Personal Statement?
In the past few years, I've known a lot of people who have applied for grad school, and a few of them asked me to look over and edit their personal statement on their application. I don't know whether it's because they think I'm a good writer, because they don't trust their own writing, or simply wanted someone else's opinion.
Whatever reason it was, these people were asking me for a favor, and I tried to help them out as best I could. But the interesting thing is, as I read each one of those personal statements, I found myself wishing that I could turn around ask them for help instead.
Why?
Well, reading these personal statements by other people made me wonder about myself, and what I would write in my own personal statement. As I've talked about many times before in my blog, ever since I graduated college and started working, I have been trying to figure out what exactly my personal statement is. What is my "next step", and when and how do I take it?
See, even though some of these personal statements I was reading weren't the most organized or grammatically correct, they all described at least some sort of definite direction. A clear sense of a personal mission, specific goals, and ideas on how to achieve those things.
One person felt that pursuing an advanced degree in Electrical Engineering would help them towards a life of researching cutting edge technologies to help people. Others wanted to study certain fields of medicine to help specific groups of patients they felt were most suited to their talents and interests. All of them had stories and experiences they could point to that helped to explain how they came to choose their paths.
Now, it is entirely possible that all of these personal statements were filled with layers of BS, laid on thick for the sake of whatever admissions officer was going to read it. But from what I could gather, most of their statements seemed very genuine and sincere.
And I guess that is something I really envy. I don't know if there is one single thing that is more valuable in life, than to know exactly what your life's purpose is.
In my entire life I don't think I have ever written a personal statement. For undergrad I only applied to U of I and I'm pretty sure there was no personal statement required there, just the basic stuff like test scores and class rank. It's just as well, because I wouldn't know what to write or even where to start. I certainly don't have any stories or experiences in mind to draw from, that would inspire me to write a personal statement around it.
As a graduating senior at U of I back in 2002, I was definitely tired of school and felt that it was time to get a job and step into the "real world" instead of applying for grad school. While I still feel that was the right decision, I've always had a feeling in the back of my mind that eventually I would pursue some sort of higher degree. The plan was to work for a few years, figure out what I'm interested in, and then go from there.
Well now I have been working for those "few years". And I kind of thought I would have gotten inspired by something by now, but I really haven't. The thing is, I still think I will eventually go back to school for something, at least part time. I just don't know when, where, and most importantly, what I want to study.
Should I get a Masters in EE? If so, what field? Analog, Digital, RF, Power...? Should I get an MBA? What about law school or medical school? The worst would be to waste a couple years pursuing some degree, only to discover that I really wanted to do something else. Especially now with the house, grad school would be a huge committment even if my company pays my tuition.
But going back to what I was saying about personal statements, I guess reading all those other people's statements made me realize how important it is to have direction in your life. In their cases, they were forced to write them because of the application process for grad school. But I think ideally, everyone should take the time to write a personal statement, whether applying for something or not. After all, Jerry Maguire wrote one, right?
Anyways, if you don't have a personal statement (like me), then I suppose your personal statement should be: "To come up with my personal statement". Kind of like if you don't have a job, your job becomes: "To find a job".
In both cases, you probably need to work just as hard at finding a personal statement/job as you would at executing your personal statement/job if you had one, because unless you're lucky, you aren't going to just stumble upon it. So yeah, I need to find my personal statement.
*****
Actually, I think I've got it. I think my personal statement is to become Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. With the recent passing of Chief Justice Rehnquist, I was watching the discussion on the news and it just seems like a really good job to have.
I mean the Supreme Court is hands down the coolest club in the world, and as Chief Justice you basically get to be the top dog of this club. On top of that you get to wear those really sweet looking robes, and if you're the Chief you even get those stripes on your sleeve. That's right, if I was Chief Justice I would make people call me "the Chief", just because I could.
The best part is once you're in, you're in for good and you pretty much have to answer to nobody. Say you get pulled over for speeding, what are they gonna do, try you in a village court? I'd just keep appealing that shiznit until it gets up to my court, and then what? That's right, I reign SUPREME baby. That's what sign on the building says. Call me the Chief.
Monday, September 12, 2005
Wednesday, September 07, 2005
Kanye and Katrina
Just watched the clip of Kanye saying Bush doesn't care about black people for the first time and I must say it is entertaining if nothing else. It was kind of surprising to see how noticeably shaken Mike Myers was by the whole thing, considering all his past experience in live TV. Chris Tucker's face was pretty priceless too.
I was thinking hypothetically, the funniest possible reaction to his little rant would have been something like the guy on track 3 on Kanye's first CD (College Dropout): "What in the f--- was that??! Kannnnn-hyeeeh??! I told you to do some sh-- for the kids!!!" If only I had the power to make such things happen, those would've been the first words out of Mike Myers's mouth.
Seriously though, that was pretty bad. I mean I don't care so much about the things he had to say. Just don't do it on a program that's dedicated to raising money for the victims. There are plenty of other places to spout off your opinions, but this was clearly not one of them.
Think about it for a second, if I want my opinion on a subject to be heard, the most I can do is post it on this blog and hope people read it and link to it. I don't have the luxury of going on TV and complaining about stuff that pisses me off. Kanye West, meanwhile, has no shortage of media outlets to express his views. Because of his celebrity, any magazine, newspaper, or TV station would trip over themselves to interview him.
Yet instead of using any of those outlets to speak, he found a way to choose the most inappropriate moment and place to do it. On top of that he came off sounding like an incoherent idiot - if you are going to hijack a national broadcast to speak your mind, at least have something more meaningful to say than some pointless garbage about Iraq and "George Bush doesn't care about black people".
Believe me, I am not one of those people who thinks everything and everyone should be "politically correct" at all times. It didn't really bug me when Kanye went on his little ramble at that awards thing last year about how he was insulted that he didn't win. If he really felt like he was that much better than the other nominees, then fine, say how you feel (although it would've been funny if the other nominees were like Dr. Dre or 2Pac or something, and they got pissed and decided to cap his ass in the parking lot).
It just bugs me when people are so self absorbed and arrogant that they act like rules don't apply to them. You know those people who do whatever they want, act on emotion or impulse, with no regard for anybody else or whatever potential consequences might ensue. It shows how little you respect other people and how much you adore yourself. Sure, everybody's opinion is important, but what makes you feel like yours is so important that you can just decide on a whim to interrupt a charity event and preach your agenda? I though Michael Moore during the Academy Awards was bad, but at least in that case all he was interrupting was some meaningless entertainment show.
As far as the rest of the Hurricane Katrina stuff goes, I've kind of been trying to avoid watching the news too much, for the same reasons I tried to avoid coverage of the tsunami last year. But unless you live under a rock, it's nearly impossible to dodge the news entirely.
And I must say, seeing how all the people involved in the situation reacted is pretty depressing. How can anyone not be disillusioned with the human race after seeing all the ugliness that followed the disaster? You got politicians pointing fingers at each other, blaming everyone but themselves. You got chaos in the streets, people looting for plasma TVs of all things. And the ever present race issue was brought up almost right away.
I don't know whether the federal government or local government was more at fault for the utter lack of preparation, but as an admittedly uninformed outsider I'm leaning towards local. I mean if my basement is prone to flooding, it's my responsibility to make sure I have sump pumps and backup plans. Maybe my parents would help me pay for some of it or the neighborhood would even pitch in some money. But ultimately it's up to me to take care of my own shiznit you know?
In other words if your city is built below sea level, in a hurricane zone, and the only thing preventing your home from being a giant lake are these levies, then you better make sure you spent your money on the best levies money can buy, and dedicate a large chunk of your budget to maintaining and upgrading those suckers every year. And you better also have a contingency plan in case everything fails, something better than "let's shove everyone in the football stadium and wait for someone else to come bail us out". I don't know how much money they spend on Mardi Gras or whatever else they spend money on down there, but I'm pretty sure I wouldn't be holding one of the largest parties in the world every year until I'm 110% positive that my place is safe.
And say my place does flood and I need help. Do I call up my mom and yell at her for not calling all the Greyhound buses in the country to pick me up immediately? If my neighbor comes by to rescue me, would I shoot my gun at his helicopter or curse him for not coming sooner?
Honestly if I were part of the rescue team, and the people I were rescuing were reacting that way to my arrival, I would probably kick them in the face and just leave them to die (yes I realize I should be more compassionate and it's a good thing I am not in the National Guard). If you want to be mad at the government that's one thing, but get a freaking clue and don't take your frustration out on people who are trying to help you and had absolutely no control over when they got sent on their mission.
It might sound like I'm defending President Bush, but I'm not. I'm sure he has his share of blame in the lack of preparation and slow response. What bothers me, though, is that it seems like more and more people in this country find it convenient to blame the President for every last thing that goes wrong. It's certainly your right to hate the guy and the things he does or stands for, but show some sense please and don't go overboard.
I'm listening to some of these people calling into radio stations, and it's as if our President stirred up these winds to make a hurricane, because he likes to destroy part of his own country like that. Or if you listen to someone like Cindy Sheehan, it almost sounds like George W. Bush is the one who is planting roadside bombs in Iraq, firing rocket propelled grenades, or running suicide missions to kill her son.
It's like nobody realizes anymore that whether you like it or not, bad stuff happens in this world and it's not always up to someone else to deal with it for you. Everyone's reaction to these things is to shove the blame or responsibility elsewhere, let someone else worry about it. "Hey look there's a mess, shouldn't someone be cleaning it up? Shouldn't someone be doing something about that? Oh, not me of course!"
Anyways, I think I've written enough for now. I knew I shouldn't have started writing about Katrina.
Just watched the clip of Kanye saying Bush doesn't care about black people for the first time and I must say it is entertaining if nothing else. It was kind of surprising to see how noticeably shaken Mike Myers was by the whole thing, considering all his past experience in live TV. Chris Tucker's face was pretty priceless too.
I was thinking hypothetically, the funniest possible reaction to his little rant would have been something like the guy on track 3 on Kanye's first CD (College Dropout): "What in the f--- was that??! Kannnnn-hyeeeh??! I told you to do some sh-- for the kids!!!" If only I had the power to make such things happen, those would've been the first words out of Mike Myers's mouth.
Seriously though, that was pretty bad. I mean I don't care so much about the things he had to say. Just don't do it on a program that's dedicated to raising money for the victims. There are plenty of other places to spout off your opinions, but this was clearly not one of them.
Think about it for a second, if I want my opinion on a subject to be heard, the most I can do is post it on this blog and hope people read it and link to it. I don't have the luxury of going on TV and complaining about stuff that pisses me off. Kanye West, meanwhile, has no shortage of media outlets to express his views. Because of his celebrity, any magazine, newspaper, or TV station would trip over themselves to interview him.
Yet instead of using any of those outlets to speak, he found a way to choose the most inappropriate moment and place to do it. On top of that he came off sounding like an incoherent idiot - if you are going to hijack a national broadcast to speak your mind, at least have something more meaningful to say than some pointless garbage about Iraq and "George Bush doesn't care about black people".
Believe me, I am not one of those people who thinks everything and everyone should be "politically correct" at all times. It didn't really bug me when Kanye went on his little ramble at that awards thing last year about how he was insulted that he didn't win. If he really felt like he was that much better than the other nominees, then fine, say how you feel (although it would've been funny if the other nominees were like Dr. Dre or 2Pac or something, and they got pissed and decided to cap his ass in the parking lot).
It just bugs me when people are so self absorbed and arrogant that they act like rules don't apply to them. You know those people who do whatever they want, act on emotion or impulse, with no regard for anybody else or whatever potential consequences might ensue. It shows how little you respect other people and how much you adore yourself. Sure, everybody's opinion is important, but what makes you feel like yours is so important that you can just decide on a whim to interrupt a charity event and preach your agenda? I though Michael Moore during the Academy Awards was bad, but at least in that case all he was interrupting was some meaningless entertainment show.
As far as the rest of the Hurricane Katrina stuff goes, I've kind of been trying to avoid watching the news too much, for the same reasons I tried to avoid coverage of the tsunami last year. But unless you live under a rock, it's nearly impossible to dodge the news entirely.
And I must say, seeing how all the people involved in the situation reacted is pretty depressing. How can anyone not be disillusioned with the human race after seeing all the ugliness that followed the disaster? You got politicians pointing fingers at each other, blaming everyone but themselves. You got chaos in the streets, people looting for plasma TVs of all things. And the ever present race issue was brought up almost right away.
I don't know whether the federal government or local government was more at fault for the utter lack of preparation, but as an admittedly uninformed outsider I'm leaning towards local. I mean if my basement is prone to flooding, it's my responsibility to make sure I have sump pumps and backup plans. Maybe my parents would help me pay for some of it or the neighborhood would even pitch in some money. But ultimately it's up to me to take care of my own shiznit you know?
In other words if your city is built below sea level, in a hurricane zone, and the only thing preventing your home from being a giant lake are these levies, then you better make sure you spent your money on the best levies money can buy, and dedicate a large chunk of your budget to maintaining and upgrading those suckers every year. And you better also have a contingency plan in case everything fails, something better than "let's shove everyone in the football stadium and wait for someone else to come bail us out". I don't know how much money they spend on Mardi Gras or whatever else they spend money on down there, but I'm pretty sure I wouldn't be holding one of the largest parties in the world every year until I'm 110% positive that my place is safe.
And say my place does flood and I need help. Do I call up my mom and yell at her for not calling all the Greyhound buses in the country to pick me up immediately? If my neighbor comes by to rescue me, would I shoot my gun at his helicopter or curse him for not coming sooner?
Honestly if I were part of the rescue team, and the people I were rescuing were reacting that way to my arrival, I would probably kick them in the face and just leave them to die (yes I realize I should be more compassionate and it's a good thing I am not in the National Guard). If you want to be mad at the government that's one thing, but get a freaking clue and don't take your frustration out on people who are trying to help you and had absolutely no control over when they got sent on their mission.
It might sound like I'm defending President Bush, but I'm not. I'm sure he has his share of blame in the lack of preparation and slow response. What bothers me, though, is that it seems like more and more people in this country find it convenient to blame the President for every last thing that goes wrong. It's certainly your right to hate the guy and the things he does or stands for, but show some sense please and don't go overboard.
I'm listening to some of these people calling into radio stations, and it's as if our President stirred up these winds to make a hurricane, because he likes to destroy part of his own country like that. Or if you listen to someone like Cindy Sheehan, it almost sounds like George W. Bush is the one who is planting roadside bombs in Iraq, firing rocket propelled grenades, or running suicide missions to kill her son.
It's like nobody realizes anymore that whether you like it or not, bad stuff happens in this world and it's not always up to someone else to deal with it for you. Everyone's reaction to these things is to shove the blame or responsibility elsewhere, let someone else worry about it. "Hey look there's a mess, shouldn't someone be cleaning it up? Shouldn't someone be doing something about that? Oh, not me of course!"
Anyways, I think I've written enough for now. I knew I shouldn't have started writing about Katrina.
Tuesday, September 06, 2005
The Answers
I'm sure you have all been anxiously awaiting the answers to my little quiz. Well most of them have already been answered correctly by those of you who left comments, congrats to you guys. Very impressive. The ones that were not answered were definitely obscure, but I threw them in anyways just for some added challenge.
1. Garth - Wayne's World
2. Weird Al Yankovic - "It's All About the Pentiums"
3. Michael Corleone - The Godfather Part I
4. Happy Gilmore - Happy Gilmore
5. Chubbs - Happy Gilmore
6. Kristin - Laguna Beach Season 1
7. Brad to the Miz - RW/RR Challenge: The Inferno II
8. Dave Chappelle - Killing Them Softly
9. The President - Dr. Strangelove: Or, How I Learned to Love the Bomb and Stop Worrying
10. Michelle - Full House
*****
By the way in #5, someone told me that this is not true. Supposedly when putting, it is all in the shoulders. Any golfers out there care to verify? Maybe learning golf technique from Happy Gilmore is not the best idea after all. And here I was all along, thinking that I should putt with a hockey stick.
I'm sure you have all been anxiously awaiting the answers to my little quiz. Well most of them have already been answered correctly by those of you who left comments, congrats to you guys. Very impressive. The ones that were not answered were definitely obscure, but I threw them in anyways just for some added challenge.
1. Garth - Wayne's World
2. Weird Al Yankovic - "It's All About the Pentiums"
3. Michael Corleone - The Godfather Part I
4. Happy Gilmore - Happy Gilmore
5. Chubbs - Happy Gilmore
6. Kristin - Laguna Beach Season 1
7. Brad to the Miz - RW/RR Challenge: The Inferno II
8. Dave Chappelle - Killing Them Softly
9. The President - Dr. Strangelove: Or, How I Learned to Love the Bomb and Stop Worrying
10. Michelle - Full House
*****
By the way in #5, someone told me that this is not true. Supposedly when putting, it is all in the shoulders. Any golfers out there care to verify? Maybe learning golf technique from Happy Gilmore is not the best idea after all. And here I was all along, thinking that I should putt with a hockey stick.
Friday, September 02, 2005
As I have mentioned before in this blog, one of the things I miss most about college is reading the DI (student newspaper at U of Illinois), and in particular the Police Blotter. The stories are usually short and lack much detail, but the fun part is reading between the lines and trying to figure out and picture what happened.
"19 year old man arrested for underage alcohol consumption and battery at 300 block of John, resists arrest" - Hmm let's run that through the translator: "Drunken frat boy gets into fight on way back to the house from bars". I think we've all seen the story before.
And then sometimes there's just a story that flat out cracks me up:
DI Police Blotter 9-2-05
Check out the first item under Urbana, it's priceless. It could easily be one of those joke headlines on The Onion: "8 year old boy steals a bag of Flamin' Hot Cheetos, flees from police".
*****
Sometimes I feel like I am the only person who
- doesn't think Family Guy is a very funny show
- thinks Black Eyed Peas sucks
- doesn't think Anna Kournikova is very hot
*****
Since I'm bored, let's play a game. Name the quote and who said it:
1. "If she were a President, she would be Baberaham Lincoln"
2. "If I ever meet you, I'll CTRL-ALT-DELETE you"
3. "It's not personal Sonny, strictly business."
4. "What? Friends listen to Endless Love in the dark!"
5. "It's all in the hips. All in the hips."
6. "My car is DONE-zo!"
7. "Congratulations, you're a meathead son. But don't you EVER touch my underwear again"
8. "All right, a Cheeto!"
9. "The 'Baby on the Corner' trick, eh? I'm not falling for that s**t!"
10. "Gentlemen, you can't fight here! This is the War Room!"
Sorry I have no prizes to offer so there's no need to respond. I will post the answers in a few days.
Now that I think of it, whatever happened to Stork's blog and quizzes? I miss those.
*****
Oh, and once again for those of you who love pictures, here's one of my Love Sac (don't worry it's work safe):
"19 year old man arrested for underage alcohol consumption and battery at 300 block of John, resists arrest" - Hmm let's run that through the translator: "Drunken frat boy gets into fight on way back to the house from bars". I think we've all seen the story before.
And then sometimes there's just a story that flat out cracks me up:
DI Police Blotter 9-2-05
Check out the first item under Urbana, it's priceless. It could easily be one of those joke headlines on The Onion: "8 year old boy steals a bag of Flamin' Hot Cheetos, flees from police".
*****
Sometimes I feel like I am the only person who
- doesn't think Family Guy is a very funny show
- thinks Black Eyed Peas sucks
- doesn't think Anna Kournikova is very hot
*****
Since I'm bored, let's play a game. Name the quote and who said it:
1. "If she were a President, she would be Baberaham Lincoln"
2. "If I ever meet you, I'll CTRL-ALT-DELETE you"
3. "It's not personal Sonny, strictly business."
4. "What? Friends listen to Endless Love in the dark!"
5. "It's all in the hips. All in the hips."
6. "My car is DONE-zo!"
7. "Congratulations, you're a meathead son. But don't you EVER touch my underwear again"
8. "All right, a Cheeto!"
9. "The 'Baby on the Corner' trick, eh? I'm not falling for that s**t!"
10. "Gentlemen, you can't fight here! This is the War Room!"
Sorry I have no prizes to offer so there's no need to respond. I will post the answers in a few days.
Now that I think of it, whatever happened to Stork's blog and quizzes? I miss those.
*****
Oh, and once again for those of you who love pictures, here's one of my Love Sac (don't worry it's work safe):
Monday, August 29, 2005
Went to the 3rd wedding of the summer this weekend, with possibly 2 more to attend next weekend. As you all know, weddings aren't my thing, but I don't mind going as long as:
1) I know and like the bride and/or groom
2) It's not too long
Thankfully, this one met both requirements. The ceremony was short and sweet and I was definitely happy to see the two lovers get hitched. However I had to leave a little early from the reception, because of some important business to attend to.
On a related note, the McNown league draft took place last night and I think I did alright. At the 6th spot I wasn't expecting much anyways. I doubt people outside of our league care about seeing my whole team but here were my first 5 picks anyhow (10 team league):
1. (6) E. James
2. (15) K. Jones
3. (26) A. Gates
4. (35) A. Johnson
5. (46) T. Green
For those of you who like to see pictures, here are a couple:
Generic wedding picture
Pride of Taiwan (the Chen Family)
On a sad note, I just saw Sportscenter highlights of Serena Williams beating Taiwanese 16 year old Yung-Jan Chan. But watch out for her in the future!
1) I know and like the bride and/or groom
2) It's not too long
Thankfully, this one met both requirements. The ceremony was short and sweet and I was definitely happy to see the two lovers get hitched. However I had to leave a little early from the reception, because of some important business to attend to.
On a related note, the McNown league draft took place last night and I think I did alright. At the 6th spot I wasn't expecting much anyways. I doubt people outside of our league care about seeing my whole team but here were my first 5 picks anyhow (10 team league):
1. (6) E. James
2. (15) K. Jones
3. (26) A. Gates
4. (35) A. Johnson
5. (46) T. Green
For those of you who like to see pictures, here are a couple:
Generic wedding picture
Pride of Taiwan (the Chen Family)
On a sad note, I just saw Sportscenter highlights of Serena Williams beating Taiwanese 16 year old Yung-Jan Chan. But watch out for her in the future!
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