> 00:40:06,120 hope that you see the bigger picture because the bigger picture is what matters. 722 00:40:06,120 --> 00:40:07,120 Right? 723 00:40:07,120 --> 00:40:11,880 Like I said before, your story is your story and it's your story that actually needs 724 00:40:11,880 --> 00:40:12,880 to get out there. 725 00:40:12,880 --> 00:40:15,640 That needs to be on paper in a personal statement. 726 00:40:15,640 --> 00:40:19,960 But your story is not going to be put on paper if you're constantly censoring yourself with 727 00:40:19,960 --> 00:40:23,360 these do's and don'ts of I should talk about this and I shouldn't talk about that. 728 00:40:23,360 --> 00:40:24,820 No, fuck that. 729 00:40:24,820 --> 00:40:27,040 Talk about whatever actually matters to you. 730 00:40:27,040 --> 00:40:28,040 Right? 731 00:40:28,040 --> 00:40:32,720 And this is why when you see some of these great examples of great personal statements, 732 00:40:32,720 --> 00:40:35,640 one of the things you'll find that they all have in common, they don't necessarily have 733 00:40:35,640 --> 00:40:37,080 commonality. 734 00:40:37,080 --> 00:40:42,000 When it comes to things like is it humorous, is it dramatic, you know, what's the writing 735 00:40:42,000 --> 00:40:43,000 style like? 736 00:40:43,000 --> 00:40:44,000 They all vary. 737 00:40:44,000 --> 00:40:47,060 But the one thing they all have in common is that it's real. 738 00:40:47,060 --> 00:40:48,060 It's authentic. 739 00:40:48,060 --> 00:40:49,140 Right? 740 00:40:49,140 --> 00:40:50,920 I could nowadays today, right? 741 00:40:50,920 --> 00:40:55,080 I could probably, if I was applying to college, I would probably write one of the essays I 742 00:40:55,080 --> 00:40:57,880 would probably write on would be my passion for Legos. 743 00:40:57,880 --> 00:41:03,200 Now you might think this sounds absolutely crazy, but I really, really care about Legos. 744 00:41:03,200 --> 00:41:04,200 Right? 745 00:41:04,200 --> 00:41:05,560 Legos bring me joy. 746 00:41:05,560 --> 00:41:10,720 I get angry when people try to compare Legos to things like Mega Bloks. 747 00:41:10,720 --> 00:41:12,920 Mega Bloks is just garbage. 748 00:41:12,920 --> 00:41:13,920 Right? 749 00:41:13,920 --> 00:41:15,160 People should throw that stuff in the trash. 750 00:41:15,160 --> 00:41:16,160 All right? 751 00:41:16,160 --> 00:41:17,840 Legos is the only way to go. 752 00:41:17,840 --> 00:41:22,080 I love Legos and I can talk about it for hours and hours. 753 00:41:22,080 --> 00:41:24,000 That's something I'm really passionate about. 754 00:41:24,000 --> 00:41:25,000 Right? 755 00:41:25,000 --> 00:41:27,920 There's no rule that says I can't talk about it. 756 00:41:27,920 --> 00:41:31,280 But the reason that it's going to come off well, and I know it's going to come off well, 757 00:41:31,280 --> 00:41:32,440 is because it's real. 758 00:41:32,440 --> 00:41:35,160 I actually feel this way about Legos. 759 00:41:35,160 --> 00:41:39,560 So the more you fake it, the more it's going to show in your writing. 760 00:41:39,560 --> 00:41:40,560 Right? 761 00:41:40,560 --> 00:41:44,760 So the first things first, get to know yourself, know what's real. 762 00:41:44,760 --> 00:41:48,720 We people just in general often lie to themselves. 763 00:41:48,720 --> 00:41:51,240 I have lied to myself for decades. 764 00:41:51,240 --> 00:41:53,520 I still probably lie to myself about some things. 765 00:41:53,520 --> 00:41:54,520 Right? 766 00:41:54,520 --> 00:41:59,080 Because it's not always pretty to look in the mirror and to be honest with yourself. 767 00:41:59,080 --> 00:42:00,080 Right? 768 00:42:00,080 --> 00:42:07,120 But the benefit of actually knowing yourself is then that when you talk and speak authentically, 769 00:42:07,120 --> 00:42:10,200 it will feel authentic because it is. 770 00:42:10,200 --> 00:42:11,960 There's no faking realness. 771 00:42:11,960 --> 00:42:13,800 There just isn't. 772 00:42:13,800 --> 00:42:16,540 And it'll show in your papers. 773 00:42:16,540 --> 00:42:21,320 Unless you are a master, unless you're a sociopath, I think, right? 774 00:42:21,320 --> 00:42:26,400 Master manipulator, you're going to have a really hard time, at least in writing, being 775 00:42:26,400 --> 00:42:30,080 able to present yourself as something different than who you really are. 776 00:42:30,080 --> 00:42:34,760 But in order to really be able to do that, you need to start accepting the realities 777 00:42:34,760 --> 00:42:35,920 of who you are. 778 00:42:35,920 --> 00:42:36,920 Okay? 779 00:42:36,920 --> 00:42:37,920 Don't censor yourself. 780 00:42:37,920 --> 00:42:39,460 Put it all on paper. 781 00:42:39,460 --> 00:42:45,840 Speak authentically and then let editors give you guidelines for an insight into why talking 782 00:42:45,840 --> 00:42:51,280 about certain things or certain ways might not necessarily be the best thing to do. 783 00:42:51,280 --> 00:42:52,280 Okay? 784 00:42:52,280 --> 00:42:56,760 I will tell you this, when I wrote my college application essay, I wrote specifically about 785 00:42:56,760 --> 00:43:02,680 my experience being a pastor's kid and the horror of knowing that people knew things 786 00:43:02,680 --> 00:43:05,160 about you even though you didn't know them. 787 00:43:05,160 --> 00:43:06,160 Right? 788 00:43:06,160 --> 00:43:08,700 And that you felt like a kind of fish in a fishbowl, right? 789 00:43:08,700 --> 00:43:11,400 That kind of experience where you're constantly being looked at. 790 00:43:11,400 --> 00:43:16,320 I imagine this is a common experience with anybody in the public eye because of family 791 00:43:16,320 --> 00:43:20,780 members or people that they know they're close to. 792 00:43:20,780 --> 00:43:23,960 They're being in the public eye and being judged by a bunch of strangers. 793 00:43:23,960 --> 00:43:28,280 Nowadays, I guess it happens a lot in social media as well. 794 00:43:28,280 --> 00:43:29,280 Right? 795 00:43:29,280 --> 00:43:33,720 But that was a real experience, a real difficulty for me, something that I've often struggled 796 00:43:33,720 --> 00:43:34,720 with. 797 00:43:34,720 --> 00:43:37,360 And I included that in the essay. 798 00:43:37,360 --> 00:43:40,280 And I remember writing a couple of times, right? 799 00:43:40,280 --> 00:43:46,720 How other people would sometimes whisper and there would be rumors about me and how sometimes 800 00:43:46,720 --> 00:43:50,280 the insults were things like, this kid is like the spawn of the devil and I was blamed 801 00:43:50,280 --> 00:43:51,720 for things that I didn't do. 802 00:43:51,720 --> 00:43:52,720 Right? 803 00:43:52,720 --> 00:43:57,280 I used that term, spawn of the devil, twice in my essay. 804 00:43:57,280 --> 00:44:00,920 And my English teacher said, hmm, once I think is enough. 805 00:44:00,920 --> 00:44:01,920 Right? 806 00:44:01,920 --> 00:44:04,600 A second time and now it sounds like you're really harping on it and this is starting 807 00:44:04,600 --> 00:44:09,320 to sound like this is more other issues going on that you need to kind of address personally. 808 00:44:09,320 --> 00:44:10,320 Right? 809 00:44:10,320 --> 00:44:12,320 So that was really helpful feedback. 810 00:44:12,320 --> 00:44:13,320 Right? 811 00:44:13,320 --> 00:44:15,360 Because, you know, somebody else saw something, right? 812 00:44:15,360 --> 00:44:20,760 I was speaking authentically, just writing as I would, you know, talk to a friend about 813 00:44:20,760 --> 00:44:23,080 whatever what I was going through. 814 00:44:23,080 --> 00:44:26,920 And it was it was somebody else who was reading my essay that was able to kind of pick up 815 00:44:26,920 --> 00:44:29,600 on, hmm, I get what you're going for. 816 00:44:29,600 --> 00:44:31,100 I don't want to lose it. 817 00:44:31,100 --> 00:44:32,660 I want to keep it in there. 818 00:44:32,660 --> 00:44:34,360 I think it's important. 819 00:44:34,360 --> 00:44:36,400 But you know, once is enough. 820 00:44:36,400 --> 00:44:37,400 Right? 821 00:44:37,400 --> 00:44:40,120 That kind of feedback feedback was extremely helpful. 822 00:44:40,120 --> 00:44:41,120 Okay. 823 00:44:41,120 --> 00:44:45,440 So leave it up to the editors to go ahead and give you that sort of feedback in your 824 00:44:45,440 --> 00:44:47,440 first and your second draft. 825 00:44:47,440 --> 00:44:54,000 I would highly recommend that the bigger issue is keeping the readers attention because they 826 00:44:54,000 --> 00:44:57,400 don't have a lot of time to read your essay in order to keep their attention. 827 00:44:57,400 --> 00:44:59,080 You're going to have to be real. 828 00:44:59,080 --> 00:45:00,400 You're going to have to really be real. 829 00:45:00,400 --> 00:45:01,400 Okay. 830 00:45:01,400 --> 00:45:02,700 So learn to be vulnerable. 831 00:45:02,700 --> 00:45:04,040 Learn to talk about it. 832 00:45:04,040 --> 00:45:09,760 Practice with friends, with family, with people that you trust, get better at it and do that 833 00:45:09,760 --> 00:45:13,080 before you even start thinking about writing a personal statement. 834 00:45:13,080 --> 00:45:14,080 Okay. 835 00:45:14,080 --> 00:45:17,120 I hope that it's an eye opening experience for you. 836 00:45:17,120 --> 00:45:20,720 I hope that you have people that you can trust that you can lean on. 837 00:45:20,720 --> 00:45:25,440 I know that that is not an option for a lot of students, which is why I wanted to create 838 00:45:25,440 --> 00:45:30,560 the space where you could come ask me questions and I could give you some feedback or you 839 00:45:30,560 --> 00:45:35,360 can talk about your experiences and I can help you kind of make sense of it in a way 840 00:45:35,360 --> 00:45:40,200 that would be more suitable for presenting on a personal statement. 841 00:45:40,200 --> 00:45:41,200 Right. 842 00:45:41,200 --> 00:45:46,000 But I really do hope that at some point in your life, you do have people you can trust 843 00:45:46,000 --> 00:45:51,120 and lean on, people you're close enough to that you can be vulnerable in this way because 844 00:45:51,120 --> 00:45:55,040 it is through that vulnerability that you're going to find a lot of strength. 845 00:45:55,040 --> 00:45:58,680 You're going to find the strength to be yourself more than anything. 846 00:45:58,680 --> 00:46:05,160 And once you do that, you're going to open up a lot of doors for yourself because one, 847 00:46:05,160 --> 00:46:09,600 people who are reading your essay are going to see you for who you really are and two, 848 00:46:09,600 --> 00:46:14,000 it's going to give them a better sense of why you fit in with their community. 849 00:46:14,000 --> 00:46:15,280 Right. 850 00:46:15,280 --> 00:46:18,280 Because it's not because of all the things that you try to present yourself to be, but 851 00:46:18,280 --> 00:46:20,360 it's because of who you really are. 852 00:46:20,360 --> 00:46:24,360 And there's nothing more beautiful than being accepted, whether it's to a university, to 853 00:46:24,360 --> 00:46:32,440 a job or with friends, family, and other loved ones because you're loved for just being yourself. 854 00:46:32,440 --> 00:46:35,360 I'll see you next time.