The killing of creative writing...

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So this past week, I filled out my first college application. It actually was not as bad as I thought it was going to be (and believe me, I had thoughts). At the end of the online application, I had to write an essay about me. After the initial freak-out of deciding what to write about myself, I realized that writing this short essay wouldn't actually be that hard, especially since, you know, I AM me, so I had a firsthand experience. Deep breath and...I started writing. First paragraph: quick fun facts about me. Easy peasy. Second paragraph: any volunteering or community work I have done. Check. Third paragraph: my Christian testimony. Took a little more thought, but still, not too hard. And so it went, until I had about one single paper filled. I started thinking of how I could make longer. Add a couple words here, change the wording there, and DONE. I go to copy and paste my new wonderful one-page essay about yours truly (with the small, nagging fear that it was still too short sitting comfortably in the back of my mind) and a notification pops up on the screen. Okay, so my essay was too long. So I undo all the adding I had just done, re-copy and paste it into the spot and-- still too long. I called my mom over and asked her what else I should take out. Little cuts here and there as my almost 3,000 word essay about myself gets cut to a little over 400 words. In my mom's own words: this is the killing of creative writing (said as we were dissecting my mini masterpiece to an even mini-er replica). Note to self: don't stress out over simple assignments. Imagine if I had kept going after one page; it would have taken longer figuring out what to cut than it would have to write it.

Did you ever stress out over something that turned out to be very simple? :-)

~Katelynn

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