Writing a PS without a Tragic Life

If you frequent the TLS boards, you've no doubt read through threads upon threads of people posting their personal statements as examples or for critiques. When I was going through the process of planning and writing my own PS, I definitely drew a lot of advice and inspiration from reading the personal statements of those who went before me.

Pretty much every single PS I read on TLS dealt with some sort of tragedy in the upbringing of the writer. Whether the death of a parent, the loss of a home, the incarceration of a sibling, the drug abuse of a family member, or a battle through some terrible disease, each of the personal statements I read focused on overcoming the obstacles they've faced in life. I see where they're coming from...from a topic statement, their lives are pure PS gold.

There's just one problem: I don't have a tragic past. I'm a white female from a happy and prosperous middle-class family. My parents have been married for 28 years, they're still together, none of my sisters is a raging alcoholic, drug addict, parolee, etc. I've had a normal, healthy, well-adjusted life in a white-bread sort of town. What on earth do I have to write about?! I remember moaning to my parents in my writing haze that my life (at that point) would have been so much easier if one of them had had cancer, or had been in prison.


Don't worry, I didn't actually mean it.


But I did have to think a little harder about what to write. Writing a PS is like toeing a fine, fine line between sincere and genuine or trite and overwrought. Just a little too much emotion or pushing can really make your PS head downhill faster than Heroes after the middle of the second season.

So I have a few tips for those of you planning on writing your PS over the summer in order to get a head start on the cycle (this is a very smart idea, by the way!). Now, bear in mind, these are just my personal thoughts and tips, they definitely aren't the end-all, be-all to PS writing. What do I know? I'm just one applicant.

Here are my thoughts:

• I feel like everyone and their mom writes about the death of their grandparent. Seriously. I must have seen no fewer than 18 PS drafts that mentioned the death of a grandparent and how the writer worked hard in school because they know that's what their grandparent would have wanted for them. If I've seen that many, imagine how many the adcomms have seen.
• Don't try to make a situation sadder or more dramatic than it is. Readers can tell that it's forced. Okay, you broke up with your high school sweetheart, who you thought was "the one." That's terrible, we feel for you, but unless you're somewhat mentally/chemically imbalanced, this should not have been the impetus for your three suicide attempts. If you are feeling clinically depressed or suicidal, please get help. If you're just trying to connect or relate with someone who might know how you're feeling about a break up, don't make it sound worse than it was.
• In general, don't write about a break up. Period.
• It is okay to let your voice come through your PS. You don't need to be 100% formal 100% of the time. If you try to be business like and write formally, you're going to come across as either arrogant, soulless, or like you're trying too hard. My topic was tongue-in-cheek, and I inserted a few silly one-liners in order to show the adcomms that I don't take myself too seriously.
• On the other hand, don't go too far in the other direction. This can't read like the transcript of your stand-up monologue. Don't swear, don't use slang unless you define it, try to include as few contractions as possible, and PROOFREAD PROOFREAD PROOFREAD. People are judging you based on this one two-to-three page essay.

My PS was about clumsiness. Kind of. Basically, I wrote about signing up for an advanced flamenco class when I was in college. I'm not exactly the most coordinated person in the world, and I knew ahead of time that signing up for this class was signing myself up for something where I'd have to work twice as hard to look half as good as my more experience and better coordinated class mates. But I did it anyway, because I wanted to prove to myself that I could, and I enjoy the challenge of pushing myself to get through things at which I am not naturally gifted.

Earth shattering stuff? Nope. But I think it was just light enough to convey my point without bashing the reader over the head with it. It probably made the adcomms smile a time or two. And it accurately reflected my personality, and the approach I'm going to try to take to law school.

Ultimately, you have to write a PS that shows the adcomms who you are while getting the point across that you are a good writer and would be a good addition to their program. You don't need to be Little Orphan Annie in order to write a startlingly poignant PS. My best piece of advice is this: write about what you know, not what you think they want to see.