Personal Statement Help!
Posted: Tue Jan 16, 2018 3:50 am
Hi everyone. Okay, so this is what I have so far as my personal statement. I'm not sure what to think about it as a whole. I feel like I should probably add a lot more to that last paragraph and cut some stuff out, but what I'm not sure yet. Any help/critique is appreciated!
If there is one thing I love, one thing that has really exerted an influence over me, it’s books. So much so that I can trace the exact timeline of how my fondness for them began. First, there were the Enid Blyton books, books about magical cottages and British schoolchildren caught up in brilliant adventures. Then there was the Left Behind: The Kids series, which were a bit more dramatic. Then there was Harry Potter and from there it spiraled into something unquantifiable. I was always, always with a book in my hand. It didn’t matter where or what time of the day, what genre it was or where it was set at that point. American books were always the easiest to find in Nigeria, but as I grew I searched and found books by authors from all over the world.
I wouldn’t be exaggerating when I say that all the books I read when I was younger colored my entire outlook on life, both how I thought of people and how I thought of myself. My love for books and fiction came about pretty simply. To be able to experience realities so different from mine was amazing to me. I had lived my whole life in Nigeria, and I didn’t have much contact with people from other countries. With books, however, I could see how people from completely different countries and walks of life thought, how they lived, how they understood things. Of course, you can’t really get the whole story from novels alone. But it was a starting point, the trigger so to speak, of my interest in the international.
By this point, I suppose it would not be surprising to learn that my interest in law also began with a novel. A John Grisham novel to be specific. These were hawked all over the streets of Lagos when I was a child, along with other western popular fiction authors, for the same price as a bag of plantain chips. They were almost always about lawyers caught up in the most dramatic events you could think of. Naturally, after reading these books I began to seek out information about the law, and eventually about international law specifically. What I found was a dynamic practice, not as melodramatic as my childhood novels, and yet just as interesting. And so, when I eventually came to the US for my undergraduate studies, at the back of my mind was the goal of eventually studying international law. In an attempt to not pigeonhole myself into only one thing, I branched out into other sectors in college, tried new things. Over time, however, I realized that my interest has yet to wane. In fact, it has only grown stronger.
If there is one thing I love, one thing that has really exerted an influence over me, it’s books. So much so that I can trace the exact timeline of how my fondness for them began. First, there were the Enid Blyton books, books about magical cottages and British schoolchildren caught up in brilliant adventures. Then there was the Left Behind: The Kids series, which were a bit more dramatic. Then there was Harry Potter and from there it spiraled into something unquantifiable. I was always, always with a book in my hand. It didn’t matter where or what time of the day, what genre it was or where it was set at that point. American books were always the easiest to find in Nigeria, but as I grew I searched and found books by authors from all over the world.
I wouldn’t be exaggerating when I say that all the books I read when I was younger colored my entire outlook on life, both how I thought of people and how I thought of myself. My love for books and fiction came about pretty simply. To be able to experience realities so different from mine was amazing to me. I had lived my whole life in Nigeria, and I didn’t have much contact with people from other countries. With books, however, I could see how people from completely different countries and walks of life thought, how they lived, how they understood things. Of course, you can’t really get the whole story from novels alone. But it was a starting point, the trigger so to speak, of my interest in the international.
By this point, I suppose it would not be surprising to learn that my interest in law also began with a novel. A John Grisham novel to be specific. These were hawked all over the streets of Lagos when I was a child, along with other western popular fiction authors, for the same price as a bag of plantain chips. They were almost always about lawyers caught up in the most dramatic events you could think of. Naturally, after reading these books I began to seek out information about the law, and eventually about international law specifically. What I found was a dynamic practice, not as melodramatic as my childhood novels, and yet just as interesting. And so, when I eventually came to the US for my undergraduate studies, at the back of my mind was the goal of eventually studying international law. In an attempt to not pigeonhole myself into only one thing, I branched out into other sectors in college, tried new things. Over time, however, I realized that my interest has yet to wane. In fact, it has only grown stronger.