Challenge essay idea - need feedback

[goldenlilyx]

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[voxveritatisetlucis]

Sounds great. Tie the lessons you learned from writing the book to how it will help you be a better med student and physician.

 

[whenthelightsgo_OUT]

What did you learn from this and how did it shape you as a person?

 

[goldenlilyx]

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[whenthelightsgo_OUT]

Nice. I like 1 and 3 because it is more relatable to me. FWIW I think you should write about how it will help you become a better person, not as a future med student/physician (this seems cheesy to me).

 

[M_C]

Hmm. off the topic of my head I learned a few things -
1) it made me realize that while it's useful to have a long term plan, it's important to be flexible. I started off with a simple premise and with no real plan. Made an outline for the story early on while writing. As I went along, I had other ideas from random bursts of inspiration and changed my story along the way/edited my outline as needed based on how I felt the story was going.
2) My definition of goals changed as I went along with it. Rather than "I want to finish this novel," I realized during the process that having smaller goals and working through them ("I will write one chapter by the end of the week" or "Yes, I'm tired of writing this part but I'm going to write this scene ahead that I'm excited for") was a great way to stay motivated.
3) It's important to me to set aside time for myself to do things I enjoy doing, self-care is important, and this was a huge coping strategy from other academic work
4) This experience of writing taught me a lot about how I deal with being 'stuck' (Sometimes I had no idea how to progress despite having a plan, and nothing I wrote sounded right. I liked to read and take walks for inspiration)
5) It was really nice to actually finish. quarantine definitely helped speed it up LOL but being able to see end, tangible results was incredibly rewarding and i felt very proud that I stuck with it despite moments of waning motivation

I think #1 is key! It shows a growth in your mindset, and highlights you learning how to plan, be more flexible and take things as they come. Ultimately, in my opinion, the purpose of these essays is to show the readers who you are as a person.. For example: How do you think? What are your priorities/goals/ambitions/values? What drives you and motivates you to get out of bed in the morning? How do you respond to difficult situations, and how do you reflect on mistakes that you make?

Don't worry so much about trying to portray yourself in a particular way to prove that you will be a successful physician. Instead, focus on writing essays that cover who you are (as mentioned above), and let the readers form a picture of your personality from what you write. Depending on the mission/values of a school, one may find your personality/experiences incredibly intriguing, while others may like you, but don't think it fits with their program (and this is okay!). In my opinion, as long as you write authentically, you are unafraid to be vulnerable, and you let the reader into who you are and how you think, you will be completely okay on the writing side of things! Hope this helps 🙂