PERSONAL STATEMENT
“A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Hurricane”
I’ve wanted to go to Harvard my entire life. That is to say, I have no memories that do not include my desire to attend the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States. My crib was crimson and white. Pennants with the Latin motto “veritas” were strewn about my nursery.
And I was raised to maintain this singular focus. It was behind every decision I made, and my parents made sure that focus never waned, never wavered. My college visits last spring made me fall in love with the city surrounding the university as well, and I was nothing if not
more
convinced that Harvard was the place for me.
Three months ago, when Hurricane Calliope threatened the shores of my home state of Connecticut, I saw an opportunity. An opportunity to help out my fellow Nutmeggers, sure, but more importantly to me at the time, I saw an opportunity to round out my resume and add yet another volunteering notch to my belt, one that would further separate my application from the rest and make
this
Emily Kim stand out from the other Emily Kims (there are a
lot
of us out there, as you probably know).
But a funny thing happened on the way to the hurricane. Nothing went right. Nothing went my way. I got exactly zero lucky breaks while others around me seemed to wallow in them. And when I felt the most adrift, the most lost and untethered, I realized that the only thing making me feel that way, making me angry, frightened, and upset, was dreading how it would affect my chances with Harvard. How everything that happened during those two days in Cawdor seemed to be
hurting
the probability of getting an acceptance letter from the school I’d dreamed about since infancy.
With the clarity of someone who struggles to see the hidden image in a Magic Eye poster, then suddenly
gets
it and cannot
un
-see it, cannot understand how they ever missed it, I realized
Harvard
was making me miserable. Pinning my hopes on one school as if
that
was going to be the key to my future success, my future happiness, my future life. I thought
I needed the front-line, in-the-trenches experience to separate me from the pack and get me where I wanted to go. But in fact, I needed that experience to
save
me from where I wanted to go.
So it is with great humility, sincerity and hope that I submit
this
application—to Tufts University. Because I still love the city of Boston. It’s tough, wise, and full of heart—like me (and like a good friend or two who might also find themselves enrolled at a nearby college).
Harvard was the dream of a little girl. A smaller girl. One who was fulfilling her
parents’
dream, not her own. Now that I’ve realized that you can’t live someone else’s life, you can’t please anyone but yourself, you only get one life, one shot, one voice, one chance to make your mark, make your stand, make your life worth living… I’m doing things differently. I’m not out to win at all costs. I don’t think everyone is my competition. I’m breathing easier. I want to study for the joy of learning. Enjoy the city’s sights, sounds, smells, and tastes. I’m gonna root, root, root for the home team (even though the Sox are awful); I’m going to ride the T, eat chowder, get drunk with townies, run the Charles, do everything I love about your fair city. But I’m
not
going to live the life my mother wants. And I need Tufts University to help me continue on this journey, this journey of self-discovery.
And isn’t
that
what college is about? Finding yourself, finding your way in the world? Besides, those Ivy League kids can be pretty uptight. (Most of them are assholes; I know
I
was.)
Please help me become less of an asshole.
—Emily Kim,
October 17, 2013
BALDWIN FELLOWSHIP ESSAY
“Je Ne Regrette Rien”
There are so many wonderful words and turns of phrase from the French that we’ve adopted in America because there’s simply no better way to say it.
Joie de vivre. Je ne sais quoi.
I think there should also be one for: “get me the hell out of this place, I don’t belong here.”
I’ve never felt at home. Not in my own family, my own house, my own room. I know who I
am
—I’ve never had self-worth issues or an identity crisis. It’s just that who I am does not belong here. In Connecticut. Or in America, for that matter.
When I was thirteen, I was fortunate enough to travel to France with my ninth-grade French class. And it was like a homecoming. Walking out of the airport, smelling the French air… I had found where I belonged. For years I tried to make my life in America more like that fantastical trip to
l’Hexagone,
to fill my life with adventure, magic, whimsy, and excitement, as if I were living in my own personal Godard film and I was the young car thief (or a film by Michel Gondry, or Jean-Pierre Jeunet and I’m Amélie). But alas, to no avail.
This summer was the kicker. I thrust myself headfirst into a deed I thought would be good for me and for my fellow man. I was volunteering for the Calliope relief effort; one that amounted to, as someone aptly put it, #MuchAdoAboutNothing. I won’t go into the sordid details, but by the end of my time there, it was clear that my place was not here in America among the feeble-minded and weak-of-character. I gave it a good shot, but just as some believe they were born in the wrong era, I believe that I was born in the wrong country. And
also
the wrong era; I’d have been better off in the 1980s—or better still, the 1920s! But I digress.
My family likes to brag “the Clintons have been free men since the mid-eighteenth century.” Well, I would like to take that freedom to a country where being black and gay would not
define
who I am. It would simply be a part of it.
I am applying for the James Baldwin Fellowship at la Sorbonne not just because I feel that I perfectly embody Mr. Baldwin’s spirit and his passion for the written word, but because I believe the first rate-education I will receive (not to mention the first-rate
life
experience) will help shape me into the person I am destined to become: the new expatriate voice of my generation.
Vive la France!
—Robert Clinton, III ,October 21, 2013
FAIRWICH POST
Oct. 24, 2013
FAIRWICH
—Political newcomer Alexis J. Gould has announced her candidacy for state representative in Connecticut’s 132nd District. Gould will be opposed for the Democratic nomination in that district by Richard Gains, the former actor and longtime star of
John Proctor, Homicide.
A Fairfield resident all her life, Gould graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Princeton University with a degree in US History and Political Science. Her experience on Capitol Hill in the office of Congresswoman Fiona Clark (D-CT) and later as the deputy legislative council for Connecticut State Senator Iva Ellison Eisinger have given this relative novice a wealth of high-level government experience that she plans to bring to play at the local level.
“I understand the dichotomy between how the system currently works and how the citizens of Connecticut
expect
it to work,” Gould told the press yesterday where she also unveiled her new website, electalexisjgould.com. “And I believe my youth is an advantage. I will work tirelessly to ensure that the people of this state are represented fairly and to guarantee that the local government works with full transparency and efficiency.”
Her campaign said Gould will “focus on jobs and education,” including a progressive pilot program for 18- to 20-year-olds that will offer scholarships to high school graduates who defer college for one to two years in exchange for full-time government-sponsored volunteer work.
She has been endorsed by her former employers Congresswoman Clark and State Senator Eisinger, as well as Governor Charles Watson’s former chief of staff, Theodore Hutchins, who described Ms. Gould as a “smart, capable woman, and someone to watch out for in the future.” Gould was briefly a part of Gov. Watson’s staff during the Hurricane Calliope scare in August of this year.
A former Div. I All-State golfer, Gould is the oldest of four girls and “proudly single,” remarking that “nowhere in the Constitution does it say a woman needs to be married with kids to serve her state or her country.” When the elections take place next fall, Gould will be 27. Should she win, she will be the youngest person ever elected to Connecticut’s General Assembly.
PERSONAL STATEMENT
“The Storm That Never Was”
Calliope never made landfall. But she changed me all the same.
I’d been coasting. Getting by on a dry sense of humor and a knack for test-taking. But I’d also been getting lazy. So when my best friend insisted that we drive to Cawdor, Connecticut to help potential hurricane victims, I went along simply because saying “no” would have taken more effort.
So I did my time. I stacked sandbags, reinforced levees, passed out clean water. I even fell in love for the first time. It didn’t work out, but that’s okay because it all led to an epiphany: I’d been living for myself. But a life should be bigger than that.
And I have to thank my best friend for dragging me to seaside Connecticut. Because volunteering for “the storm that never was” renewed my sense of purpose. And it allowed me to rediscover my passion and my desire to make a difference. A desire that had been buried for too long.
It reawakened my ambition as well. Which I used to think was a dirty word. (And it happens to literally be my middle name; Lakshmi is a Hindi name meaning ambition.) But now I realize that ambition can be used for good, too. And my ambition is to help other people.
Eleanor Roosevelt once said, “When you cease to make a contribution, you begin to die.” Well, I think the reverse is also true. When you begin to make a contribution, you start to live.
My life is just beginning.
I hope to continue it with you—at Harvard University.
—Rani Lakshmi Caldwell,
November 1, 2013
THE END.
Acknowledgments
I would like to give a big thank you to:
The enormously talented, generous, and guiding minds of Carey Albertine and Saira Rao who came to me with this brilliant idea and these beautiful characters, characters that I felt privileged to write. It was an absolute joy to be a part of this creation. All writer-publisher relationships should be this fun, easy, creative, and inspiring. Wahoowa!
Genevieve Gagne-Hawes for her insightful and brilliant edits and notes, including one suggestion that led to the creation of an entirely new character; now I can’t imagine the book any other way.
Tim Schmidt for being such a champion of my work.
Desi Duncker for being a benefactor.
My entire family (especially my mom, dad, and sister Corie, Doug, Chuck, Mariellen, Ian, Dan, Kaitlin, Patrick, Erin, Aunt Pat, Stacey, Amy, Jamie, Alec, Jane, Auntie Dell, Gene, Chris, Douglas, William and Caroline) for always supporting me and telling me that I’m brilliant even when I’m not.
My amazing wife, Charlotte, who inspires me daily, encourages me, gives me notes and ideas, and allows me to have the time and space I need to work even when I should be doing chores around the house or helping with our daughter.
And lastly, to our little girl, Imogen, who makes me want to be a better person and teach her about all of the scary wonderful awesome things in the world to help her grow up and make it a better place.
Together Book Club Questions
- All of the characters are quick to state that they hate something, whether it be golf, Martha’s Vineyard, or Emily Kim. Except Rani, who says “I don’t really hate anything. But I don’t love much of anything, either.” Do you think Rani’s apathy makes her a more or less sympathetic character?
- Do you think Emily Kim feels more pressure from her parents or from herself?
- How do you perceive Mac’s decision to hook up with Robert? As a drunken social experiment or a true questioning of his sexuality?
- Do you feel the stress involved with today’s college application process has gotten out of control? Why or why not? How could the process be changed?
- When it becomes clear that the storm Calliope will not hit, A.J. thinks to herself, “Their generation – and my own to some extent – seems destined to lack any real hardship. So we cling and rush to controversy, sometimes stirring it up unnecessarily.” What do you think about this statement?
- A.J. decides not to tell the press about the governor’s involvement with a teenage girl. Do you believe she did the right thing? Why or why not?
- Which character do you believe changed the most throughout the novel?
- Do you think Duncan Rodriguez’s claim that the college education will become meaningless with the digitalization of higher education is legitimate?
- Did you feel that race was an important theme of
Personal Statement
? Why or why not?
- Did you love or hate Emily Kim? Did you view her character as satirical or were there parts of her that were realistic?
Facts about College today:
- In 2013, Harvard’s acceptance rate dropped to 5.79%, its lowest rate ever.
- At over $59,000 per year, Sarah Lawrence College in Bronxville, NY is the most expensive school in the United States.
- About two-thirds of the college grads in the Class of 2013 will graduate with some student loan debt.
- Students in the class of 2013 graduated with an average debt load of $30,000, according to an analysis by Mark Kantrowitz, publisher of FinAidorg.
- The rate of unemployment in 2012 for college grads – defined as 20-24 years old- was 6.3 percent.
- The average student uses 400 sheets of paper during the college application process.
- “Demonstrated interest” in a school now ranks higher in importance than teacher or counselor recommendations.
- 1 in 10 people aged 16 to 34 have been turned down for a job because of something they have posted on a social media website.
- 1 out of 4 teenagers submitted seven or more college applications in 2010!
About Jason Odell Williams
Jason is an Emmy-nominated writer and producer of National Geographic’s hit television series "Brain Games," as well as an award-winning playwright. He lives in New York City with his actress-singer-director-producer wife, Charlotte Cohn, and their daughter, Imogen, who is working on her hyphenates as we speak.
Personal Statement
is his first novel.
Connect with Jason Odell Williams:
Twitter: @JOWinNYC
Other books by In This Together Media:
Playing Nice
by Rebekah Crane
Soccer Sisters: Lily Out of Bounds
by Andrea Montalbano
Soccer Sisters: Vee Caught Offside
by Andrea Montalbano
Mrs. Claus and The School of Christmas Spirit
by Rebecca Munsterer
Connect with In This Together Media:
Twitter: @intogethermedia