Feigning Confidence in the Wake of Intimidation

"Is this in your area of expertise?" That's the first question I was asked when my tutee last week presented me with her personal statement for grad school. I wasn't really sure how to respond, but I smiled politely and said I could definitely look it over and go from there. 

Okay well, number one, reading personal statements out loud kind of sucks. Not only do you encounter personal bits and pieces of someone's life that you're dishing out to the whole writing center within the first few minutes of making an acquaintance, but there are a lot of long lists, technical terms, and names of organizations that are really hard to pronounce. Secondly, it's hard to address issues in a personal statement because there's a lot of information to be included that doesn't necessarily flow together, not to mention the fact that people are usually right around their character limit and don't have much wiggle room to work with. 

So after I stumbled my way through her essay, I found myself feeling intimidated. I had not had a student come to me with a personal statement before, and so from the question she asked when she arrived, to the killer resume I had just read, I kind of felt like I was out of my league. I didn't let it show, however, and maintained a sense of confidence throughout the session. As it turns out, I wasn't out of my league at all. Not only was I able to help her address her main issue of putting personality into her statement, but I also was able to help her with a sense of cohesion by suggesting various ways of transitioning from one topic to the next. The tutee even planned to make another appointment with me next week! From the way I felt at the beginning of the session, I never would have imagined I could feel so confident in myself by the end.