One of my colleagues in the Management Leadership Tomorrow program remarked that I am probably having an easy time right now because writing is one of my strengths. He's right, but then he's wrong. He's right in that I have an easy time with grammar, word use, etc, and that I can see for myself where an essay needs work. He's wrong in that I'm going to have to write just as many drafts as everyone else will. I'm not so cavalier as to think that I've got the essays in the bag. That type of hubris in this process is what results in rejections. In fact, the bar will probably be higher for me as an English major who works at a publishing company.
I do enjoy the essay writing process more than the studying for the GMAT process, though. I like to write and always have. You may be surprised to learn that I never wanted to be a fiction writer. The few times I've tried my hand at fiction, I have found myself bored and never felt compelled to see my work through to completion. I'd stop at the first draft and just lose interest. Non-fiction is where my heart was/is. At one point in my life I wanted to be a journalist so that makes sense. I love to recount true stories and find the symbolism, pathos, and humor in things that normal people do on a daily basis. Even still, my attention span has never allowed me to see any of my non fiction work through to the end (but I would love to write a biography of my grandmother -- she just refuses to be interviewed). Sure, I'm a decent writer, but my real talent (I think) is for bringing out the strengths of other writers. Kind of like a writing coach (or editor).
That same colleague sent out an SOS and asked me to look over some of his essays this weekend. He had received the same feedback multiple times and when he thought he was improving, his reviewer told him he hadn't made any progress. I looked them over and what had happened is that the treasure was buried deep, deep in the essay. Several paragraphs into a 750 word essay. He meandered through the essay making a few claims and never substantiating them or introducing ideas and never reconciling them. He had some cool ideas for metaphors but needed a coach to help him make the metaphors work and sing. I went through and helped him create a structure and develop a theme.
I also have a friend applying for medical rotations and she asked me to help her with essays for those programs. Unlike my colleague, She had so many treasures in one essay that readers were getting overwhelmed and she failed to connect the dots for why she wanted to go into radiology in a way that we could understand. So I helped her with creating an outline that kept her on track as she rewrote the essay. We have all of her treasures connected with a central theme that we laid out in the beginning of the essay.
While I was doing all this essay help, I avoided rewriting my own Kellogg essays. It did not help that I can now stream all four seasons of Mad Men on Netflix.
I spent Saturday watching Season 1 and pretending to write. To my credit, I did manage to finish a first draft of my Wharton essays at 2 AM last night and I'm glad that I got my ideas on to paper. As much as I preach about the benefits of outlining, I totally winged it on my career goals essay and wrote what I felt as it came to me.
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