Undergraduate / JMU - personal statement to highlight special interests, talents, goals or unique experiences [2]

JMU Personal Statement: You may use your personal statement to highlight special interests, talents, goals or unique experiences (500-word maximum).

In High School, I learned to trade in my creativity for discipline, my imagination for structure, and my curiosity for obedience. It seemed I had made a deal with the devil because my newly adopted traits didn't hold up their end of the deal. But it was also in High School that I realized it was because I was insane.

Or so Albert Einstein tells me.

Einstein defines insanity as doing something over and over again and expecting different results. I did the same thing every time: tried my best to listen in class, knocked out the homework quickly without much regard, and reviewed my notes with little attention and discipline for a test I knew I wasn't ready for. The truth is, I always knew I was naturally smart; I could do the bare minimum and strive past my classmates time after time. I expected to get good grades and do well in school without putting in the same effort as my peers, and honestly most of the time the results could not have been more pleasing.

But being ahead got the best of me.

I was stuck at the end of a road while everyone else was turning onto my street. I brainlessly expected to get A's doing the same thing I did to get B's. Each time, thinking it would be different. Therefore it wasn't until the end of junior year that I foolishly realized my classmates had caught up to me. It wasn't until then that I realized I had made a mistake that could seriously affect my future. And it wasn't until then that I took my life into my own hands and decided to make a change.

I am no longer insane.

Now, I am doing the best I have ever done in my high school career. I am involved in countless clubs, do my job as a citizen taking part in community service, and even guide others in a mentoring program at my school. And in turn, I look to JMU to challenge me. And as the only school that offers the major I am passionate for, Intelligence Analysis, I know JMU would most perfectly provide me with the tools to achieve a career, not just a job. To push myself, not request only the bare minimum. I yearn to make new friends, take chances, experience the unthinkable, and excel in my courses-all while wearing purple and gold, of course.

Undergraduate / The most powerful thing you can do is make someone think what you think. Personal Statement for JMU [2]

The most powerful thing you can do is make someone think what you think.

More than anything, I wish this application was a conversation. Because in the real world, which ironically we are preparing for, you cannot sit down at a computer and rewrite and edit what you are going to say until you believe it speaks for you. The most powerful thing you can do is make others think what you think. Every war, every argument, every fight, starts from one single thing- a disagreement. What some cannot settle with their words, they settle with their fists. It's not a story or an event that makes me stand out against the crowd, it's a mindset. When we write things rather than say them, we lose so many advantages. Anything you can write down, you can say better. Now, I have trouble organizing my thoughts. There is so much to say and my brain refuses to take a second to rest. In a speech, would that not tell you more about me, about what goes through my mind, than in an essay I can think about and crumple up if I don't like it. I can stutter and you will only understand me better. My voice can shake and my words can tremble. I can blurt out such a long sentence about the things I love and the things I hate, I can share with you my brilliant opinions about the world or I can roll off into a tangent exploring the universe and its magnificent mysteries and then after I may pause for a quick breath, but just quick enough to not lose my train of thought in drawing you in until you are at the very edge, the very last inch of your seat and maybe, just maybe, I would reveal to you a secret or two. Or maybe, I wouldn't say a single word. I can throw my hands around or keep them glued to my sides. Whether it's the water building up in my eyes or the clenching of my fists accompanied most dearly with a reddening face, each little thing about my body language speaks louder than my words ever could. There is so much power in the way you can make people feel and think with something so simple as the way you come across to them, the way your presence makes them feel, the things you say that open their eyes just a tiny bit wider. When you talk to someone, you get one shot. And one is enough. Because you don't say things you don't mean, there is always truth in your words.