 It’s hard to write about yourself.
But that’s exactly what personal statements are about! When applying for study abroad programs, as well as graduate, medical, law, or business school, often a personal statement of some kind will be required as part of the application. These personal statements may be free-response style, in which you are simply asked to write a comprehensive statement about yourself and why you would be a good fit for the program you are applying to. Alternately, you might be asked to respond to more specific prompts. These may be about your personal and/or professional goals for the program, skills or characteristics you have which would make you a good candidate, or life experiences you have had which either prepared you for the program or inspired you to apply. Whatever the type of personal statement, I’ve found it’s important to be specific, as you would be on a resume or cover letter. I like to use specific reasons if I’m making a big claim such as “I would be a great astrophysicist.” I think of it like a mini-essay, in which my claim (for example, that I would be a great astrophysicist) is my thesis statement. Everything in that statement should build up your life story in a way which supports your claim, for example, including that I used to stargaze as a kid with a telescope in my backyard, and then in college I was a research assistant for a physics professor, worked at a lab, and presented research to conferences. I always try to write a logical progression to my conclusion: Given my years of experience both personal and professional, I would be a great astrophysicist. A somewhat obvious but still important point that I often have to remind myself of is that a personal statement should also be personal. If a prompt asks you to tell a personal story, then in my experience it’s a good plan to tell a personal story, not write in generalizations about your professional or personal experience as a whole. I think in academic writing this can be really hard to do! We’re so often taught to distance ourselves and our personalities from our writing, but in my experience personal statements are often focused on drawing out your passions, inspirations, dreams, goals, and other very personal things. For example, instead of talking generally about being a research assistant and presenting research, you could explain the personal effect this experience had on you — did it strengthen your desire to be an astrophysicist? How? What particular moments were the most impactful for you — did you have a specific experience with the professor which affirmed to you that you were on the right life path? How about when you presented the research? You could write the anecdotal story the question is asking for, and then explicitly relate it back to the program, but keep in mind that one of the trickiest parts of personal statements (for me, this is definitely THE trickiest part) is that they usually have a word limit. When I start any application, I remind myself that the people reading mine will have read many, many others, so it’s important to be concise and say my piece in as few words possible while (hopefully) still keeping a spark of personal appeal which will make my statement stand out. The goal here is to not bore the admissions committee, but rather to show them that not only are you qualified, you can be focused when answering questions and tell them an interesting story! I’ve found that one of the best tools for grabbing the admissions committee’s attention is the opening paragraph, or even the opening sentence. This is a chance to catch their interest and show them that your statement will be a powerful one. In order to do this, I like to turn to writing a solid “hook.” The hook is the angle you will be approaching your personal statement with. The key to writing a good hook is that you want to make it as original as possible. When I wrote my first few personal statements, it was tempting to use clichés, but I found out pretty fast that clichés will not help you in personal statements, and at their worst can read as disingenuous. Personal statements became much easier for me when I allowed myself to be genuine rather than relying on what other people have said before to make myself shine – your personal statement is about you, so own that! Personal statements can even be fun if you keep this in mind (...or maybe that’s just me). Being creative about your reasoning is a way I’ve found to stay genuine and avoid clichés in personal statements. If I want to be an astrophysicist, saying that I’ve always been inspired by space is both cliché and lacks specificity. Why does space inspire me? What do I hope to do in the future, and how will this program help me do it? By asking yourself questions like these, I think you can come up with some unique, creative answers that might not only impress the person reading your application, but most importantly, genuinely and proudly represent you as a person, because in my experience that’s what can make personal statements really shine.
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 By Elena S When I was a kid, I read A LOT of books. In those books were a lot of words. In those words were a lot of meanings that I learned and savored. Building my English vocabulary from reading was so important and precious to me, because it allowed me to express myself more fully in my own storytelling (I may be an English Lit major, but creative writing has always been my first love). And honestly, learning all of these new words was just so fascinating to me – they all looked so different! So many of them had unique letter combinations (like “unique”!) that I wondered about and tucked away in my mind for later reference. I discovered words that said big things, big ideas I’d never known how to share, and words that said little things, little thoughts that had seemed almost too trivial to share. Yet by the very fact of there being language to express these ideas, it told me that nothing was too trivial, nothing was too big and scary that language couldn’t at least try to conceptualize. However, when the perfect occasion arose for me to share these exciting little nuggets of knowledge I’d found aloud, disaster struck. Repeatedly. When I was nine, I learned the word “epitome.” I knew how to spell it, I knew what it meant, and I knew how to use it in context. I was a kid who didn’t really understand pretentious language and was just genuinely eager to share what I’d learned. I carried that word – and many others – with me, ready to use them at the right moment. When that moment came for epitome, I excitedly used it when talking to my fourth grade teacher about the invention of the lightbulb. I used it correctly. I knew exactly what it meant and I hoped so badly that when I said it, I would see that same spark of excitement that I felt reflected in my teacher’s eyes. Instead, she laughed at me. “What?” she said, shaking her head at me in a way that served to teach no lesson except that I should have probably kept my mouth shut. “Did you say epi-tome? That’s not how you say it.” I didn’t bother telling her that that’s stupid, because then why is it spelled that way? How was I supposed to know? Instead, I, a shy kid at the best of times, meekly agreed and didn’t say the word epitome out loud for the next several years, even after I knew how to say it. For too many people, even in a predominantly English-speaking environment, learning English is a process of being shamed for the very act of trying to learn. For people learning English as a second, third (or fourth!) language, there can be additional pronunciation pitfalls, but I think it’s important to understand that there is significant overlap between the common mispronunciations of native and non-native English speakers. Many people experience this. So many people do, in fact, that it (mispronouncing words you learned from reading, not speaking) has a name: Calliope syndrome (pronounced “Calley-ope,” because it’s a cruelly fitting name), or “booklish.” Demystifying the experience of being utterly bewildered by English pronunciation has been something that was deeply cathartic for me, because honestly, it’s lowkey traumatic to be laughed at by a teacher! Especially when, I bet you, that teacher also didn’t innately know how to pronounce epitome, because, get this: English pronunciation is not innate knowledge, and though it often masquerades as a phonetic language, the more words you learn, the faster it becomes clear that this is deeply untrue. English pronunciation is a mess, objectively speaking. The poem “The Chaos” by Gerard Nolst Trenité, published way back in 1920, makes a solid case for its awful, pervasive inconsistencies:  If you started making faces halfway through the first stanza, me too.
But the truth of the matter is that as much as English speakers mock each other for mispronunciation, this is a pretty useless, cruel pursuit. We’re all going to keep mispronouncing things. I propose a more constructive, potentially healing alternative: we mock English together. Below is my list of English words that personally make me angry due to their unintuitive, generally nonsensical pronunciations which have haunted me throughout my life, and I strongly encourage you to make a list of your own if any of this post resonates with you.
 By James Gamboa I never really questioned the necessity of writing an outline for an assignment. In most cases, outlining is pretty much habitual. Rarely will I write an essay with only the assignment prompt to work with. To me, outlining is an art form. It is a phenomenon that has yet to be fully understood by writers from different backgrounds and disciplines. There is a sort of beauty in the way writers are able to jot down jumbled words and phrases that somehow capture full, complete ideas of the writer. However, all the niceties aside, I also want to make the claim that outlining can be the worst, most unenjoyable part of the writing process. Now, I know what you’re thinking, “James, why go on about how great outlines are if you’re just going to hate on the process?” Well, that’s the beauty of writing. There is no distinctive feeling one should have about the process—feelings about writing evolve.
I became more appreciative of outlines when I was introduced to the art of literary analysis in my 9th grade English class. My teacher would always tell the class that in order to have a strong essay, we must begin with a good outline. “An outline”, my teacher would say, “is the backbone of your paper. Take good care of it. Outlining is a must”. Being the enthusiastic freshman I was, I took her word for it and scheduled a meeting with her to talk about how I can approach the outline. I ended up defaulting to an alphanumeric outline (see link below for an example of an alphanumeric outline). To this day, I still use this form of outlining for my writing assignments. Examples of Alphanumeric Outlines https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/general_writing/the_writing_process/developing_an_outline/types_of_outlines.html https://redhawks-my.sharepoint.com/:w:/g/personal/gamboajames_seattleu_edu/EVeyuPIEu61OhedFQvugnn0B0EaFJpuwbWNi6x-Tb6RFxQ?e=rzfrVz&wdLOR=c9EA0D7C1-CC11-4731-8FFC-F62A67A03BCA The Positives What I love about outlines is that there is no wrong way of writing one. You can make it as thorough or as simple as you want. You can write full sentences or simply take notes. What I appreciate about outlines is that the writer will have the ability to constantly use an outline as a reference during the drafting process and into the final stages of the writing process (i.e. peer editing, revisions, etc.). The versatility of outlines gives the writer the ability to also tweak the outline as the paper progresses. The outline will evolve just as much as the actual paper. The possibilities for outlines are just as endless as the final draft. If you’re devoted enough to spend an hour or two on an outline, then the paper practically writes itself. The Negatives As much as I love what my 9th grade English teacher taught me about outlines, I am going to have to disagree with her on one thing. This actually goes for all of my past English teachers in high school. I truly don’t believe that outlining is/should be a requirement when writing an academic paper. Often times, teachers would make outlines worth a hundred points in the gradebook to ensure that all the students wrote one. In turn, students would panic and start jotting down random ideas just to earn a good grade. In this case, outlining becomes futile. Additionally, student writers would be stripped of their creative freedoms when writing their paper, making them less motivated to actually engage in their own work. The outlines that they end up writing would be too artificial, as their work initial ideas for their paper are written in the way that satisfies the teacher rather than the actual writer. You Do You! The best writing processes that will result in coherent and thoughtful papers are the ones that capture the idiosyncrasies of the writers. In my experience, the best papers I’ve written are the ones that have allowed me to take whatever course I feel is most appropriate and what I believe would capture my ideas in the most authentic way possible. I personally don’t like it when I’m told that certain aspects of the writing process are required. It just feels so limiting. In the writing process, nothing is more valuable than one’s creative freedom. Now, I’m not saying that you should defy your teachers’ every instruction. I am simply implying that in every paper you write, your true, genuine self should be at the forefront. I now invite you to challenge yourself to really think about what this may look like for you. Happy writing! -James  By Karissa Lopez
The new year is usually a time of hope, excitement, and productivity to signify a new start in life. However, I find myself entering 2021 with leftover feelings of uncertainty and anxiety, which makes a new start or “reset” seem daunting. As I’ve spent some time in this space, exploring the ways that I can kickstart myself into a productive and fulfilling new year, I’ve discovered that these feelings of hope and excitement that signify new beginnings aren’t always scheduled, and that’s okay. Because of this, I’ve found myself reflecting a lot on the past year and finding new hope in the ways I’ve grown, despite the unfavorable circumstances. This reflection and gratitude process has brought me more excitement and joy for the future than any new year has, and the best part about it is that it can be done anytime and anywhere! It’s both a grounding and empowering experience that I would like to share, in hope that it can give you a sense of a new beginning whenever you feel it’s needed throughout the year ahead. First, it’s important to acknowledge how far you’ve come with the big and little successes in life. You made it through nearly a year in a global pandemic—that’s a huge success! Productivity isn’t always a gauge for success, so I’d challenge you to reflect solely on accomplishments and successes, celebrating and congratulating yourself for each one. No matter what these accomplishments are, they’re all important and worth recognizing! For example, last year I wrote an article about a close family friend, promoting her small business. Although the article was written for a class and it never actually got published, I was really proud of what I had written, and the article had prompted some students from my class to purchase from her business. I consider that to be one of my biggest accomplishments of the year (second only to surviving six months of living with my parents again) because I was able to offer support to someone I care about through things I’m passionate about: writing and reporting. Neither of those accomplishments are quantitative, but I can still measure as accomplishments and successes that I’ve had over the last year. Second, reflect on the lessons you learned within the last year. Personally, 2020 was an entire year of non-stop learning. For starters, I learned a lot about myself. Living alone during a pandemic isn’t exactly ideal, but it gave me the opportunity to be more intentional about the time I spend with myself, making time for the things that make me feel the most myself, which I learned are cross stitching, cooking new recipes, and writing letters/sending random tea bags and foliage I find during walks to my friends and family. Throughout the past year I’ve gained so much knowledge about others, COVID-19, and the list goes on. Within all this learning there were lessons that I know I’ll remember throughout the new year, guiding me through similar situations and encounters. Reflecting on these lessons can be an empowering experience— the year you’ve lived through is full of moments of meaning that you can carry with you forever. Last, reflect on the relationships that you made and/or maintained throughout the last year. How have you seen them grow and flourish? How have they changed you as a person? For me, this is the reflection that brings me the most joy. Reflecting on my relationships with others helps me to feel grounded in my position in the world, and it always brings me happiness to know that I have others surrounding and supporting me through my own personal growth and survival each year. A new year doesn’t always guarantee an automatic reset, but with each new year comes an opportunity to reflect on the growth and opportunity that the last year has given you. Whatever emotions you feel going into the new year are valid, and I encourage you to welcome them by reflecting on and practicing gratitude for the last year, helping to create space for you to find closure and contentment in another trip around the sun.  There are many misconceptions and complexities around bisexuality, pansexuality, and their relationship to each other. To some who do not identify with either sexuality, the two are indistinguishable from one another. Beyond that, from claims that bisexuality is transphobic to pansexuality being bisexual erasure, there seems to be some proverbial conflict between the two to some. However, to others, many of us can coexist and even have great relationships with each other, platonic or otherwise. In my humble opinion, this comes from having a mutual understanding and respect for each other.
To start, what is the difference between the two? As referenced in one of my previous posts, being bisexual means that someone is attracted to two or more genders. One could favor a gender or genders over others, but it is definitely possible and completely valid for a bisexual person to be attracted to all genders. Being pansexual, on the other hand, means that one is attracted to any and all genders equally and some claim to be “genderblind” as a way to describe their attraction to others. Pansexuality is commonly regarded as being part of the “bisexual umbrella” which also includes omnisexuality and polysexuality (which is different from polyamory). It isn’t hard to see how the two are similar, but their differences are clear and should be recognized out of respect to all who identify as either. It should also go without saying that both sexualities are valid and belong in the greater LGBTQIA+ community! Where does conflict arise then? A common misconception is that the bi- prefix means that one is only attracted to men or women, thus reinforcing the binary. With that, a false dichotomy has come to be believed by some that pansexuality is more accepting than bisexuality. This garnered much resentment amongst many bisexuals, leading to the eventual accusations that pansexuality itself is bisexual erasure. Sadly, much of those attitudes have led to pansexual erasure in LGBTQIA+ culture among other factors. As a proud bisexual and nonbinary person, seeing a divide between some is very disheartening to me. Others being pansexual has never and never will hurt me. Yes, misconceptions circulating in our community and greater society can be hurtful, but we should simply correct said misconceptions and advocate for ourselves rather than invalidating another’s sexuality. Historically, bisexual people have also been and still are invalidated for who we are attracted to, and we really should be extending grace and solidarity to pansexual people as often as possible. I, myself, have many pansexual loved ones who actually asked me to write on this topic. Their requests tell me that there is a great amount of work to be done to ensure that people of all sexualities feel comfortable and safe in our community. If that’s the case, I want to be a part of that change and acknowledge our similarities, differences, and the respect I have for any and all pansexual people out there. I hope my brief overview of this topic either validated or informed whoever read it. Below, I will also link some additional information for further reading. -Bek Hayfield, Nikki. “Bisexual and Pansexual Identities: Exploring and Challenging Invisibility and Invalidation”. Routledge, 2020, pp. 1-17. Jakubowski, Kaylee. "Pansexuality 101: It’s More Than ‘Just Another Letter’." https://everydayfeminism.com/2014/11/pansexuality-101/, Everyday Feminism, 12 Nov. 2014, everydayfeminism.com/2014/11/pansexuality-101/. Johnson, Bek. “How to Use Inclusive Language: Respecting the LGBTQIA+ Community in Your Writing.” Seattle University Writing Center. https://www.seattleu.edu/media/writing-center/worksheets/Respecting_the_LGBTQIA_Community_in_Your_Writing.pdf.  Sabrina Klindworth Bullet Journals became a fad or a craze a couple years ago (2017-2018 ish) and that was where I first got my start. While I had a hard time incorporating it into my college life freshman year, after going strong for two months over the summer, I decided to give it another go since it’s 2021 and I’m stuck inside due to a pandemic. I also noticed myself making to do lists on sticky notes of the homework I had due and other tasks I needed/wanted to get done during Fall Quarter since the days blurred together in online classes. The average sticky note is not that big and I decided over Winter Break that it was time to go dust off my old bullet journal since I would have more space and feel less guilty for throwing away a post-it every week. While I am not an expert bullet journal-er who calls it their “bujo”, I have been going strong for almost four weeks now (not very long but hey it’s a start) so here is what I have learned works for me and what doesn’t based on my past experience. What you need to start a bullet journal Technically all you need is the actual bullet style journal to get started. The appeal of the journal itself is nice for someone who wants to do a lot with the space but doesn’t like the format of traditional planners. There is a grid of dots on each page so if you want to write as if in a lined journal you can, or you can doodle and space letters large or small or create boxes. I am not a drawer or a writer so I tend to only use my bullet journal as a way of keeping track of different habits and my weekly to-dos. If you are a stickler for straight lines having a ruler would be helpful and using colored pens and markers are a good way to easily spice up your bullet journal. I like to use Papermate Flair pens, however my bullet journal has thin pages so you can see the ink bleed through in certain light. In this way not all bullet journals are created equal. Some have heavier pages so ink or even paint doesn’t bleed through, if art is more your thing. Before using pen, I plan out my spreads in pencil first to make sure I like the layout before it becomes permanent or to practice new lettering styles. I also love to use washi tape in my bullet journal to help fill empty space and spice up my journal with color and designs. Finding Inspiration Bullet journals are super flexible in how you set it up, which can also be intimidating if you don’t know how you want it set up. When I first started I watched a lot of YouTube videos on bullet journaling for inspiration and I still look up different handwriting styles to mix things up. Main thing I learned: your bullet journal will not look as pretty as other people’s and that is ok! The most important thing is that it functions for you, and a plus is making it look pretty. For me, trying to make it pretty also helps me want to use it more. When starting a new month, I like to pick out a color scheme for that month. Each of my months already has a single color coordinated to it (I’ll explain why later) but finding two other colors to match that one and three washi tapes that go helps keep a simple theme for my month. Then each of my spreads looks cohesive and pretty, plus it makes it simpler than trying to find color combos each week, if you are using colors in your journal. My Set-Up This is not the way that everyone should have their journal set up, but it’s the way mine works for me. I have a Year at a Glance spread in the beginning of my journal with important dates for each month, such as birthdays and holidays (on left below). I then have a spread to track what books, shows, and movies I watched over the course of the year. Books get its own page and I’m just writing the title and author of the book, while shows and movies have separate columns and I’m just writing the title and maybe the season of the show (on right below). I’ve also chosen a specific color pen for each month and will use that pen to create bullet points next to each thing I did in that month so I can loosely track when I watched or read what. This is something new I’m trying as previously I wrote down books, shows, and movies I wanted to watch and many I never got to which was disheartening so this is more positive and allows me to look back and remember. Other people have written the date they watched the movie or started the book/show and then the finish date but I didn’t want to feel rushed to finish a show or book so I personally decided not to do dates. I then have my monthly spread for January, which is basically a large calendar of the month, again writing birthdays and holidays for that month but also any meetings or appointments (example of February, my most recent spread, below top image). I also include a habit tracker and gratitude tracker as part of my monthly spread, each on their own pages. The habit tracker is a mini calendar and you color in the box or draw a dot to mark that you did that thing on that day (below bottom image). There are a thousand different ways to do a habit tracker, such as bar or line graphs, and you can track all sorts of things like how long you slept each night or water intake. Mine is pretty simple and I only track activities that I did or did not do, such as wash my face in the morning or do something non-electronic for fun and de-stress time. It’s also helping me tackle some goals of 2021 by tracking when I eat fruits and vegetables, since I’m terrible at that. Another one of my goals is to work on being more positive in 2021 so I have my gratitude tracker to help. I’m going to try to write one thing I’m grateful for each day of February so I have something to look back on at the end of the month of the small things that made me happy to build a better appreciation for them and build a more positive mindset. All of my monthly spreads follow this same format.   After the monthly spread, you have the weekly spread. This is my to-do list part where I have things I need to get done each day. I use keys to know whether I completed my tasks or not. A crossed off box is fully completed but I use a slash if I only did half the work, such as only reading half the articles for a class. This cues me to know that I might need to work more on that task another day. If I completely don’t get to a task, I draw a little arrow next to the box indicating that I’m moving the task to another day. There are a lot of different symbols you could use in your journal, but these ones are simple and easy for me to use. I like being able to plan tasks for different days of the week and having only so much space limits me in how many tasks I can do so I’m not overwhelming myself. In addition, I add my classes as tasks so I can cross off that I went to class, but this also acts as a placeholder for my time so I’m not putting too many tasks and can visually see how I plan for my day to go.  Wrap-Up
There is a lot of thought that can go into a bullet journal, such as looking at examples, trying new things, and planning your spreads. It can also take some time, but making it into a relaxing activity can help decrease the stress of the week. (I like to create new spreads with YouTube or music in the background.) I personally feel a lot more organized since starting and it has been helping me stay focused on my goals for 2021. I hope that this article helped a little bit by breaking down different aspects of bullet journaling and makes it seem a lot less confusing. If you were able to find inspiration to start your own journal or get back into it, I wish you luck! Just remember that this is about what is helpful for you, not adding additional stress, so relax and have fun.  Sarah Mahl
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