First Round of Supplementals

I just wrapped up my first set of supplemental essays for one of my schools, which feels like a milestone. It’s kind of surreal to think that months of stressing about starting has finally turned into actual essays on a page. Now I’m switching gears to the UC PIQs, and honestly, the process has been more about collecting little pieces of inspiration than sitting down and magically writing full essays. 

Most of the time, ideas for essays pop into my head at the most random times. I’ll be lying in bed at midnight, about to fall asleep, and then suddenly think of a story I could use. Or I’ll be eating lunch and something small will click in my head. Instead of ignoring it, I just throw it into the Notes app. By now, I’ve got this messy list of half-sentences, bullet points, and phrases that make zero sense to anyone but me. But when I go back to them later, it’s like I left myself a trail of breadcrumbs. 

That’s basically how I wrote my first supplements. I didn’t start with polished essays. I started with those random Notes app scribbles, then built them out piece by piece until they made sense. It’s kind of funny how something I wrote half-asleep ends up being the seed for an essay I actually send to a college. 

Starting the PIQs feels different because they’re more straightforward, but I’m still leaning on the same process. Random notes, then shaping them into something that actually shows who I am. It’s a lot of work, but it’s also weirdly satisfying to see the drafts slowly improve. I know I’ll probably hate reading them over and over again later, but right now, I’m just glad to have started. 

- AnthroManTalks