First Lines...

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nyanko said:
Boring old one and done launch coasters! Give me a good old airtime machine like SFNE Superman: Ride of Steel over that any day!

(I worked at Cedar Point in Sandusky, OH for 4 seasons and was an American Coaster Enthusiasts member for a long time haha)
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I grew up about an hour outside of cedar point, which is a waste really as I absolutely hate roller coasters.
 
pupsforseeing said:
my current Dutch Blitz winning streak,
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I LOVE dutch blitz!!

Now I want to go play it. Thanks...


PS that is really funny - we don't write PSs for undergrad admissions here...wish we did though! I would fully do something like that.
 
projekt said:
This essay made me happy when I read it in high school (10 years ago!).

http://www.insanityplanet.com/funnyarticles/art30.htm
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My favourite parts are:
I cook Thirty-Minute Brownies in twenty minutes

When I'm bored, I build large suspension bridges in my yard.

My deft floral arrangements have earned me fame in international botany circles.

On weekends, to let off steam, I participate in full-contact origami.

I have won ... spelling bees at the Kremlin.

But I have not yet gone to college.





That is hands down amazing.
 
nyanko said:
Boring old one and done launch coasters! Give me a good old airtime machine like SFNE Superman: Ride of Steel over that any day!

(I worked at Cedar Point in Sandusky, OH for 4 seasons and was an American Coaster Enthusiasts member for a long time haha)
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I actually worked at SFNE for 6 years.... Superman was a good coaster but just didnt have the magic of some of their older coasters.

I'm applying next application cycle and am at a total loss for what to write my personal statement on. I can't come up with a nice way to say "I graduated from college and realized I was now expected to work the next 40 years of my life. HOLY CRAP I should have majored in something I could live with doing."
 
david594 said:
I actually worked at SFNE for 6 years.... Superman was a good coaster but just didnt have the magic of some of their older coasters.
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Yeah, it's my favorite steel coaster ever. So it was plenty magic enough for me! (last time I went was in like 2000 though unfortunately)
 
loo said:
"7:00 AM on a Sunday. I caught the cop's lights in the rearview. We were covered in blood. I thought to myself, How are we gonna talk our way out of this one?..."

True story.
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ok... you have to finish now... or at least summarize what the heck happened!
 
I might as well share mine 🙂

With each step I could sense a renewed presence of energy as the gentle splashing of the water had finally synchronized with the treadmill.
 
"I am a teacher and college adjunct professor, and have been for over eight years. My decision to start a new career in veterinary medicine is a pragmatic one, rooted in an idealistic desire to heal and to help."

You see how far this one got me this year....
 
philomycus said:
"I am a teacher and college adjunct professor, and have been for over eight years. My decision to start a new career in veterinary medicine is a pragmatic one, rooted in an idealistic desire to heal and to help."

You see how far this one got me this year....
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What a great first line!! 😀
 
The calendar identified each week as a ‘Challenge,' terminology I initially considered odd. Charlie and his companions quickly introduced me to the logic behind the title. Charlie had little people experience. As a fresh face, I terrified Charlie; he cowered in my presence.
 
Habibti -- yours sounds like the intro to a great book! I want to hear more! Obviously it worked well for you 🙂 As a side note, do you have any idea if WI sent out IS letters yet? Sidenote no.2: sorry to everyone else for completely diverting this thread with that comment.
 
Great topic! It is so interesting to see the different ways people started their PS. Here is mine (which I fretted over for longer than I care to admit!)

"Stepping off the plane in Morocco, it felt like I had landed on the moon. Here I was, standing in an Arabic-speaking Muslim country with pockets of anti-American sentiment, having just signed a form from the State Department disavowing any responsibilty if I got myself kidnapped."
 
sofficat said:
ok... you have to finish now... or at least summarize what the heck happened!
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Well, the vet and I were coming back from a really difficult delivery of a two-headed freemartin calf and got caught speeding. The cop nearly fainted when he saw the carcass in the trunk. Vet didn't get a ticket, though. I basically used the story to elaborate how I was hooked on vet med (I was sixteen), and how dedicated I was to the career for the long-term. I was able to weave in all my good qualities (sense of humor being central) and show how I knew that vet med was not always wine and roses.

If I get in, I'll post the entire thing...
 
westpoloplayer said:
"Stepping off the plane in Morocco, it felt like I had landed on the moon. Here I was, standing in an Arabic-speaking Muslim country with pockets of anti-American sentiment, having just signed a form from the State Department disavowing any responsibilty if I got myself kidnapped."
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Ok, well I'm hooked! You should tell us more...sounds like you've had some really interesting and unique experiences!!
 
This being the season and all, I thought I'd bring this thread back to life as my most current distraction from revising my personal statement. 🙂
 
RockStarKDub said:
I do love The Beast, but I was referring to Kingda Ka -- the world's tallest, fastest coaster 🙂
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I waited 4 1/2 hours to ride Kingda Ka (I flown from Florida just to ride it) and the experience is right up there with skydiving and driving in New York City. I still get chills just thinking about the initial jolt: 128mph in 3 seconds. EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEK!
 
BlistexWorks said:
I waited 4 1/2 hours to ride Kingda Ka (I flown from Florida just to ride it) and the experience is right up there with skydiving and driving in New York City. I still get chills just thinking about the initial jolt: 128mph in 3 seconds. EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEK!
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Haha, that's awesome! And now here *I* am in Florida 😉
 
"How many do you have to kill before you can be called a serial killer?"
 
I am currently revising my PS...🙁

...but here's what I have at present, " I awoke with a jolt as a troop of wild chacma baboons pounded on the metal roof a few feet from my head."
 
I figured since this application cycle is winding down we should bump this thread and add our first lines...

Here's mine: "Brakes screeched, tires squealed, and the car abruptly came to a halt."..
 
This should be interesting! Here's mine:

"I had barely stepped into the forest, and yet it felt as though I was the only person for miles."
 
These were fun to read! Here's the start of my silly PS:

 I have heard many children of clients give this reasoning for wanting to become a veterinarian; "I love animals!".
 
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I want to go into lab animal medicine, so my first paragraph is about a pig necropsy that I did. My first line is:

".Having already removed both kidneys, I was now trying to get a liver sample.".
 
.An accident victim is rushed through the hospital halls and into a surgical suite where I am busy preparing the x-ray machine, intravenous line, fluid bag, and catheter. The victim is Julie, an eight pound Yorkie, who has been hit by an SUV minutes earlier, and now her mouth is bleeding and her whole body is twitching. .
 
I loved this thread when I first joined!

Uhh, here's my unsuccessful and lame first line from last year:

.My infatuation with animals began at an incredibly young age. .
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Completely original, right? 😉 Here's hoping I come up with something a bit more unique next time around.
 
Not sure exactly how I worded it, but: "Llama spit does not double as a conditioner"

😀
 
Ahhh, and a new season of procrastination begins LOL. I'm supposed to be working on a paper that's due in 7 hours.

"As many young girls do, I grew up with the dream of becoming a veterinarian sewn tightly to the vest of my identity."

A little generic, but this led into the story of my father's police dog dying in front of me when I was 3 years old, so I guess there was some shock value lol.
 
Heres the first few

"Raccoons have an increased sensation on the pads of their feet. Water bears survive in suspended animation for decades. Iguanas release their tails to escape danger. Porcupine quills contain antibiotic properties. It is amazing that all animals are made of the same eukaryotic cells as people."
 
Tsuky2008 said:
Holy cow, I just finished writing my personal statement for the upcoming application cycle 2 weeks ago and that's exactly what I talked about in it hahaha! I wrote about how I didn't always want to be a veterinarian, originally I wanted to be an olympic gymnast! I wonder how many of us there are out there! :laugh:
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When I told my dad I wanted to leave the pre-law track and return to pre-vet but was worried it was "too late" (it was the end of my sophomore year of college), he told me "Darling, the only thing it's too late for you to become is an Olympic gymnast."
 
I feel a gentle tickling on the sole of my left foot ending with a tug on my toes.
 
.After five years of volunteering at the Therapeutic Riding Program at ---- -------, I've grown accustomed to hearing the laughter from mentally and physically disabled riders as they are led around the arena..
 
As a child, I worked long hours with my parents on dairy farms throughout Eastern North Carolina.

Boring I know.
 
"As I pulled the lifeless lamb from its mother, I immediately knew that without intervention this newborn ram was going to die."


Continuation in case anyone is interested:

The concerned ewe kept bawling at me as if to say, "do something." I cleared the lambs mouth and nose, took a deep breath and blew a few quick puffs of air into its lungs while at the same time vigorously trying to rub the life back into its tiny body. After about ten seconds of this, I looked down and saw the lamb's chest beginning to rise and fall. I quickly placed the baby next to his concerned mother and let her maternal instincts take over. As I watched the ewe lick and nuzzle her baby, I became overwhelmed with a sense of accomplishment. Influential events such as this have been the driving force in my preparation for a career in veterinary medicine. While not all events have such happy endings, each situation presents me with a valuable new learning experience.

BLAH BLAH BLAH!
 
Ahh, WTF.

Yeah, 3 lines, but I could just as well made it one huge fragment (but them MS-Word would yell at me)

Twelve years old, challenging my 30-year-old Scout Master to an arm-wrestling match. The reward; a part-time job cleaning dog and cat runs at a local boarding and grooming kennel for $3.50 an hour. I did not win the arm wrestling match that day, but the persistence of an annoying 12 year old was more than enough to persuade him to give me a chance.
 
The first few sentences are just teasers and make me want to read the entire thing. There are some great starting lines. love it!
 
" .Thelonious hates baths. ."

Thelonious is one of my basset hounds (my avatar) and he was paralyzed after jumping out of a tub. After surgery, PT, acupuncture and a doggy wheelchair he regained his ability to walk (approx 5 months). I compared his determination and long struggle to my own pursuit of vet med.
 
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Yeah, I don't think mine makes much sense unless you have the first 3 sentences...and then I refer back to it through the next 4 paragraphs.

"I feel a gentle tickling on the sole of my left foot ending with a tug on my toes. Leaning forward over thick, creased skin dusted with bristly hairs, I scratch Mae Perm's crown; reassuring her that I am aware of our journey. Mae Perm means ‘Lucky One' in Thai, which definitely describes the Asian elephant beneath me. "
 
"Ici nous parlons francais (Here we speak french)."

I described my love for learning foreign languages and described how science has a language of its own that I am in the process of learning.

kinda cheesy. but I was told it was good. I wish I still had a copy of it to re-read.
 
I thought the first two sentances were my best. When my mom read it she was worried that the first sentance might make me sound like a criminal.

I recently found myself in a dark Denny's parking lot with an ice chest and a pile of syringes, collecting blood from a truck full of chickens. Holding a recalcitrant chicken in one hand, a syringe in the other, and a flashlight in my mouth, I realized that I have no doubts about my choice to abandon my career in research, and apply to vet school.
 
I got in with this? :laugh: I was really proud of it too! Reading it now, it seems so cheesy!

.When a flustered, elderly client led her three basset hounds through the emergency doors, I had to get ready for anything. The client exclaimed that her dogs had ingested a fatally high dose of her heart medications. Thankfully, I knew what to do but was it enough? My concerns grew when the elderly lady became faint due to the lack of her medications and the paramedics were called in. .

The reason I used that story, was because one of the vets I still work with was the primary vet in that case and she constantly reminds me of it! We were really busy that night, so I had to wrangle 3 bassets to give them emetics and start the likely culprit on IV fluids. Only to find out the next morning that the bottle the bassets chewed was empty and the lady's heart meds were all accounted for. :eyebrow:
 
"I started to realize I had more than just an ordinary interest in animals and science while at 4 A.M. one morning, sitting cross-legged on my bed with a copy of Miller, Christensen, and Evan’s “Anatomy of the Dog”, I struggled to relate the skeletal thorax drawing in front of me with the half-glued, half-wired, gaping rib cage and spine of a white-tailed deer lying at my side - and loved every minute of it."
 
YIKES this seems corny as all get out now. ... oh well, something in it worked!

"I was the only one awake to hear the voice from outside the tent."

And the rest of the paragraph. Mostly I'm just proud of myself for working the phrase sucker-punch in:

"You have got to see this!" Eager as always to see something new, I followed my friend into the woods along Lake Superior. We emerged on a pebbled beach, the icy spray of the waves and days of trail grime forgotten as she pointed to the sky. The Aurora borealis danced across the sky, relegating every description I'd seen to that of literary hack. I was twelve years old, and the incredible vastness of the universe sucker-punched me in the gut. How could one person find a way to make a difference to all of this? Although I did not realize it at the time, this was the moment that set me on an inevitable, if circuitous, path towards veterinary medicine.
 
I am currently revising my PS...🙁

...but here's what I have at present, " I awoke with a jolt as a troop of wild chacma baboons pounded on the metal roof a few feet from my head."
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Haha, my final copy ended up being the same thing that I posted in Sept of last year.
 
.“Close the door! Were you raised in a barn?” This common phrase is often heard in the South and people do not really expect anyone to answer, “Yes!” Ironically, in my life it is not that far from reality. Animals have always played an influential part in my life and growing up, I probably spent more time in the barn than in the house.... The distinct earthy aroma of cow manure, the barking of dogs, the gobble of a turkey, the booming mating call of an ostrich, and the infamous crow of that blasted rooster, signaled that I was nearing home on the weekends.

I liked the last line of the paragraph. Anytime I head home, I smell it before I see it. (I live across the road from my families livestock auction.)
 
“I grinned. This was the bit I liked. The little miracle. I felt it was something that would never grow stale no matter how often I saw it. I cleaned as much of the dried blood and filth from my body as I could, but most of it had caked on my skin and not even my fingernails would move it.”

(I used a quote to open my PS, here's the rest...)

It’s not hard to believe that this quotation from James Herriot’s All Creatures Great and Small still holds so much meaning for me now, ten years after the first time I read them. The main difference between now and then, however, is that I understand what he was feeling in that moment. The words drew me into his world, and I have worked hard since then to make it a world of my own.
 
shortnsweet said:
“I grinned. This was the bit I liked. The little miracle. I felt it was something that would never grow stale no matter how often I saw it. I cleaned as much of the dried blood and filth from my body as I could, but most of it had caked on my skin and not even my fingernails would move it.”

(I used a quote to open my PS, here's the rest...)

It’s not hard to believe that this quotation from James Herriot’s All Creatures Great and Small still holds so much meaning for me now, ten years after the first time I read them. The main difference between now and then, however, is that I understand what he was feeling in that moment. The words drew me into his world, and I have worked hard since then to make it a world of my own.
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From just the quote I knew that was James Herriot! I need to get those books from my parents' house so I can read them again.
 
My first line was really like three.....I too used a quotation - so here goes:

An anonymous philosophy professor once explained to his class that "within three generations our ancestors are all but forgotten. Look ahead three generations. You are long gone. Is your life going to be a warning or an example? What legacy will you leave?"



I agree that all of these intros make me curious to know about the rest of the PS! It also seems strange looking back that "Holy crap....this actually got me into vet school!"
 
My favorite horse was injured.


and the continuation...

Diagnosis: a bowed tendon. Treatment: stall rest, working up to hand walking and light exercise. The patient: Gold Skates, a stunning palomino quarter horse gelding and one of my first Breyer model horses. My eight year old self kept a constant watch on Gold Skates and dutifully matched him with Brenda Breyer for daily hand walking. After careful rehabilitation, Gold Skates returned to full work and shared many adventures around my bedroom with Brenda.
 
"My Siamese cat did not, in fact, suck out my breath as she shared my bassinet when I was a newborn, despite my grandmother's anxiety."
... Go on to talk about major events/ the role vet med has played throughout my life.

Yes, my dad's mom really did think the evil cat was going to intentionally suck out my breath (and doubtless somehow sell my soul to Satan as well), and thought my parents were out of their minds to let her in the same room with me 😀.
 
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