National Merit Scholarship Application

STUDENT ESSAY: To help the reviewers get to know you…

The most significant experience of my life to date was when I was hospitalized for depression in late March of my junior year. I doubt that there will be many experiences of this magnitude in my life. Perhaps graduation from high school or college, or marriage, or the birth of a child can compare. But you don’t have nightmares about those for months afterward, as far as I know.

Ctrl-A. Backspace.

An experience I have had is
when I was the only girl on the math team and we won at the state meet
it was Division B
I was only on the team because some smarter boy couldn’t be there

when my jazz band won the Berklee Jazz Festival
even though I’m not majoring in music
and I didn’t have an important part

my chemistry class, junior year, when I learned the value of friendship
and also the value of screwing around in class instead of doing work
but that three-way high fives are awesome

once when I was asked to write an essay about an experience in my life
it taught me that my life is full of significance
and when everything is significant, nothing is

this one time, at marching band
everyone else was asleep
I am an upstanding citizen and you should give me a scholarship

A person who has influenced me is my girlfriend.
Ex.
it’s better this way

Boyfriend.
I was so scared but I wanted you to be happy

An obstacle I have overcome is my inability to take essays seriously. Or maybe that I take them too seriously.

(It’s meaningful to me because I learned exactly how far down you have to go before you hit bottom.
And because I learned how many people there are who love me.)