2019-11-21 Your passion chooses you

It's not you choose your passion, but it's your passion chooses you. This is what I feel after reading the PS Sample, which is a really good one by telling an authentic story under the cover of an accident. The author uses various techniques to develop his/her story. For instance, I'd like to analyze some of them: self-reflect, be authentic, and keep it relevant.

It gives you credits to combine different techniques together. It is indispensable, however, to tell a personal, self-reflect story to distinguish you from a cohort of undergraduate students. The author does a wonderful job in this aspect. First of all, "... I signed up for German, a language I had loved the sound of since I was a child..." this seems an accident leading him/her into ASL study, but also is interpreted as a hint, an interest through which to discover the potential passion in studying ASL, one type of all kinds of languages. Second, by sharing his/her fear and action of avoiding spontaneous conversations, he/she recognizes and accepts his/her love and fear to deaf community. Knowing such fear is a huge barrier, he/she then steps out of his/her comfort zone to overcome it. This brings confidence to the admissions personnel. If I were one of them, I'd definitely believe such a self-reflect student can absolutely bring value to our program.

Admission personnel can smell a phony. They can also tell an authentic person. "...I peeked in. More hands. Hundreds of them. Hands were flying, waving, articulating, dancing..." Those words are perfectly used and vivid, as if I were there, experiencing the same situation on my own. I believe only the person who has real experience could describe fear so accurately and specially in that way. Everyone has disadvantages of their own, but the author's way of accepting it is so real. He knows his fear, his love, and he's always been internally struggling with it. The audience feels and understands that. It is so real. Authenticity prevails.

Talking about "keep it relevant", I believe the author has made it clear and sufficient enough that he is one of the best candidates of that specific program. His/her experience is of much relevance to the program he/she is applying. Sufficient evidence has proven it: "...but I suddenly found myself compelled toward anything that would help immerse me in ASL and deaf culture."; "...Workbook exercises and casual conversation with classmates... had become increasingly comfortable..."; "I had been studying ASL for nearly three years...ASL and deaf studies had captured my heart..." etc. By showing relevant studying experience and passion he/she has, the author keeps it all relevant to prove his/her credibility to be a competitive contestant in this program.

There are also other advanced skills the author uses in his/her PS like specific examples and draft, edit, repeat, however, we cannot include all of them here. Skills like self-reflect, be authentic and keep it relevant have already proved his ability, passion and value in this certain area of study. Admissions personnel also know it. Because the passion has already made the decision.