My college essay wasn’t very good. It might’ve sucked actually. Arrogance and laziness—these were my faults. I wrote it hours before a deadline, and because I was a decent writer in AP English, I thought I could get away with it. Now I am wiser—I know that a personal statement requires hours (spaced between weeks) of thoughtful revision. You need to read and re-read your piece again and again. You need at least two people to look it over, and check for spelling mistakes, grammatical errors, disingenuous sentiments, and incoherent thoughts. Basically you need someone to 1. make sure your essay makes sense and 2. tell you if it’s even any good.
Annoyingly, a personal statement or “statement of justification” for medical school requires so, so much more. This is the tale of my writing process:
January: Woohoo
Why do you want to go medical school? I started musing on how I might go about answering that question. An exciting time I’d say.
Fast Forward to March: Blah
Whenever someone asked I said I was working on my essay—but truth be told I was barely thinking about it.
April: Done, Sort Of
I decided on a personal anecdote to base my response on, giving me a false belief that the hardest part of this writing process was over. Believe it or not, the actual writing is the hardest part.
May: Outline, Baby, Outline
There were so many directions I could go with that one idea, so I gave it some structure. Although I ended up not even looking at the outline while actually writing, it did help me organize my thoughts, and ease some writer’s anxiety. 
June and July: …Oh no
All I did was search “How to Write a Medical School Personal Statement.”
August: ***Flips Hair Confidently***
I wrote it. It was hard and often boring and very frustrating, but I powered through. Hours of writing—at the library, on the loo, in my bed, on the train, and while asleep. I must’ve read through my words at least fifty times. At times I thought my essay was dang exceptional, and other times I knew it was just a fake and wordy piece of shit.
September: Close But No Cigar
I asked six people to read my personal statement. Perhaps the most important part of my writing process, this is where I got some crucial feedback. Thankfully there were no drastic changes needed, but I find it’s really all about the arguably minor fixes that really elevate a piece of writing from nice to nicee. Thanks guys—you know who you are. 😛
And that concludes the tale of my statement of justification. It’s not perfect, but it is what it needs to be. Copy. Paste. Submit.
-Maryam
The Junction Journal 