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How to Write About Yourself in a College Essay | Examples

Published on September 21, 2021 by Kirsten Courault . Revised on May 31, 2023.

An insightful college admissions essay requires deep self-reflection, authenticity, and a balance between confidence and vulnerability. Your essay shouldn’t just be a resume of your experiences; colleges are looking for a story that demonstrates your most important values and qualities.

To write about your achievements and qualities without sounding arrogant, use specific stories to illustrate them. You can also write about challenges you’ve faced or mistakes you’ve made to show vulnerability and personal growth.

Table of contents

Start with self-reflection, how to write about challenges and mistakes, how to write about your achievements and qualities, how to write about a cliché experience, other interesting articles, frequently asked questions about college application essays.

Before you start writing, spend some time reflecting to identify your values and qualities. You should do a comprehensive brainstorming session, but here are a few questions to get you started:

• What are three words your friends or family would use to describe you, and why would they choose them?
• Whom do you admire most and why?
• What are the top five things you are thankful for?
• What has inspired your hobbies or future goals?
• What are you most proud of? Ashamed of?

As you self-reflect, consider how your values and goals reflect your prospective university’s program and culture, and brainstorm stories that demonstrate the fit between the two.

Prevent plagiarism. Run a free check.

Writing about difficult experiences can be an effective way to show authenticity and create an emotional connection to the reader, but choose carefully which details to share, and aim to demonstrate how the experience helped you learn and grow.

Be vulnerable

It’s not necessary to have a tragic story or a huge confession. But you should openly share your thoughts, feelings, and experiences to evoke an emotional response from the reader. Even a cliché or mundane topic can be made interesting with honest reflection. This honesty is a preface to self-reflection and insight in the essay’s conclusion.

Don’t overshare

With difficult topics, you shouldn’t focus too much on negative aspects. Instead, use your challenging circumstances as a brief introduction to how you responded positively.

Share what you have learned

It’s okay to include your failure or mistakes in your essay if you include a lesson learned. After telling a descriptive, honest story, you should explain what you learned and how you applied it to your life.

While it’s good to sell your strengths, you also don’t want to come across as arrogant. Instead of just stating your extracurricular activities, achievements, or personal qualities, aim to discreetly incorporate them into your story.

Brag indirectly

Mention your extracurricular activities or awards in passing, not outright, to avoid sounding like you’re bragging from a resume.

Use stories to prove your qualities

Even if you don’t have any impressive academic achievements or extracurriculars, you can still demonstrate your academic or personal character. But you should use personal examples to provide proof. In other words, show evidence of your character instead of just telling.

Many high school students write about common topics such as sports, volunteer work, or their family. Your essay topic doesn’t have to be groundbreaking, but do try to include unexpected personal details and your authentic voice to make your essay stand out .

To find an original angle, try these techniques:

• Focus on a specific moment, and describe the scene using your five senses.
• Mention objects that have special significance to you.
• Instead of following a common story arc, include a surprising twist or insight.

Your unique voice can shed new perspective on a common human experience while also revealing your personality. When read out loud, the essay should sound like you are talking.

If you want to know more about academic writing , effective communication , or parts of speech , make sure to check out some of our other articles with explanations and examples.

Academic writing

• Writing process
• Transition words
• Passive voice
• Paraphrasing

 Communication

• How to end an email
• Ms, mrs, miss
• How to start an email
• I hope this email finds you well
• Hope you are doing well

 Parts of speech

• Personal pronouns
• Conjunctions

First, spend time reflecting on your core values and character . You can start with these questions:

However, you should do a comprehensive brainstorming session to fully understand your values. Also consider how your values and goals match your prospective university’s program and culture. Then, brainstorm stories that illustrate the fit between the two.

When writing about yourself , including difficult experiences or failures can be a great way to show vulnerability and authenticity, but be careful not to overshare, and focus on showing how you matured from the experience.

Through specific stories, you can weave your achievements and qualities into your essay so that it doesn’t seem like you’re bragging from a resume.

Include specific, personal details and use your authentic voice to shed a new perspective on a common human experience.

Cite this Scribbr article

If you want to cite this source, you can copy and paste the citation or click the “Cite this Scribbr article” button to automatically add the citation to our free Citation Generator.

Courault, K. (2023, May 31). How to Write About Yourself in a College Essay | Examples. Scribbr. Retrieved April 17, 2024, from https://www.scribbr.com/college-essay/write-about-yourself/

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Authentically Del

Self-Care, Mental Wellness, & Self-Improvement

in Journaling , Mindset , Self-Care , Self-Improvement · October 5, 2023

Who Am I?: 150 Journal Prompts to Get to Know Yourself

This post may contain affiliate links meaning that, I may make commission if you purchase through my links. Learn More . 

It’s time to take a step in exploring your true, authentic identity. These 150 journal prompts to get to know yourself will help guide you to deep self-discovery and truly uncover the answer to life’s biggest question: “Who Am I?”

Getting to know yourself is so valuable for self-discovery, self-respect, and living a fulfilled life of authenticity and happiness.

That said, deeply knowing who you are is oftentimes easier said than done.

When we really take the time to reflect on the big question “Who Am I?” , it can be easy to feel overwhelmed, unsure, and even a bit confused.

Yes, we live every day within our own minds and bodies. But that is not all it takes to truly know yourself.

True self-discovery requires quality introspection, self-reflection, exploration, and patience. Getting to know yourself is a lifelong process – Let’s start today.

These Who Am I journal prompts are here to help you get to know yourself better and promote your journey toward self-discovery, self-love, and authenticity.

Types of Who Am I? Journal Prompts

Getting to know yourself is about getting to know ALL parts of yourself. From goals and dreams to fears and anxieties to hobbies and relationships – there is a lot to learn about who you are.

These journal prompts to get to know yourself have been divided into a few main categories of self-discovery.

• Personal Identity – your core values, personality traits, and identity
• Life Experiences – the memories and moments that make up who you are
• Emotions and Feelings – your emotional patterns, unexpressed emotions, triggers, and emotional history
• Goals and Aspirations – your goals, dreams, and hopes for your future
• Love and Relationships – your friendships/connections, how you interact with people, and your role in a relationship
• Creativity and Passions – hobbies, passions, interests, and creative outlets that inspire you

With these categories, we can start to explore the question “Who Am I?” and establish a well-rounded sense of self.

150 Journal Prompts for Getting to Know Yourself Better

Use these Who Am I? journal prompts for self-discovery, self-reflection, and getting to know yourself better.

Pick your favorite self-discovery journal prompts from the categories that resonate with you the most, pick up your favorite journal and a good pen, and let’s get to it!

Personal Identity Self-Discovery Prompts

Let’s explore your core values, personality traits, and identity.

• If you could describe yourself in three words, what would they be? Why?
• How do you feel others would describe you? Does this differ from how you would describe yourself? If so, why?
• What is your favorite non-physical quality about yourself? Why?
• What is your least favorite non-physical quality about yourself? Why?
• List your core values as a human. How do you live in alignment with these?
• Describe a time that you acted out of alignment with your core values. Why? How did that feel?
• What is your strongest personality trait?
• Do you consider yourself stubborn or docile?
• Would you say you are naturally relaxed or do you tend to be more anxious?
• Do you deal with any mental illness/mental health struggles? How does that impact you?
• Do you feel you possess addictive/obsessive qualities?
• Are you more of an introvert or an extrovert ?
• How would you describe your personality as a child? How is it different from how you are now? In what ways is it the same?
• Are you impulsive or do you take time to make decisions carefully?
• What personality traits best serve you in your life?
• Are you more emotion-driven or logic-driven?
• Do you prefer quiet solitude or busyness? Why?
• What personality traits do you enjoy/admire in others?
• Make a list of all the things that you feel make up your identity.
• When do you feel the most YOU? What are you doing? How does it feel?
• Reflect on how your self-identity has evolved over the years. What significant life events or experiences have influenced this evolution?
• Describe your ideal self. What characteristics and qualities would your ideal self possess?
• What are your roles in different areas of your life (e.g., as a friend, family member, employee, student)? How do you define yourself in these roles?
• What do you feel makes up a person’s identity? (Roles? Traits? Career? Goals? Etc.)
• Make a list of all the things you love about yourself.

RELATED POST: 100 THINGS TO LOVE ABOUT YOURSELF

Reflecting on Past Life Experiences

Let’s reflect on the memories and moments that have made up who you are today.

• Reflect on your past achievements . How have they contributed to your self-identity and personal growth?
• Reflect on your past failures . How have they contributed to your self-identity and personal growth?
• Describe a pivotal moment in your life that changed your perspective on everything. How did it impact your choices and values?
• Reflect on your earliest childhood memory. What emotions and lessons can you draw from it?
• What was a challenging experience that pushed you to grow/made you stronger? What did you learn from it?
• Describe your relationships with your parents and/or caregivers growing up. How do you feel like that shaped who you became?
• What was your favorite way to spend time as a kid? How can you reconnect to that childlike playfulness and fun?
• If you could relive any day from your past, which day would it be, and why?
• Outside of your family, who had a major impact on you growing up? (Teachers, coaches, friend’s parents, etc.)
• What were your favorite school subjects growing up? Do you still love learning about those things?
• Write about a book, movie, or piece of art that touched you deeply. What themes or messages stuck with you?
• Reflect on your cultural, spiritual, or religious experiences. How have they shaped your beliefs and values?
• Describe a defining moment in your life. What makes it feel so significant?
• How do you feel your childhood friendships shaped who you have become?
• Are you still in contact with any childhood friends? If so, how have your relationships grown over time? In what ways is it the same?

• What is a memorable childhood family tradition that you will take/have taken with you into your own family?
• What year of school was your favorite? Why?
• Write about a moment where you changed your mind on something. Why? How?
• How would you describe your position in your family? What roles did you fulfill as a kid? What has changed and what remains the same?
• Describe your favorite childhood vacation. Who was there? Where were you? What moments stick out?
• What were your favorite TV shows and/or movies as a kid?
• Write about your favorite forms of play as a child. Indoor? Outdoor? Sports? Solo? Group?
• How did you imagine your life at this age as a kid? How is it different? In what ways is it the same?
• Write a letter to your child self. What would you tell him/her?
• Write a letter from your child self. What do you think you would say to/ask yourself now?

Emotions and Feelings

Let’s get curious about your emotional patterns, unexpressed emotions, triggers, and emotional history.

• What do you feel is your default emotion? With minimal external influences, where do you reside emotionally?
• Do you feel that you control your emotions or do your emotions control you? Explain.
• In what ways do your emotions enhance or improve the quality of your life? Describe a time this happened.
• In what ways do your emotions hinder or take away from the quality of your life? Describe a time this happened.
• How do you handle anger?
• What do you do when you feel sad?
• Create a pie chart of your top 5 emotions, dividing them by how often you feel them.
• How much do you let your emotions dictate your actions? Do you think this is a positive or negative thing?
• Would you consider yourself a highly emotional person? Explain.
• Do you feel that you are an empath? How do you know? (Learn more about what an empath is here .)
• Do you have a favorite emotion? If so, why?
• Describe, in detail, a time you felt overwhelming joy.
• When was the last time you felt true curiosity, awe, or wonder?
• Describe a time you felt intense fear or anxiety. How do you cope with this?

READ: 50 CALMING ANXIETY JOURNAL PROMPTS | 100 AFFIRMATIONS FOR EASING ANXIETY

• Describe a time you felt immense gratitude. How did this feel?
• What is your relationship with stress? How does stress impact your life?
• What/who brings up a strong feeling of love, adoration, or affection in you? Why?
• How do you express love?
• What is your love language ? How do you best receive love?
• Are you comfortable with vulnerability? Why or why not?
• Do you feel that you embrace and hold space for your emotions or are you uncomfortable with deep emotions?
• How did you see anger handled in your home as a kid? How has that shaped your relationship with it?
• Write about your relationship with nostalgia. How does it feel to you? Is it a positive or negative sensation?
• How do you deal with shame, guilt, or embarrassment? Describe a time.
• Describe your experience with compassion. How does it show up in your life? Are you more compassionate to yourself or to others?

Goals and Aspirations

Self-reflection means looking forward too! Let’s talk about your goals, dreams, and hopes for your future.

• When was the last time you felt a sense of anticipation or excitement for the future? What possibilities and opportunities were you looking forward to?
• Write down 3-10 short-term goal ideas for the next year. Why do each of these matter to you?
• Write down 10-20 long-term goal ideas for your future. Why do each of these matter to you?
• In what ways would you like your life to improve?
• What areas of life do you feel need the most help/focus? How can you best improve them?
• Describe your career aspirations. What do you want from your professional life in the short- and long-term?
• What are your goals for your future family life? Describe how you want your family to look.
• When was the last time you felt truly accomplished after achieving a goal? What specifically made you successful?
• What is a childhood dream you still hold on to? Why is it important to you?
• How have your goals changed/shifted over the last 1-5 years?
• Describe a day in your dream life 1 year from now. 5 years? 10 years?
• What mental health goals do you have for yourself? How do you want to improve your mindset or mental health?
• What is a major obstacle you have overcome in your life? How did that strengthen you?
• What are your financial goals? Do your current financial habits align with that? Why or why not?
• What relationship goals do you have? Do you want a partner? Marriage? A good relationship with self? Etc.
• What social or friendship goals do you have? How can you work on strengthening social connections?
• What are your goals for personal growth or self-development? Why?
• What positive habits do you currently possess? What negative habits would you like to break?
• Describe your educational goals. What would you like to learn more about?
• What boundaries are necessary to set to help you achieve your goals (with yourself or others)? How do you feel about setting these boundaries?
• How can you appreciate your life now while also striving for more? How do you find that balance?
• What are your goals for your home? Do you have specific home-related dreams?
• Describe your goals for personal happiness and fulfillment. How can you prioritize your well-being and contentment in your daily life?
• Describe your relationship with self-trust and/or self-doubt. How does that impact your goals?
• What is a goal you have been hesitating to pursue? Why? What is holding you back?

Love and Relationships

Relationships are a big part of who you are. Let’s explore some self-discovery prompts related to your friendships and connections, how you interact with people, and your role in a relationship.

• How have relationships in your life positively shaped who you are today? Give examples.
• How have relationships in your life had a negative impact on you? If any, give examples.
• What is the biggest lesson you’ve learned from relationships in the past year? 5 years?
• Examine your closest friendships. What are the qualities that make these friendships valuable?
• Do you feel like all relationships should be 50/50? Are there exceptions? Explain.
• How do you tend to express love and appreciation for the people close to you?
• Does physical intimacy or emotional intimacy make you feel more connected to your romantic partners?
• What makes a connection special to you? What sets it apart from others?
• Describe your ideal romantic partner. What traits do they possess?
• Describe your ideal friendship. What traits do they possess?
• Reflect on a time that you set a boundary that was supportive. What helped here? How did you set effective boundaries?
• How could your relationships benefit from firmer boundaries? In what ways would you like to see the dynamic shift?
• How do you want to FEEL when with a romantic partner? What helps you feel that way?
• Describe an experience of forgiveness. What lessons did you take from that?
• Describe your role in relationships/communities. How do you feel about this?
• Write about a time that you felt isolated or disconnected from others. How did this impact you?
• What is your view on digital or social-media-based connections? Do you have any positive or negative views on it?
• Reflect on a time you helped mend or heal a fractured relationship. What did you learn or take away from this?
• What do you feel is your biggest area for improvement in relationships? How can you work on that?
• What do you feel is your greatest strength in relationships? How does this play a role in your relationships?
• What does a healthy relationship mean to you?
• What does family mean to you? Do you consider anyone that you are not related to family? Why?
• How do you define the difference between solitude and loneliness?
• What helps you feel safe in a relationship/friendship? What do you need in order to feel vulnerable and open?
• Make a gratitude list of all the amazing people in your life (past or present). Write down 1-3 reasons they are important to you.

Fun, Creativity, and Passions

Everyone needs a little fun in their lives! Let’s explore your hobbies, passions, interests, and creative outlets that inspire you.

• Do you have any hobbies currently? Describe them.
• When is the last time you remember feeling “in a flow state “? What were you doing?
• What is your favorite form of art to create ? (Painting, drawing, writing, dancing, etc.) How does it make you feel?
• What is your favorite form of art to consume ? How does it make you feel?
• When you were a kid, what were your favorite pastimes? When was the last time you tried any of these activities?
• If you had no responsibilities for a week, how would you fill your time?
• What is a hobby/activity you’ve been curious to try? How can you start nurturing that curiosity?
• Describe the feeling of creativity. How does it sit in your body? In your mind?
• What is your current (or most recent) creative project/idea you have had? Write about what made it special to you.
• What are you passionate about? Is there a specific cause/message/community you feel drawn to?
• What is the role of creativity in life? Do you think it is meaningful and worthy of being prioritized? Why or why not?
• Do you prefer to share your creative work with others or keep it for yourself? Why?
• Reflect on a time that you shared your work with others. How did this feel? Was it a positive or negative experience for you?
• When have you been pushed out of your comfort zone creatively? How did this help you grow?
• Do you feel there is creativity in your professional life/career? Are you happy with it this way? Why or why not?
• Reflect on a time that you discovered a new creative passion or interest. How did this feel?
• How much space do you think should be made for creativity in your life? Is it an extra or an essential to you?
• Do you think work and creativity should be separate or combined? Why?
• Think about the potential of your creative work. How might it change the lives of others?
• Write about a time that someone’s creative work has deeply impacted you in a positive way. Describe this.
• What does “play” mean to you? How do you know when you are “playing”?
• What is a piece of art that sticks with you? (poetry, song lyrics, books, paintings, photographs, etc.) How has this touched you?
• What interests do you have that you would like to explore or learn more about?
• Who is a creative role model for you? Why do you look up to them?
• How might creativity, hobbies, and passions further enhance your life and who you are?

How to Journal to Know Yourself Better

When journaling for self-discovery, it can feel easy to get overwhelmed. These are big questions and it can be daunting to know where and how to begin.

No need to stress. This process, even if it is new to you, can be gratifying and effective without any pressure.

Here are some tips, tricks, and tactics for these Who Am I? journaling prompts.

Be Honest and Vulnerable

You are journaling to get to know yourself better – and that is going to require some truth-telling.

In order to effectively journal for self-discovery, you need to accept the discomfort that may come with increased honesty, vulnerability, and transparency.

Here’s the good news.

These Who Am I? journal prompts are just for you. There is no pressure to share these with anybody else.

That relieves any pressure to be performative or search for the “right” answer. You are free to be 100% authentically you.

READ: 50 EVERYDAY HABITS THAT WILL IMPROVE YOUR MENTAL HEALTH

Let Go of Judgment

With increased honesty, authenticity, and vulnerability may come some increased internalized judgments.

As you explore these self-discovery journal prompts, you may find yourself facing feelings of shame, judgment, or discomfort about your truth.

This is a really natural part of the “Who Am I?” process – and we can work to actively negate this negative self-talk.

Let go of unhelpful conditioning, expectations placed on you (by yourself or by others), judgments, resentment, guilt, or shame.

Instead, approach these Who Am I? journal prompts with curiosity, wonder, self-compassion, and grace.

Easier said than done, of course. However, building a strong relationship with yourself requires a judgment-free space to be fully authentic.

Build a Journaling Habit

Like anything new, when first starting journaling you may face a period where it feels tedious, undesirable, or you simply forget. That’s okay! It’s still fresh!

Building up a journaling habit is one of the most essential parts of effective journaling.

By consciously making journaling a priority in your daily life, you start to build a really great habit that will serve you well in your self-discovery and personal growth journey.

READ: 100 SIMPLE DAILY HABITS TO IMPROVE YOUR LIFE

This takes time.

To start, schedule a set time every day that you are intentional about sitting down and journaling – even on the days you are feeling uninspired!

Over time, you will build the journaling habit and you won’t even have to think twice about it.

Journaling is a valuable habit to have, but it doesn’t build itself. It takes time, commitment, and consistency.

Trust the process as you introduce it into your everyday routine!

Try Different Journaling Techniques

Part of the beauty of journaling is how personalized it can be.

If you are not feeling connected to one form of journaling, there are so many different techniques and formats for journaling that you can explore.

Some Journaling Formats/Techniques to Consider:

• freewriting (paragraph style)
• prompted/guided
• list making
• doodling/drawing
• stream of consciousness journaling
• structured journaling (such as a 5-minute journal )
• artistic journaling
• brain dumping (written thoughts in any format)
• vocal journaling (voice-to-text or recorded voice memo)

Be sure to give any technique a true, fair shot before deciding it’s not for you. However, if you are truly not connecting with one form of journaling, try out another!

Ultimately journaling is meant to add to and enhance your life, not feel like another chore on your to-do list. Find a journaling process that works for you!

Best Self-Discovery Journals

Here are some of my favorite journals and resources for taking on these Who Am I? journaling prompts.

Erin Condren Notebooks↗

Erin Condren has tons of beautiful, customizable, and functional notebook design options.

Self- Discovery Art Journal ↗

This art-based journal has guided self-discovery journal prompts for drawing, doodling, and writing!

One-Year Guided Journal ↗

This guided self-discovery journal takes you through 52 weeks of getting to know yourself better.

10 Key Benefits of Journaling

As we know by now, self-discovery journaling can help you answer the big life question: “Who Am I?”, but what else is journaling good for?

Journaling has many profound and meaningful benefits that are worth noting when considering building a consistent journaling routine.

Let’s explore some of the biggest benefits of journaling.

1. Self-Reflection

Journaling promotes introspection and self-reflection that allows you to better know and connect with yourself.

By providing a safe and private opportunity to explore honest thoughts, emotions, memories, worries and experiences, journaling allows you the ability to practice full authenticity and self-understanding.

2. Stress Reduction

By having a secure place to express your thoughts, feelings, worries, and concerns, journaling can help reduce stress and anxiety in your daily life. After writing out your thoughts, you can feel freer, lighter, and more clear-headed than before.

3. Increased Self-Awareness

Activitely writing your thoughts, feelings, and behaviors in a journal can help you recognize your own patterns and habits – for better or for worse.

Self-awareness is improved when you take the time to deeply express, reflect, and critically think about your own actions, thought patterns, and behaviors. Journaling provides a platform for that.

4. Problem Solving

Journaling on conflicts or challenges can help you actively work through them in a helpful and productive way.

Mental clarity comes when you express your dilemmas in writing. This can help you view your situation in a new way and explore solutions that you may not have considered before.

5. Goal Setting

Journaling can be a tool for goal-setting and tracking. Studies have found that you are 42% more likely to achieve a goal if you write it down .

Journaling is a tool that can help you brainstorm, plan, take action on, track, and achieve your biggest goals and dreams for your life.

6. Time Management and Organization

Keeping a journal can help you improve your time management, productivity, and organization skills.

If you use your journal to plan, prioritize, schedule, and track, you can greatly improve your time management abilities.

7. Emotional Regulation

Journaling helps you become better connected to your emotions. Writing about your emotions can help you understand them better, identify them, and work your way through them.

Additionally, journaling can help you better articulate, communicate, and respond to your feelings which, in turn, benefits you and your relationships.

8. Heightened Creativity

Journaling promotes creative thoughts. Even on days where you don’t feel like you have much to write, taking time to journal can stimulate creative thoughts and expression.

Journals are a breeding ground for new ideas, fresh insights, renewed inspiration, and rejuvenated creativity.

9. Improved Communication

Journaling is a practice in communication skills.

Regular writing in a journal makes you more comfortable with self-expression and helps you understand how to communicate clearly, effectively, healthily, and articulately.

10. Documentation of Life

Nothing better than looking back through an old journal and reflecting on your entries!

Journaling acts as a record log of your lived experiences and emotions. It allows you to reflect back on moments, recognize personal growth, and celebrate achievements over time.

A Note on Journaling to Get to Know Yourself

When answering these Who Am I journal prompts, remember to keep an open mind.

Approach with curiosity and wonder rather than expectations and judgments.

Answering “Who Am I?” is a huge, lifelong feat. Who we are is ever-evolving and shifting. This is a good thing.

As we progress through life, we learn, grow, and adapt.

Defining who you are can include elements that are both solid and consistent (core values, etc.) while also changing and developing (opinions, beliefs, etc.).

You can be a whole, wonderful human while also being a growing work-in-progress. We all are!

I hope these Who Am I journal prompts can help you get to know yourself better in this process.

More Journal Prompts to Get to Know Yourself

75 SELF-LOVE JOURNAL PROMPTS FOR CONFIDENCE

80 SIMPLE JOURNAL PROMPTS FOR BEGINNERS

100 DEEP JOURNAL PROMPTS FOR PERSONAL GROWTH

Hi! I’m Delaney (but you can call me Del)! Welcome to Authentically Del where we discuss all things self-care, productivity, self-improvement, mindset, and more. I'm here to offer authentic tips and advice in hopes that I can help make your life a bit brighter! More About Me...

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Essays About Myself: Top 5 Essay Examples Plus Prompts

We are all unique individuals, each with traits, skills, and qualities we should be proud of. Here are examples and prompts on essays about myself .

It is good to reflect on ourselves from time to time. When applying for university or a new job, you may be asked to write about yourself to give the institution a better picture of yourself. Self-understanding and reflection are essential if you want to make a compelling argument for yourself.

Reflect on your life: look back on the people you’ve met, the places you’ve been, and the experiences you’ve had, and think about how they have shaped you into the person you have become today. Think of the bigger picture and be sure to consider who you are based on what others think and say about you, not just who you think you are. 

If you are tasked with the prompt, “essays about myself,” keep reading to see some essay examples.

1. It’s My Life by Ann Smith

2. how i see myself by leticia woods, 3. the truth about myself by madeline dyer, 4. what we see in others is a reflection of ourselves by sandra brossman, 5. a letter to myself by gladys mclaughlin, 1. introducing yourself, 2. describing your strengths and weaknesses, 3. what sets you apart from others, 4. your beliefs and values, 5. an experience that has defined you as a person, 6. what family means to you, 7. your favorite pasttime.

“Sure, I’ve had bad experiences in my life too, but this is exactly what made me the way I am now: grateful, full of love, with a desire to study well because it will help me become a successful person in future and have a high quality of life. I believe that it is manifesting day by day and I feel even more responsibility for what I do and where I go. With all I already have, I know that I’m on the right path and I will do my best to inspire others to live the way they feel like living as well.”

In her essay, Smith describes her interests, habits, and qualities. She writes that she is sociable, enthusiastic about studying, and friendly. She also touches on others’ opinions of her- that she is funny. One of Smith’s hobbies is photography, which allowed her to meet her best friend. She aims to study hard so she can be successful on whatever path she may follow, and inspire others to live their best life. 

“It is this drive that will carry me through my degree program and allow me to absorb the education that I receive and develop solid practical applications from this knowledge. I feel that I will eventually become highly successful in my chosen field because my past has clearly shown my commitment to excellence in every endeavor that I have chosen. Because I remain incredibly focused and committed for future success, I know that my future will be as rewarding as my past.”

Woods discusses how her identity helps her achieve her career goals. First, her commitment to her education is a great asset. Second, prior education and her service in the US Air Force allowed her to learn much about life, the world, and herself, and she was able to learn about different cultures. She believes that experience, devotion, and knowledge will allow her to achieve her dreams. 

“I’m getting better as I recover from the brain inflammation which caused my OCD, but I want to have a day like that. A day where I can relax and enjoy life fully again. A day where I haven’t a care in the world. And for that, I need to be kind to myself. I need to relax and remove any pressure I place on myself.”

Dyer reflects on an important part of herself- her Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. Brain inflammation has made her a perfectionist, and she cannot relax. She is constantly compelled by an inner voice to do things she “should” be doing. She wants to be happy, and will try to shut off this voice by practicing self-affirmation. You might also be interested in these essays about discovering yourself .

“Believe it or not, forgiving YOURSELF is the most effective way to disengage from negative interactions with people.  We can only love and accept others to the degree that we love and accept ourselves.  When you make it a habit to learn from your relationships, eventually you will discover that you can observe negative traits within others without judgment and without getting hooked into someone else’s drama.”

In her essay, Brossman writes how we see what we desire for ourselves in others. Our relationships help us understand ourselves better; we see people’s bad qualities and criticize them, professing that we will not be like them. On the other hand, we see qualities we like and try to imitate them. To become a better version of yourself, you should learn from your relationships and emulate desirable qualities. 

“I never tell anyone that I am tired of work or study. Success will come to those who get up and go far. This is my life motto which always reminds me of how vital it is to be hard-working and resilient towards failures. I learn that no matter what others say (even mother and father) if their

thoughts contradict my goals, I don’t have to listen to them. Nobody will live your life, and nobody should tell you who you are and what you are.”

Mclaughlin writes a letter to her future self, explaining what she envisions for herself in the coming years. She writes about who she is now and describes her vision for how much better she will be in the future. She believes that she will have great encounters that will teach her about life, a loving, kind family, and an independent spirit that will triumph over all her struggles

Writing Prompts For Essays About Myself

Write a basic description of yourself; describe where you live, your school or job, and your family and friends. You should also give readers a glimpse of your personality- are you outgoing, shy, or sporty? If you want to write more, you can also briefly explain your hobbies, interests, and skills. 

Each of us has our own strengths and weaknesses. Reflect on what you are good at and what you can improve on and select 1-2 from each to write about. Discuss what you can do to work on your weaknesses and improve yourself. 

An essential part of yourself is your uniqueness; for a strong essay about “myself,” think about beliefs, qualities, or values that set you apart from others. Write about one or more, but be sure to explain your choices clearly. You can write about what separates you in the context of your family, friend group, culture, or even society as a whole. 

Your beliefs and values are at the core of your being, as they guide the decisions you make every day. Discuss some of your basic beliefs and values and explain why they are important to you. For a stronger essay, be sure to explain how you use these in day-to-day life; give concrete examples of situations in which these beliefs and values are used. 

We are all shaped by our past experiences. Reflect on an experience, whether that be an achievement, setback, or just a fun memory, and explain its significance to you. Retell the story in detail and describe how it has impacted you and helped make you the person you are today. 

More often than not, family plays a big role in forming us. To give readers a better idea of your identity, describe your idea of family. Discuss its significance, impact, and role in your life. You may also choose to write about how your family has helped shape you into who you are. This should be based on personal experience; refrain from using external sources to inspire you.

Our likes and dislikes are an important part of who we are as well; in your essay, discuss a hobby of yours, preferably one you have been interested in for a long period of time, and explain why you enjoy it so much. You should also write about how it has helped you become yourself and made you a better person.  

Grammarly is one of our top grammar checkers. Find out why in this Grammarly review . If you’re stuck picking your next essay topic, check out our round-up of essay topics about education .

Martin is an avid writer specializing in editing and proofreading. He also enjoys literary analysis and writing about food and travel.

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Home — Essay Samples — Life — Myself — About Myself

Essay Examples About Myself

Engaging prompts for your essay about myself.

Prompt 1: Describe a moment in your life that significantly influenced your personal development. How did it shape the person you are today?

Prompt 2: What are your major achievements, and why do you consider them as such? Discuss what these achievements reveal about your character and values.

Prompt 3: Reflect on a challenge you've faced. How did you overcome it, and what did you learn about yourself in the process?

Brainstorming and Choosing a Unique Essay About Myself Topic

Brainstorming is crucial for uncovering unique aspects of your story. Reflect on memorable experiences, achievements, and lessons learned to find a central theme or unique angle for your essay.

Unique Essay Topics Beyond the Common Narratives

• The Intersection of Personal Adversity and Academic Pursuit
• From Hobby to Purpose
• Cultural Heritage and Identity
• Innovation in Solitude
• Navigating the World as a Neurodiverse Individual

Inspirational Writing Samples for Your Essay About Myself

"Facing the mountain, I felt an unprecedented mix of fear and exhilaration. Climbing had always been a metaphor for my life's challenges. Each step upward mirrored my journey of overcoming [specific challenge], teaching me resilience, focus, and the importance of trust. Through this experience, I discovered that perseverance, even in the face of uncertainty, is the key to surmounting obstacles."

Phrases for Inspiration:

• "Transforming setbacks into comebacks, I learned..."
• "In the crucible of [experience], I forged..."
• "Navigating the intricate tapestry of [situation] revealed to me..."
• "The confluence of [event] and my response to it underscored the importance of..."
• "Drawing from the well of my experiences, I find strength in..."

My Identity Description

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What is Your True Self: The Importance of Self-awareness

How my future self is my hero, me, myself and i: ordinary person, real-life experience, the void in my life, admission to the university of adelaide: describe your background, answer on the large-scale question 'who am i', the way my curiosity defines myself and my desires, understanding myself: exploring the layers of my personality, that's how my personality defines myself, who am i: a glimpse of my personality development, one day i'll be someone's first choice, analysis of my top-5 personal strengths, self-awareness: my experience on path to better me, analysis of a teenager's personality profile, a look at the benefit of personal encouragement, who am i: answering the question through the body theory, memory theory, and illusion theory, a reflection on myself as a writer, the analysis of my personality tests, personal writing: why i love winter, personal narrative: myself as a writer, relevant topics.

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Building Self-Awareness: How to Use Journaling to Know Yourself Better

Here's how to harness the power of journaling for deeper self-awareness, with 30 journaling prompts for writing..

• November 02, 2023

Home » Day One Blog » Building Self-Awareness: How to Use Journaling to Know Yourself Better

Developing self-awareness is foundational for personal growth, emotional intelligence, and even leadership. Knowing yourself well can aid in decision-making, building strong relationships, managing stress, and understanding how your motivations and desires show up in your actions on a daily basis. The good news is that self-awareness is a skill that can be developed over time through reflection, mindfulness practices, feedback from others, and other personal growth activities, like journaling.

In this guide, we’ll explore some of the fundamentals of self-awareness, along with how to start using journaling as a pathway for knowing and understanding yourself better.

What is Self-Awareness?

Self-awareness is the conscious knowledge of one’s character, feelings, motives, and desires. Being self-aware involves recognizing your strengths, weaknesses, thoughts, beliefs, emotions, and motivations.

Here are some key components and nuances of self-awareness:

• Introspection : This is the act of looking inward to examine one’s own thoughts and feelings. Through introspection, individuals can understand the “why” behind their actions and reactions.
• Recognition of Emotions : Being self-aware means not only recognizing when you’re experiencing an emotion but also understanding the triggers for those emotions.
• Understanding Strengths and Weaknesses : A self-aware individual acknowledges areas where they excel and areas they need to work on, without an inflated or deflated sense of self.
• Personal Values and Beliefs : Recognizing and standing firm in one’s values and beliefs is a significant aspect of self-awareness.
• Impact on Others : It’s not only about understanding oneself but also recognizing how one’s actions and behaviors might affect others.
• The Desire for Growth : A self-aware individual often has a strong inclination towards personal growth and development, as they recognize areas of improvement.
• Autonomy : People with high self-awareness tend to act autonomously, making decisions based on their own values and beliefs rather than being overly influenced by external pressures.
• Mindfulness : Practicing mindfulness, or being present in the moment, can enhance self-awareness as it encourages tuning into one’s emotions and thoughts without judgment.

Is Self-Awareness a Skill That Can Be Learned?

While some individuals may naturally exhibit higher levels of self-awareness due to their life experiences or inherent tendencies, most people can enhance their self-awareness through purposeful efforts. Here’s a breakdown of how self-awareness can be developed:

• Journaling : Regular introspection, such as through journaling or simply taking time to reflect on one’s actions, thoughts, and feelings, can increase self-awareness. Over time, these practices help individuals recognize patterns, triggers, and habitual responses.
• Mindfulness and Meditation : Mindfulness involves staying present in the moment and observing one’s thoughts and emotions without judgment. Regular meditation or mindfulness exercises can help individuals become more attuned to their internal state.
• Feedback from Others : Seeking feedback from trusted individuals, whether friends, family, colleagues, or therapists, can offer valuable external perspectives. They can point out blind spots or behaviors that an individual might not be aware of.
• Therapy or Counseling : Working with a trained professional can provide guided introspection, helping individuals delve deeper into their thoughts, behaviors, and patterns.
• Educational Workshops and Courses : There are numerous courses, workshops, and seminars on emotional intelligence and self-awareness that teach techniques and strategies for enhancing this skill.
• Reading and Research : Books, articles, and other resources on psychology, emotional intelligence, and personal development can provide insights and frameworks for understanding oneself better.
• Continuous Learning and Adapting : As life evolves, so do individuals. Continuously revisiting and recalibrating one’s self-awareness in the face of new experiences and challenges is crucial.

9 Important Connections Between Self-Awareness and Journaling

Honesty is at the heart of self-awareness. You can’t see yourself objectively if you’re unwilling to be honest about your emotions and actions. Honesty is also at the heart of journaling. A journal is a safe, private space where you can share your innermost thoughts. Whether you’re experiencing things you feel proud of or ashamed of, writing about them honestly is the goal. 

If you are willing to be honest in your journal, you will benefit from the many ways journaling and self-awareness connect. 

1. Journaling as a Mirror to Your Thoughts

Understanding your feelings while you’re feeling them can be challenging. Journaling reflects your inner thoughts and emotions. It allows you to process thoughts in your own way. As you write, you can look more objectively at your own thoughts and see if they align with the person you wish to be. 

2. Unearthing Subconscious Patterns

All people grow up believing in a certain set of values based on their childhood teachings and experiences. Even as an adult, you may be hanging on to unhealthy patterns because you simply aren’t aware of them. Journaling for self-awareness helps you see yourself and your interactions with others in a more realistic light. You may recognize thinking or behavior patterns that are hindering your personal growth. 

3. Cultivating Emotional Awareness

Are you feeling angry, hurt, tired, or confused? Sometimes, it’s difficult to know for sure. Maybe you’re just hungry. The ability to identify your emotions correctly isn’t something you’re born with. It’s a learned behavior. Journaling can help you improve your emotional intelligence and teach you to understand your emotions on a deeper level. 

4. Clarifying Values and Beliefs

Do you know what your core values are? Are they really yours, or are they the values you learned as a child that you naturally accepted without questioning? Journaling can help you explore where your core values originated and if they truly reflect your personal beliefs. 

5. Gaining Perspective and Objectivity

Sometimes, you have to step away from a situation to gain perspective. Journaling is a way to “step back” from your emotions. After writing things down, you can let go, close your journal, and return when you’re ready for self-reflection. 

6. Capturing Moments of Epiphany

Have you ever had a real “ah ha” moment and then quickly forgotten what your deep insight was? If so, you’re not alone. Moments of emotional clarity can be fleeting, and that’s a shame because they can also help you increase your self-awareness. Documenting moments of insight and realization in your journal means you can revisit them as needed. 

7. Fostering a Growth Mindset

Journaling for self-awareness is an exercise in curiosity. The method of reflective journaling , especially, encourages growth through questioning. Journaling also helps you remember growth is not a straight line. By revisiting past entries, you can see how you’ve overcome setbacks in the past and draw on those skills to overcome current challenges.

8. Building Self-Compassion

Being gentle with yourself is a crucial component of self-awareness. Sure, you make mistakes. You’re not perfect. Neither is anyone else. If you’re interested in journaling for self-awareness, you know your need for growth and are willing to try new methods. Avoid self-criticism when you’re journaling, even in those moments when you are thinking or acting negatively. Treat yourself like a trusted friend who is worthy of kindness and acceptance. 

9. Strengthening Intuition and Gut Feelings

Intuition can be a powerful guide, but only if you listen to it. Journaling can help you tap into your intuition by providing a record of all those times your intuition was correct. Write about it in your journal when you feel that a certain action would help or hurt a situation. Later, you can confirm whether you were correct. As you begin to see your intuition is mostly reliable, you’ll begin trusting your inner guidance more frequently.  

10. Taking Purposeful Action

Self-awareness without action can be likened to a car with a full tank but no ignition. Through journaling, not only do you gain insights and clarity, but you also create a blueprint for actionable steps towards personal growth. Every journal entry acts as a catalyst, nudging you closer to your authentic self. As you outline your feelings, goals, and reflections, you inherently begin to design a roadmap for the changes you wish to see in yourself. Over time, as you revisit past entries, you can identify patterns of action and inaction, further refining your path forward. This purposeful action ensures that the newfound self-awareness doesn’t remain mere knowledge but translates into tangible transformation in your everyday life.

The Benefits of Journaling for Self-Awareness

You can benefit from the advantages of journaling for self-awareness. Some of the mental and emotional benefits of self-awareness include:

• Improved perspective taking
• Emotional self-regulation
• More creativity and creative thinking
• Improved self-esteem
• Better decision making
• Stronger relationships
• Improved communication

5 Journaling Techniques for Self-Awareness

One of the great things about journaling is that it holds something of interest for almost everyone. There is no single “right” way to approach journaling. In fact, there are many styles and formats to benefit from and enjoy. 

1. Reflective Journaling

Reflective journaling is a somewhat structured style that helps you get clarity on upsetting or confusing events. It is especially helpful for those who feel they are in an emotional/behavioral rut and want to think more creatively. 

To practice reflective journaling, write about an upsetting or confusing event or perhaps a crucial life memory. Ask yourself questions such as:

• What happened?
• How did I respond?
• What do I wish I would have done or said?
• How did this experience change me?

Writing the answers to these questions and any others that come to you provides insight into how you respond to stress and what you can do to respond in a healthier way. 

2. Gratitude Journaling

The scientifically proven benefits of gratitude include improvements for both physical and mental health. Using the gratitude journaling method may help you increase your sense of empathy and build self-esteem. Gratitude journaling takes many forms. You can simply list what you are grateful for at the end of each day or write more detailed entries about people, places, and experiences you’re grateful for. 

3. Stream-of-Consciousness Writing

Stream-of-consciousness (SOC) writing encourages writers to put their pens to the paper (or fingers to the keyboard) and write without stopping for a predetermined time. When using the SOC method, you can write nonsense words, repeat phrases, or even doodle — as long as you don’t stop writing.

This method can be especially helpful for people who have difficulty with self-censorship and self-criticism. SOC does not allow for changing grammatical errors, checking spelling, or making other corrections. This free-flowing method can help you get past doing everything “right” to explore your emotional well-being. 

4. Dream Journaling

A dream journal is a place to write about the dreams you have while you’re sleeping. Dreams can provide valuable insights into what’s going on inside your psyche. Writing down your dreams may provide insight into your personal fears, long-forgotten memories, and other information that can help increase self-awareness. 

To get the most benefit from journaling, get into the habit of writing about your dreams every morning before doing anything else. If possible, write before even getting out of bed. Your chances of recalling dreams are better before you start thinking about all the day’s responsibilities. 

5. Creative Journaling

Journaling doesn’t have to be limited to writing words. In an art journal , you can draw, paint, or make collages in your journals. Write poetry or print inspirational quotes you’ve found in other places. 

Not everyone expresses themselves most efficiently with words. If other art forms help you access your thoughts and feelings, use them. Remember, there are no limits to your journal. For example, you could try drawing a sketch representing a specific obstacle you are facing in your journey of self-awareness. By contemplating the drawing, you might be better able to express yourself with words.  

30 Journaling Prompts for Self-Awareness

Using journal prompts specifically intended to help with self-awareness is ideal when that’s your journaling goal. Look at the following prompt ideas for different types of journaling related to self-awareness. 

Prompts for reflective journaling:

• What’s one event from my past that still affects me today?
• What is an incident in my life when I felt both excited and overwhelmed?
• When was the last time I felt truly happy? What made me feel so good?
• What’s been on my mind lately? What are the things that have been worrying me?
• What has been going well for me lately? What positive things have happened recently?

Prompts for gratitude journaling:

• What are five things that make me smile? What words would I use to describe the feeling they give me?
• What are three things I love about my life currently?
• What is a challenging situation I’m currently facing? What is something positive that might come from it?
• What experience am I grateful for now that I previously took for granted?
• What is something someone said to me recently that I am grateful for?

If you’re feeling blocked, try the following prompts for stream-of-consciousness writing:

• What’s my earliest childhood memory? Recall vivid senses, such as feelings, smells, sights, and sounds.
• Who is my hero? Why are they are my hero? What qualities do they have, and how might I be more like them?
• How do I feel right now?
• What is something I did that I still regret? What did it teach me about myself?
• When was the last time I felt brave? What happened?

Try these prompts for dream journaling:

When you first begin dream journaling, it may be difficult to remember your dreams. However, writing about them regularly will help with recall. 

• What do I remember about a dream that had a strong emotional impact on me?
• What kinds of dreams do I have the most? What do these dreams have in common?
• What’s one of the most vivid dreams I’ve ever had?
• Have I ever had a dream where I reunited with a loved one who passed away? What happened?
• Have I ever had a dream where I successfully achieved an aspiration or personal goal? What did it feel like?

These prompts will help you open up your creativity:

There are many ways to approach creative journaling. 

• What scares me about being creative?
• What’s a secret I’ve kept from someone else?
• What if my mirror started talking to me? What might it say?
• Freewrite a story now.
• What was the last movie that made me cry? Write about that scene in the movie.

Going Deeper: More Prompts for Self-Awareness

• What are my top 3 most important values to live by?
• Consider a recent decision I made. What motivations were behind it?
• What emotions have I been experiencing recently?
• What are my strengths?
• What character traits do I want to develop?

Wrapping Up: Improving Your Self-Awareness with Journaling

Journaling for self-awareness can bring many benefits to your life. Whether you prefer reflective or gratitude journaling or like to incorporate many journaling methods into your practice, the important thing is that you simply begin. 

Download the Day One Journal App

The Day One journaling app makes it easy to build and maintain a daily journaling habit . Daily journaling reminders , daily writing prompts , and journal streaks are designed to help keep you motivated and consistently journaling.

About the Author

Kristen Webb Wright is the author of three books on journaling. With a passion for writing and self-reflection, Kristen uses her experience with journaling to help others discover the benefits of documenting their thoughts, feelings, and experiences. In her role at Day One, she helps to promote the power of journaling so people from all walks of life can experience the transformative power of journaling.

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32 Journal Prompts for Self-Reflection and Self-Care

T here’s nothing like cracking open a new journal , grabbing your favorite pen, and sitting down for a writing sesh.

It’s a tried-and-true form of self-care. Research shows that journaling can help you achieve your goals, increase your emotional intelligence, boost your confidence, and even heal from difficult experiences.

But a common challenge people run into when they want to start a journaling habit : What do I write about?

That’s where guided self-reflection prompts and questions can help you out. When you're feeling overwhelmed or do not know what to do, taking a moment to pause and reflect is one way you can ensure you're checking in with your needs and moving forward with your journey.

'Facing your front' is the mantra that emboides this—and it's the mantra behind actor Ncuti Gatwa, star of the Netflix show "Sex Education."

"Don't look right and don't look left, because these are other people's journeys and if you're looking at their journeys, you're going to get lost. So face your front and worry about what you're doing," Gatwa shared in Teen Vogue . "You don't need to compare yourself. Your journey is fine."

Here are 32 of our favorites to help you kick off your next journaling session and reflect on your personal journey. They’re inspired by our Daily Discussion feature in the Shine app —a safe space where you can reflect on a new self-care question daily with a global community of supportive people.

Pick one or a few of these questions, and give yourself permission to free write your answers without any judgment or pressure. The goal: Simply see what you can learn about yourself and the way you take care of yourself.

1. What makes you feel powerful?

2. what makes you feel calm, 3. what makes you feel in control, 4. how do you encourage yourself when you're trying something new, 5. what's a choice you can make this week based on your needs, 6. how do you shift your mindset if it isn't working for you, 7. how do you recharge, 8. how can you celebrate yourself today, 9. what does your situational best look like today, 10. what helps you slow down and feel more present, 11. what can you do today that you didn’t think you could do a year ago, 12. what's a goal you want to accomplish and why, 13. how do you put yourself first without feeling guilty, 14. how do you practice self-acceptance, 15. how do you stay focused and steer clear of distractions, 16. how do you trust yourself to make big decisions, 17. how do you set boundaries and avoid absorbing someone else's emotions and stress, 18. how do you savor the time you get alone, 19. how do you notice when you're nearing burnout, 20. how do you share your feelings with the people who care about you, 21. how do you swap envy for joy when other people accomplish things, 22. how do you advocate for yourself, 23. how do you forgive yourself when you make a mistake, 24. how do you ask for help or support when you need it, 25. how do you practice self-love and self-kindness, 26. how do you calm your nerves in a difficult situation, 27. how do you make the time you spend with people more intentional, 28. how do you embrace your authentic self, even if it looks different from what others expect, 29. how do you set and protect your boundaries, 30. what new opportunities have come out of challenges you’ve faced, 31. how can you step outside your comfort zone to grow, 32. how do you remind yourself that you're enough.

Read next: 25 Best Journals and Planners for a New Chapter

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How to Write a Personal Essay for Your College Application

What does it take to land in the “accept” (instead of “reject”) pile?

How can you write an essay that helps advance you in the eyes of the admissions officers and makes a real impression? Here are some tips to get you started.

• Start early.  Do not leave it until the last minute. Give yourself time when you don’t have other homework or extracurriculars hanging over your head to work on the essay.
• Keep the focus narrow.  Your essay does not have to cover a massive, earth-shattering event. Some people in their teens haven’t experienced a major life event. Some people have. Either way, it’s okay.
• Be yourself.  Whether writing about a painful experience or a more simple experience, use the narrative to be vulnerable and honest about who you are. Use words you would normally use. Trust your voice and the fact that your story is interesting enough in that no one else has lived it.
• Be creative.  “Show, don’t tell,” and that applies here — to an extent. The best essays typically do both. You can help your reader see and feel what you are describing by using some figurative language throughout your piece.
• Make a point. As you finish your final body paragraphs ask yourself “So what?” This will help you hone in on how to end your essay in a way that elevates it into a story about an insight or discovery you made about yourself, rather than just being about an experience you had.

Where your work meets your life. See more from Ascend here .

We’ve all heard about the dreaded “college essay,” the bane of every high school senior’s existence. This daunting element of the college application is something that can create angst for even the most accomplished students.

• AA Amy Allen is a writer, educator, and lifelong learner. Her freelance writing business,  All of the Write Words , focuses on providing high school students with one-on-one feedback to guide them through the college application process and with crafting a thoughtful personal essay. A dedicated poet, Amy’s work has also been published in several journals including  Pine Row Press ,  Months to Years,  and  Atlanta Review .

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15 Tips for Writing a College Essay About Yourself

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• What is the Purpose of the College Essay?
• How to Stand Out Without Showing Off
• 15 Tips for Writing an Essay About Yourself
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Most students who apply to top-tier colleges have exceptional grades, standardized test scores, and extracurricular activities. How do admissions officers decide which applicants to choose among all these stellar students? One way is on the strength of their college essay .

This personal statement, along with other qualitative factors like teacher recommendations, helps the admissions committee see who you really are—the person behind the transcript. So, it’s obviously important to write a great one.

What Is the Purpose of the College Essay? 

Your college essay helps you stand out in a pool of qualified candidates. If effective, it will also show the admissions committee more of your personality and allow them to get a sense of how you’ll fit in with and contribute to the student body and institution. Additionally, it will show the school that you can express yourself persuasively and clearly in writing, which is an important part of most careers, no matter where you end up. 

Typically, students must submit a personal statement (usually the Common App essay ) along with school-specific supplements. Some students are surprised to learn that essays typically count for around 25% of your entire application at the top 250 schools. That’s an enormous chunk, especially considering that, unlike your transcript and extracurriculars, it isn’t an assessment of your entire high school career.  

The purpose of the college essay is to paint a complete picture of yourself, showing admissions committees the person behind the grades and test scores. A strong college essay shows your unique experiences, personality, perspective, interests, and values—ultimately, what makes you unique. After all, people attend college, not their grades or test scores. The college essay also provides students with a considerable amount of agency in their application, empowering them to share their own stories.

How to Stand Out Without Showing Off 

It’s important to strike a balance between exploring your achievements and demonstrating humility. Your aim should be to focus on the meaning behind the experience and how it changed your outlook, not the accomplishment itself. 

Confidence without cockiness is the key here. Don’t simply catalog your achievements, there are other areas on your application to share them. Rather, mention your achievements when they’re critical to the story you’re telling. It’s helpful to think of achievements as compliments, not highlights, of your college essay.  

Take this essay excerpt , for example:

My parents’ separation allowed me the space to explore my own strengths and interests as each of them became individually busier. As early as middle school, I was riding the light rail train by myself, reading maps to get myself home, and applying to special academic programs without urging from my parents. Even as I took more initiatives on my own, my parents both continued to see me as somewhat immature. All of that changed three years ago, when I applied and was accepted to the SNYI-L summer exchange program in Morocco. I would be studying Arabic and learning my way around the city of Marrakesh. Although I think my parents were a little surprised when I told them my news, the addition of a fully-funded scholarship convinced them to let me go. 

Instead of saying “ I received this scholarship and participated in this prestigious program, ” the author tells a story, demonstrating their growth and initiative through specific actions (riding the train alone, applying academic programs on her own, etc.)—effectively showing rather than telling.

15 Tips for Writing an Essay About Yourself 

1. start early .

Leave yourself plenty of time to write your college essay—it’s stressful enough to compose a compelling essay without putting yourself under a deadline. Starting early on your essay also leaves you time to edit and refine your work, have others read your work (for example, your parents or a teacher), and carefully proofread.

2. Choose a topic that’s meaningful to you 

The foundation of a great essay is selecting a topic that has real meaning for you. If you’re passionate about the subject, the reader will feel it. Alternatively, choosing a topic you think the admissions committee is looking for, but isn’t all that important to you, won’t make for a compelling essay; it will be obvious that you’re not very invested in it.

3. Show your personality 

One of the main points of your college essay is to convey your personality. Admissions officers will see your transcript and read about the awards you’ve won, but the essay will help them get to know you as a person. Make sure your personality is evident in each part—if you are a jokester, incorporate some humor. Your friends should be able to pick your essay from an anonymous pile, read it, and recognize it as yours. In that same vein, someone who doesn’t know you at all should feel like they understand your personality after reading your essay. 

4. Write in your own voice 

In order to bring authenticity to your essay, you’ll need to write in your own voice. Don’t be overly formal (but don’t be too casual, either). Remember: you want the reader to get to know the real you, not a version of you that comes across as overly stiff or stilted. You should feel free to use contractions, incorporate dialogue, and employ vocabulary that comes naturally to you. 

5. Use specific examples 

Real, concrete stories and examples will help your essay come to life. They’ll add color to your narrative and make it more compelling for the reader. The goal, after all, is to engage your audience—the admissions committee. 

For example, instead of stating that you care about animals, you should tell us a story about how you took care of an injured stray cat. 

Consider this side-by-side comparison:

Example 1: I care deeply about animals and even once rescued a stray cat. The cat had an injured leg, and I helped nurse it back to health.

Example 2: I lost many nights of sleep trying to nurse the stray cat back to health. Its leg infection was extremely painful, and it meowed in distress up until the wee hours of the morning. I didn’t mind it though; what mattered was that the cat regained its strength. So, I stayed awake to administer its medicine and soothe it with loving ear rubs.

The second example helps us visualize this situation and is more illustrative of the writer’s personality. Because she stayed awake to care for the cat, we can infer that she is a compassionate person who cares about animals. We don’t get the same depth with the first example. 

6. Don’t be afraid to show off… 

You should always put your best foot forward—the whole point of your essay is to market yourself to colleges. This isn’t the time to be shy about your accomplishments, skills, or qualities. 

7. …While also maintaining humility 

But don’t brag. Demonstrate humility when discussing your achievements. In the example above, for instance, the author discusses her accomplishments while noting that her parents thought of her as immature. This is a great way to show humility while still highlighting that she was able to prove her parents wrong.

8. Be vulnerable 

Vulnerability goes hand in hand with humility and authenticity. Don’t shy away from exploring how your experience affected you and the feelings you experienced. This, too, will help your story come to life. 

Here’s an excerpt from a Common App essay that demonstrates vulnerability and allows us to connect with the writer:  

“You ruined my life!” After months of quiet anger, my brother finally confronted me. To my shame, I had been appallingly ignorant of his pain. 

Despite being twins, Max and I are profoundly different. Having intellectual interests from a young age that, well, interested very few of my peers, I often felt out of step in comparison with my highly-social brother. Everything appeared to come effortlessly for Max and, while we share an extremely tight bond, his frequent time away with friends left me feeling more and more alone as we grew older.

In this essay, the writer isn’t afraid to share his insecurities and feelings with us. He states that he had been “ appallingly ignorant ” of his brother’s pain, that he “ often felt out of step ” compared to his brother, and that he had felt “ more and more alone ” over time. These are all emotions that you may not necessarily share with someone you just met, but it’s exactly this vulnerability that makes the essay more raw and relatable. 

9. Don’t lie or hyperbolize 

This essay is about the authentic you. Lying or hyperbolizing to make yourself sound better will not only make your essay—and entire application—less genuine, but it will also weaken it. More than likely, it will be obvious that you’re exaggerating. Plus, if colleges later find out that you haven’t been truthful in any part of your application, it’s grounds for revoking your acceptance or even expulsion if you’ve already matriculated. 

10. Avoid cliches 

How the COVID-19 pandemic changed your life. A sports victory as a metaphor for your journey. How a pet death altered your entire outlook. Admissions officers have seen more essays on these topics than they can possibly count. Unless you have a truly unique angle, then it’s in your best interest to avoid them. Learn which topics are cliche and how to fix them . 

11. Proofread 

This is a critical step. Even a small error can break your essay, however amazing it is otherwise. Make sure you read it over carefully, and get another set of eyes (or two or three other sets of eyes), just in case.

12. Abstain from using AI

There are a handful of good reasons to avoid using artificial intelligence (AI) to write your college essay. Most importantly, it’s dishonest and likely to be not very good; AI-generated essays are generally formulaic, generic, and boring—everything you’re trying to avoid being.   The purpose of the college essay is to share what makes you unique and highlight your personal experiences and perspectives, something that AI can’t capture.

13. Use parents as advisors, not editors

The voice of an adult is different from that of a high schooler and admissions committees are experts at spotting the writing of parents. Parents can play a valuable role in creating your college essay—advising, proofreading, and providing encouragement during those stressful moments. However, they should not write or edit your college essay with their words.

14. Have a hook

Admissions committees have a lot of essays to read and getting their attention is essential for standing out among a crowded field of applicants. A great hook captures your reader’s imagination and encourages them to keep reading your essay. Start strong, first impressions are everything!

15. Give them something to remember

The ending of your college essay is just as important as the beginning. Give your reader something to remember by composing an engaging and punchy paragraph or line—called a kicker in journalism—that ties everything you’ve written above together.

Where to Get Free Feedback on Your College Essay 

Before you send off your application, make sure you get feedback from a trusted source on your essay. CollegeVine’s free peer essay review will give you the support you need to ensure you’ve effectively presented your personality and accomplishments. Our expert essay review pairs you with an advisor to help you refine your writing, submit your best work, and boost your chances of getting into your dream school. Find the right advisor for you and get started on honing a winning essay.

Related CollegeVine Blog Posts

Self-Introduction Essay

A Self Introduction Essay is a window into your personality, goals, and experiences. Our guide, supplemented with varied essay examples , offers insights into crafting a compelling narrative about yourself. Ideal for college applications, job interviews, or personal reflections, these examples demonstrate how to weave your personal story into an engaging essay. Learn to highlight your strengths, aspirations, and journey in a manner that captivates your readers, making your introduction not just informative but also memorable.

What is Self Introduction Essay? A self-introduction essay is a written piece where you describe yourself in a personal and detailed way. It’s a way to introduce who you are, including your name, background, interests, achievements, and goals. This type of essay is often used for college or job applications, allowing others to get to know you better. It’s an opportunity to showcase your personality, experiences, and what makes you unique. Writing a self-introduction essay involves talking about your educational background, professional experiences if any, personal interests, and future aspirations. It’s a chance to highlight your strengths, achievements, and to share your personal story in a way that is engaging and meaningful.

Do you still remember the first time you’ve written an essay ? I bet you don’t even know it’s called an “essay” back then. And back then you might be wondering what’s the purpose such composition, and why are you writing something instead of hanging out with your friends.

Download Self-Introduction Essay Bundle

Now, you probably are already familiar with the definition of an essay, and the basics of writing one. You’re also probably aware of the purpose of writing essays and the different writing styles one may use in writing a composition. Here, we will be talking about self-introduction essay, and look into different example such as personal essay which you may refer to.

Self Introduction Essay Format

Introduction.

Start with a hook: Begin with an interesting fact, a question, or a compelling statement about yourself to grab the reader’s attention. State your name and a brief background: Share your name, age, and where you’re from or what you currently do (student, job role).

Educational Background

Discuss your current or most recent educational experience: Mention your school, college, or university and your major or area of study. Highlight academic achievements or interests: Share any honors, awards, or special projects that are relevant to your personality or career goals.

Professional Background

Mention your current job or professional experiences: Briefly describe your role, company, or the type of work you do. Highlight relevant skills or achievements: Share experiences that showcase your abilities and contributions to your field.

Personal Interests and Goals

Share your hobbies or interests: Briefly describe activities you enjoy or passions you pursue outside of work or school. Discuss your short-term and long-term goals: Explain what you aim to achieve in the near future and your aspirations for the long term.

Summarize your strengths and what makes you unique: Reinforce key points about your skills, achievements, or character. Close with a statement on what you hope to achieve or contribute in your next role, educational pursuit, or personal endeavor.

Example of Self Introduction Essay in English

Hello! My name is Alex Johnson, a 21-year-old Environmental Science major at Green Valley University, passionate about sustainable living and conservation efforts. Raised in the bustling city of New York, I’ve always been fascinated by the contrast between urban life and the natural world, driving me to explore how cities can become more sustainable.   Currently, in my final year at Green Valley University, I’ve dedicated my academic career to understanding the complexities of environmental science. My coursework has included in-depth studies on renewable energy sources, water conservation techniques, and sustainable agriculture. I’ve achieved Dean’s List status for three consecutive years and led a successful campus-wide recycling initiative that reduced waste by 30%.   This past summer, I interned with the City Planning Department of New York, focusing on green spaces in urban areas. I worked on a project that aimed to increase the city’s green coverage by 10% over the next five years. This hands-on experience taught me the importance of practical solutions in environmental conservation and sparked my interest in urban sustainability.   Beyond academics, I’m an avid hiker and nature photographer, believing strongly in the power of visual storytelling to raise awareness about environmental issues. My goal is to merge my passion for environmental science with my love for photography to create impactful narratives that promote conservation.   In the future, I aspire to work for an NGO that focuses on urban sustainability, contributing to projects that integrate green spaces into city planning. I am also considering further studies in environmental policy, hoping to influence positive change on a global scale.   My journey from a curious city dweller to an aspiring environmental scientist has been driven by a deep passion for understanding and protecting our natural world. With a solid educational foundation and practical experience, I am eager to contribute to meaningful environmental conservation efforts. I believe that by combining scientific knowledge with creative communication, we can inspire a more sustainable future for urban areas around the globe.

Self Introduction Essay for Job

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What to Write in a Self-Introduction Essay

A self-introduction essay, as the name suggest, is an part of an essay containing the basic information about the writer.

In writing a self-introduction essay, the writer intends to introduce himself/herself by sharing a few personal information including the basics (e.g. name, age, hometown, etc.), his/her background information (e.g. family background, educational background, etc.), and interesting facts about him/her (e.g. hobbies, interests, etc). A self-introductory essay primarily aims to inform the readers about a few things regarding the writer. You may also see personal essay examples & samples

How to Write a Self-Introduction Essay

A self-introduction essay is, in most cases, written using the first-person point of view. As a writer, you simply need to talk about yourself and nothing more to a specific audience. You may also like  essay writing examples

A self-introduction essay can be easy to write, since all you have to do is to introduce yourself. However, one needs to avoid sounding like a robot or a person speaking in monotone. Of course, you need to make the composition interesting and engaging, instead of making it plain and bland. This is probably the main challenge of writing a self-introduction essay, and the first thing every writer needs to be aware of.

Free Essay Outline Worksheet Example

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Formal Self Introduction Expository  Example

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Uses of Self Introduction Essay

• College Applications : Many universities and colleges ask for a self-introduction essay as part of the application process. This essay allows admissions officers to learn more about your personality, background, and aspirations beyond your grades and test scores.
• Scholarship Applications : When applying for scholarships, a self-introduction essay can help you stand out. It’s an opportunity to share your achievements, experiences, and the reasons you deserve the scholarship.
• Job Interviews : Preparing a self-introduction essay can be useful for job interviews. It helps you articulate your professional background, skills, and career goals clearly and confidently.
• Networking : In professional networking situations, having a polished self-introduction essay can help you quickly share relevant information about yourself with potential employers, mentors, or colleagues.
• Personal Reflection : Writing a self-introduction essay is a valuable exercise in self-reflection. It can help you understand your own goals, strengths, and weaknesses better.
• Online Profiles : For personal or professional websites, social media, or portfolios, a self-introduction essay provides a comprehensive overview of who you are and what you offer, attracting potential connections or opportunities.

Tips for Writing a Self-Introduction Essay

A self-introduction essay might be one of the easiest essays to start. However, one needs to learn a few things to make the composition worth reading. You might find a lot of tips online on how to write a self-introduction essay, but here are some tips which you might find useful.

1. Think of a catchy title

The first thing that attracts readers is an interesting title, so create one.

2. Introduce yourself

You can create some guide questions to answer like: Who are you? What are your interests? What is your story? Simply talk about yourself like you’re talking to someone you just met.

3. Find a focus

Your life story is too broad, so focus on something, like: What makes you unique?

4. Avoid writing plainly

For example, instead of saying: ‘I like listening to classical music’, you can say: ‘My dad gave me an album containing classical music when I was five, and after listening to it, I was really captivated. I’ve loved it since then.’ You may also check out high school essay examples & samples

5. Simplify your work

Use simple words and language. Write clearly. Describe details vividly.

6. End it with a punch

You cannot just plainly say ‘The End’ at the last part. Create a essay conclusion which would leave an impression to your readers.

7. Edit your work

After wrapping up, take time to review and improve your work. You may also see informative essay examples & samples

What is a Creative Self Introduction Essay?

1. Choose a Theme or Metaphor:

Start with a theme or metaphor that reflects your personality or the message you want to convey. For example, you could compare your life to a book, a journey, or a puzzle.

2. Engaging Hook:

Begin with an attention-grabbing hook, such as a captivating anecdote, a thought-provoking question, a quote, or a vivid description.

3. Tell a Story:

Weave your self-introduction into a narrative or story that highlights your experiences, values, or defining moments. Storytelling makes your essay relatable and memorable.

4. Use Vivid Imagery:

Employ descriptive language and vivid imagery to paint a picture of your life and character. Help the reader visualize your journey.

5. Show, Don’t Tell:

Instead of simply listing qualities or achievements, demonstrate them through your storytelling. Show your resilience, creativity, or determination through the narrative.

6. Include Personal Anecdotes:

Share personal anecdotes that showcase your character, challenges you’ve overcome, or moments of growth.

7. Express Your Passions:

Discuss your passions, interests, hobbies, or aspirations. Explain why they are important to you and how they have influenced your life.

8. Reveal Vulnerability:

Don’t be afraid to show vulnerability or share setbacks you’ve faced. It adds depth to your story and demonstrates your resilience.

9. Highlight Achievements:

Mention significant achievements, awards, or experiences that have shaped your journey. Connect them to your personal growth and values.

10. Convey Your Personality:

Use humor, wit, or elements of your personality to make your essay unique and relatable. Let your voice shine through.

11. Share Future Aspirations:

Discuss your goals, dreams, and what you hope to achieve in the future. Explain how your experiences have prepared you for your next steps.

12. Conclude with a Message:

Wrap up your essay with a meaningful message or reflection that leaves a lasting impression on the reader.

13. Revise and Edit:

After writing your initial draft, revise and edit your essay for clarity, coherence, and conciseness. Ensure it flows smoothly.

How do you write an introduction to a self essay?

1. Start with a Hook:

Begin with an engaging hook to capture the reader’s attention. This could be a personal anecdote, a thought-provoking question, a quote, or a vivid description. The hook should relate to the essay’s theme.

2. Introduce Yourself:

After the hook, introduce yourself by stating your name and any relevant background information, such as your age, place of origin, or current location. This helps provide context.

3. Establish the Purpose:

Clearly state the purpose of your self-essay. Explain why you are writing it and what you aim to convey. Are you introducing yourself for a job application, a college admission essay, or a personal blog? Make this clear.

4. Provide a Preview:

Offer a brief preview of the main points or themes you will address in the essay. This helps set expectations for the reader and gives them an overview of what to anticipate.

5. Share Your Thesis or Central Message:

In some self-essays, especially in academic or personal development contexts, you may want to state a central message or thesis about yourself. This is the core idea you’ll explore throughout the essay.

6. Express Your Voice:

Let your unique voice and personality shine through in the introduction. Write in a way that reflects your style and character. Avoid using overly formal or stilted language if it doesn’t align with your personality.

7. Be Concise:

Keep the introduction relatively concise. It should provide an overview without delving too deeply into the details. Save the in-depth discussions for the body of the essay.

8. Revise and Edit:

After writing the introduction, review it for clarity, coherence, and conciseness. Make sure it flows smoothly and leads naturally into the main body of the essay.

Here’s an example of an introduction for a self-essay:

“Standing at the threshold of my college years, I’ve often found myself reflecting on the journey that brought me here. I am [Your Name], a [Your Age]-year-old [Your Origin or Current Location], with a passion for [Your Interests]. In this self-essay, I aim to share my experiences, values, and aspirations as I enter this new chapter of my life. Through personal anecdotes and reflections, I hope to convey the lessons I’ve learned and the person I’m becoming. My central message is that [Your Central Message or Thesis]. Join me as I explore the highs and lows of my journey and what it means to [Your Purpose or Theme].”

What is a short paragraph of self introduction

“Hello, my name is [Your Name], and I am [Your Age] years old. I grew up in [Your Hometown] and am currently studying [Your Major or Grade Level] at [Your School or University]. I have always been passionate about [Your Interests or Hobbies], and I love exploring new challenges and experiences. In my free time, I enjoy [Your Activities or Hobbies], and I’m excited to be here and share my journey with all of you.”

How do I start my self introduction?

1. Greet the Audience:

Start with a warm and friendly greeting. This sets a positive tone and makes you approachable.

Example: “Good morning/afternoon/evening!”

2. State Your Name:

Clearly and confidently state your name. This is the most basic and essential part of any self-introduction.

Example: “My name is [Your Name].”

3. Provide Additional Background Information:

Depending on the context, you may want to share additional background information. Mention where you are from, your current location, or your job title, if relevant.

Example: “I’m originally from [Your Hometown], but I currently live in [Your Current Location].”

4. Express Enthusiasm:

Express your enthusiasm or eagerness to be in the situation or context where you are introducing yourself.

Example: “I’m thrilled to be here today…”

5. State the Purpose:

Clearly state the purpose of your self-introduction. Are you introducing yourself for a job interview, a social gathering, or a specific event? Make it clear why you are introducing yourself.

Example: “…to interview for the [Job Title] position.”

6. Offer a Brief Teaser:

Give a brief teaser or hint about what you’ll be discussing. This can generate interest and set the stage for the rest of the introduction.

Example: “I’ll be sharing my experiences as a [Your Profession] and how my background aligns with the requirements of the role.”

7. Keep It Concise:

Keep your introduction concise, especially in professional settings. You can provide more details as the conversation progresses.

8. Be Confident and Maintain Eye Contact:

Deliver your introduction with confidence and maintain eye contact with the audience or the person you’re addressing.

How can I start my self introduction example?

Hi, I’m [Your Name]. It’s a pleasure to meet all of you. I come from [Your Hometown], and today, I’m excited to tell you a bit about myself. I have a background in [Your Education or Profession], and I’m here to share my experiences, skills, and passions. But before I dive into that, let me give you a glimpse into the person behind the resume. So, here’s a little about me…”

For more insights on crafting a compelling self-introduction, the University of Nevada, Reno’s Writing & Speaking Center provides valuable resources. These can enhance your essay-writing skills, especially in crafting introductions that make a lasting impression.

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• School Education /

Essay on Myself: 100 Words, 250 Words and 300 Words

• Updated on  
• Mar 12, 2024

Every Individual is different from each other and it is important to self-analyze and know about yourself. Only you can know everything about yourself. But, when it comes to describing yourself in front of others many students fail to do so. This happens due to the confusion generated by a student’s mind regarding what things to include in their description. This confusion never arises when someone is told to give any opinion about others. This blog will help students and children resolve the confusion and it also includes an essay on myself. 

While writing an “essay on myself” you should have a unique style so that the reader would engage in your essay. It’s important to induce the urge to know about you in the reader then only you can perform well in your class. I would suggest you include your qualities, strengths, achievements, interests, and passion in your essay. Continue Reading for Essays on myself for children and students!

Quick Read: Speech on Earth Day

Table of Contents

• 1 Long and Short Essay on Myself for Students
• 2 Tips to Write Essay on Myself
• 3 100 Words Essay on Myself
• 4 250 Words Essay on Myself
• 5 10 Lines on Myself Essay for Children
• 6 300 Words Essay on Myself

Quick Read: English Essay Topics

Long and Short Essay on Myself for Students

Mentioned below are essays on myself with variable word limits. You can choose the essay that you want to present in your class. These essays are drafted in simple language so that school students can easily understand. In addition, the main point to remember while writing an essay on myself is to be honest. Your honesty will help you connect with the reader.

Tell me about yourself is also one of the most important questions asked in the interview process. Therefore, this blog is very helpful for people who want to learn about how to write an essay on myself.

Tips to Write Essay on Myself

Given below are some tips to write an essay on myself:

• Prepare a basic outline of what to include in the essay about yourself.
• Stick to the structure to maintain fluency.
• Be honest to build a connection with the reader.
• Use simple language.
• Try to include a crisp and clear conclusion.

100 Words Essay on Myself

I am a dedicated person with an urge to learn and grow. My name is Rakul, and I feel life is a journey that leads to self-discovery. I belong to a middle-class family, my father is a handloom businessman, and my mother is a primary school teacher .

I have learned punctuality and discipline are the two wheels that drive our life on a positive path. My mother is my role model. I am passionate about reading novels. When I was younger, my grandmother used to narrate stories about her life in the past and that has built my interest towards reading stories and novels related to history.

Overall I am an optimistic person who looks forward to life as a subject that teaches us values and ways to live for the upliftment of society.

Also Read: Speech on Discipline

250 Words Essay on Myself

My name is Ayushi Singh but my mother calls me “Ayu”. I turned 12 years old this August and I study in class 7th. I have an elder sister named Aishwarya. She is like a second mother to me. I have a group of friends at school and out of them Manvi is my best friend. She visits my house at weekends and we play outdoor games together. I believe in her and I can share anything with her.

Science and technology fascinate me so I took part in an interschool science competition in which my team of 4 girls worked on a 3-D model of the earth representing past, present, and future. It took us a week to finish off the project and we presented the model at Ghaziabad school. We were competing against 30 teams and we won the competition.

I was confident and determined about the fact that we could win because my passion helped me give my 100% input in the task. Though I have skills in certain subjects I don’t have to excel in everything, I struggle to perform well in mathematics . And to enhance my problem-solving skills I used to study maths 2 hours a day. 

I wanted to become a scientist, and being punctual and attentive are my characteristics as I never arrive late for school. Generally, I do my work on my own so that I inculcate the value of being an independent person. I always help other people when they are in difficult situations. 

Also Read: Essay on the Importance of the Internet

10 Lines on Myself Essay for Children

Here are 10 lines on myself essay for children. Feel free to add them to similar essay topics.

• My name is Ananya Rathor and I am 10 years old.
• I like painting and playing with my dog, Todo.
• Reading animal books is one of my favourite activities.
• I love drawing and colouring to express my imagination.
• I always find joy in spending time outdoors, feeling the breeze on my face.
• I love dancing to Indian classical music.
• I’m always ready for an adventure, whether it’s trying a new hobby or discovering interesting facts.
• Animals are my friends, and I enjoy spending time with pets or observing nature’s creatures.
• I am a very kind person and I respect everyone.
• All of my school teachers love me.

300 Words Essay on Myself

My name is Rakul. I believe that every individual has unique characteristics which distinguish them from others. To be unique you must have an extraordinary spark or skill. I live with my family and my family members taught me to live together, adjust, help others, and be humble. Apart from this, I am an energetic person who loves to play badminton.

I have recently joined Kathak classes because I have an inclination towards dance and music, especially folk dance and classical music. I believe that owing to the diversity of our country India, it offers us a lot of opportunities to learn and gain expertise in various sectors.

My great-grandfather was a classical singer and he also used to play several musical instruments. His achievements and stories have inspired me to learn more about Indian culture and make him proud. 

I am a punctual and studious person because I believe that education is the key to success. Academic excellence could make our careers shine bright. Recently I secured second position in my class and my teachers and family members were so proud of my achievement. 

I can manage my time because my mother taught me that time waits for no one. It is important to make correct use of time to succeed in life. If we value time, then only time will value us. My ambition in life is to become a successful gynaecologist and serve for human society.

Hence, these are the qualities that describe me the best. Though no one can present themselves in a few words still I tried to give a brief about myself through this essay. In my opinion, life is meant to be lived with utmost happiness and an aim to serve humanity. Thus, keep this in mind, I will always try to help others and be the best version of myself.

Also Read: Essay on Education System

A. Brainstorm Create a format Stick to the format Be vulnerable Be honest Figure out what things to include Incorporate your strengths, achievements, and future goals into the essay

A. In an essay, you can use words like determined, hardworking, punctual, sincere, and objective-oriented to describe yourself in words.

A. Use simple and easy language. Include things about your family, career, education, and future goals. Lastly, add a conclusion paragraph.

This was all about an essay on myself. The skill of writing an essay comes in handy when appearing for standardized language tests. Thinking of taking one soon? Leverage Live provides the best online test prep for the same. Register today and if you wish to study abroad then contact our experts at 1800572000 .

Kajal Thareja

Hi, I am Kajal, a pharmacy graduate, currently pursuing management and is an experienced content writer. I have 2-years of writing experience in Ed-tech (digital marketing) company. I am passionate towards writing blogs and am on the path of discovering true potential professionally in the field of content marketing. I am engaged in writing creative content for students which is simple yet creative and engaging and leaves an impact on the reader's mind.

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Essay on My Self for Students and Children

500+ words essay on my self.

Seven billion people are on this Earth, and everybody is different from the rest of others. There is nothing without purpose in this world. Everything has some purpose. Humans are the best creation, and each person is exclusive. Thus, writing about myself, I’m here to express myself that what I see, what I experience and what I plan for my life. I try myself to be modest, passionate, devoted, hardworking and honest.

My Family and My Childhood

I’m from a middle-class family of Bihar, I am Naresh Shukla. Nobody comes in this world, without the support of family and friends. Actually, whatever you will be, it is just because of your family. My father is a respectable businessman in our community.

My mother is a doctor. They both love their occupation. That’s I have learned from my parents the value of time, honesty, hard work and commitment to the purpose.

We are three brothers and sisters. Being the eldest I am the most liable from my brothers and sisters. I am wanted to guide and take care of my other siblings. We all are in the same school. Reading is my passion.

I am a keen reader of novels and history books as I have a strong interest in Indian History and classical architecture. I love to read books that refer to the rich history and civilization of ancient India.  At my pre-childhood, I used to listen to stories from my grandmother, and this has a long-lasting effect on me.

Get the huge list of more than 500 Essay Topics and Ideas

My Education

I am studying at the best school in my city. I am presently in class 10th. I feel happy to be a part of this great school with the good friends, helpful and loving teacher and sound school administration. I have extraordinary skills in some subjects whereas I am very weak in the few.

My Strengths

In compare to studies, I am good at sports. so I am the captain of my class football team. I am the best football player at my school. Besides this, I am a fast runner also and I love athletics. I am in expert swimming.

The advice of my parents had a keen effect on my habits. I believe to speak the truth and try my best not to lie. My parents always advised me that if I commit a mistake, I should admit it. I try my best to do so. I know how to remain happy in every condition. Because I believe that: “Happiness is not out there; it’s in you.”

I am a very adventurous person too and like to take the risk. I like to do a creative thing besides doing old stuff again and again. Learning new things is one thing which I always enjoy. I always update myself with the news.

Along with this, I fond of reading a few children magazines in which different motivational stories are there. They taught me a high moral lesson. I am a very confident person and know how to talk. I always try to speak to every person according to his requirement so I understand people.

My Weaknesses

As every man have weaknesses, so have also. I am a little bit lazy at some places which I do not like. While playing time, I pass my lot of time there which is not a good habi t, but I try my best to overcome my weaknesses.

My Ambitions in Life

Everybody has an ambition in life . Aim or ambition is the inner aspiration of man. No man can do anything in the world without aim. So, all of us should be very determined about our aim in life.

Without good career planning, right from the start, one can’t be on the right track. One has to set the goals in accordance with his or her broad career goals.

I have studied biology and I will seat for the competitive entrance exam for admission to reputed medical college. I shall try to be a good and honest student. Then I shall be a qualified doctor. I will do all that to be a good doctor and will be sincere to it.

These are all the things which express me. Though nobody can be described in a few sets of sentences. One needs to have yet command of oneself before going to write something about his life. Life is meant to be lived avidly and with visualization to do good for your fellow beings. Keeping this aim in mind, I have always desired to serve my people in whatever capacity I can.

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Visualizing My Future: A Reflection on Where I See Myself in Five Years

Investing the time to visualize our future can be a powerful tool to bring us closer to achieving our aspirations. Taking stock of where we are now, and where we want to be in five years, allows us to create a tangible plan with achievable goals and milestones. This self-reflection practice can help identify any potential roadblocks or detours that might be encountered along the way, so that these issues can be addressed before they become hindrances.

According to this, writing an essay on how do you see yourself after college is an essential exercise for college students. It allows you to reflect on your goals, identify the skills and knowledge you need to acquire, develop critical thinking and writing skills, and demonstrate your ambition to potential employers or graduate schools.

By the way, in case you are facing challenges in composing an essay about where do you see yourself in 5 years essay, a professional custom essay writing service can provide you with the assistance you require.

What Do I Envision for Myself Five Years From Now

As I sit down to write this essay, I am filled with a sense of excitement and anticipation. The topic at hand is “Where do I see myself in 5 years?” It’s a question that has been asked of me numerous times, and one that I have often pondered over myself. After careful consideration and introspection, I have come to a few conclusions about where I see myself in the next five years.

In five years, I see myself as a successful professional in my field. I have always been driven to achieve my goals and have worked tirelessly towards that end. Over the next few years, I plan to continue working hard and expanding my knowledge and skills. I believe that with dedication and hard work, I will be able to climb the ladder of success in my chosen field.

Balancing Personal Interests with Professional Goals

In addition to my professional goals, I also see myself as a more well-rounded individual. I plan to continue pursuing my interests outside of college, including traveling, photography, and volunteering. I believe that these activities will not only bring me personal fulfillment but also help me to develop valuable skills that will benefit me in my professional life.

Finding a balance between personal interests and professional goals can be challenging, but it is essential for achieving long-term success and personal fulfillment. In today’s fast-paced world, it’s easy to get caught up in work and neglect our personal lives, but doing so can lead to burnout and dissatisfaction.

For example, travelling can help us develop a global perspective and improve our communication and adaptability skills. Photography can enhance our attention to detail, creativity, and visual storytelling abilities, which can be beneficial in various professional fields. Volunteering can improve our teamwork, leadership, and problem-solving skills, which are highly valued by employers.

Prioritizing Personal Relationships

Investing in personal relationships is often overlooked in the pursuit of professional success, but it is just as essential for achieving overall success and personal fulfillment. Building and maintaining strong relationships with family, friends, and colleagues can bring a sense of fulfillment, happiness, and emotional support, which are essential for personal well-being.

Moreover, personal relationships can also have a significant impact on our professional lives. Strong connections with colleagues can foster a positive work environment, increase job satisfaction, and improve teamwork and collaboration. Good relationships with clients and customers can also lead to increased loyalty, repeat business, and referrals.

Embracing Change and Growth

As we travel through life, our aspirations and goals may shift, alter or even transform drastically. It is essential to stay open to new possibilities and adventures as well as being prepared to adjust and develop as we navigate life’s path. In the next five years, I aim to have a clearer idea of my ambitions for the future while also staying alert to changes and growth in myself.

I believe that personal development and ongoing education are pivotal for achieving long-term success and gratification. I intend to dedicate time and energy into my individual and skilled progress, whether it be via taking classes, participating in workshops, or engaging in introspection. By continuously learning and developing, I can master new methods, extend my outlooks as well as enhance my ability to solve issues and make decisions.

So, where do I see myself in five years? I see myself as a successful professional, a well-rounded individual, and a person with strong personal relationships. I also see myself as someone who is open to new experiences and who is committed to continued growth and self-improvement. While the future is uncertain, I am excited to see where my journey takes me over the next five years and beyond.

Tips on Writing an Opinion Essay on “Where I See Myself in Five Years”

Even if students have a clear idea of their dream board five years after college graduation, they may struggle to express these ideas compellingly and coherently. Writing about oneself can be challenging, especially when it comes to discussing personal goals and aspirations. Practicing writing opinion essay and articulating your ideas can help you feel more confident and comfortable discussing your future aspirations. Do not forget about the following tips:

Be realistic

While it’s essential to aim high and have ambitious goals, it’s also important to be realistic about what you can achieve in five years. Consider your current experience, qualifications, and opportunities when setting your goals. Make sure that your goals are achievable and realistic, given your current circumstances.

Explain your reasoning

In a 5 years from now I see myself essay, explaining why you have chosen certain goals for yourself is important. What motivates you? What experiences have led you to these goals? Providing context and rationale for your goals can help the reader understand your perspective and reasoning.

Consider challenges

Anticipate challenges that you may face in achieving your goals and explain how you plan to overcome them. This shows that you have thought through the potential obstacles and are prepared to tackle them.

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Turning a Journal Entry Into a Personal Essay

Your journal can be a great resource for personal writing for publication

Although for many people a journal is something that contains thoughts, ideas, and feelings that will never be shared with others, for some people, a journal can serve as a resource for future writing projects. Ralph Waldo Emerson called his journal his “savings bank” — a library he could reference when he needed an idea for a new piece of writing.

For writers who are interested in writing personal essays for publication, a journal is an invaluable resource. Since a journal often contains your contemporaneous thoughts, it can help you navigate the truth in what you were feeling in the moment. Journaling also gets us into the habit of using the written word to express our thoughts, fears, and feelings, which is a necessary skill for personal essay writing.

There can be some traps for personal essay writers when it comes to journals, though. Mainly: you sit down to read through an old journal entry and you think, “Hey, this is pretty good. Maybe I’ll just publish it like this.”

More times than not, publishing a journal entry as-is is not the way to go. Below, you’ll find some tips on what you should consider if you are ready to take something from your journal and turn it into a personal essay, either to publish on your own blog or to submit for publication in a literary journal or magazine.

Think about structure

One of the best things about writing in a journal is that we don’t have to worry about structure. For an essay, though, we do need to think about structure. Although a personal essay is perhaps less structured than an academic one, we still need to draw the reader in, establish what it is we’re going to be exploring, and we should ideally have both a climax and a resolution that sums up what we learned through the experience detailed in the essay.

Sometimes, the structure an essay will require will not mean laying out the events as they happened chronologically in real life. It’s possible your journal might. Creating an outline may help you to extract the details you need from the journal in a way that will best serve the essay.

Borrow phrasing from yourself

When we write in our journals, we’re typically writing in a way that is unfiltered and pure. Some of the best writing lies in phrases that were not prepared for an audience, because when we wrote them, we weren’t worrying about how they would be perceived, but rather how they represented what we were truly experiencing or feeling at the time. Our journals are chock full of these pure phrases. Though it may not make sense to directly transcribe your journal entry into an essay, it definitely makes sense to pay attention to some of the phrasing you created in your private writing, and use it where effective.

Poetic licence

Though the personal essay is a non-fiction form of writing, sometimes we need to condense timelines or reduce minutia when preparing to relay an experience to a wider audience. When we’re using our journals as resources, we will sometimes come across details that had otherwise slipped our minds but, because they’re in the journal, are brought to the forefront of our memories. Just because something was included in your journal doesn’t necessarily mean it’s a detail that is required for a reader to understand your story in your essay. Choose your details wisely. Just like how in fiction writing most details should move the story along, in non-fiction writing, most details should have relevance to the ultimate topic we are exploring. This isn’t necessarily true when we’re just writing in our journals. Be choosy about what details you extract.

Be True to Yourself

The number one authority on you is, well, you. When we are writing personal essays from memory, sometimes we mix perspective, grudges, and time into the original ingredients, which in turn creates a retelling of something that is not as accurate as it could be. A journal affords us the opportunity to visit with, in a sense, our former self — the person who was experiencing something in the moment and was reflecting about it right there and then, before time, perspective, and other things had had time to meddle. Though sometimes it can be hard, it is at the very least a good exercise (if not good practice) to use those impressions to describe what you were going through at the time, rather than to let your current perspective color your descriptions. This is where journaling can help the personal essay writer the most.

We hope that as you navigate your journaling practice and your work as an essayist, you’ll find that they will be beneficial to one another. Your journal is, much like Emerson said, a savings bank for your future writerly self — it is chock full of ideas, emotions, and notions. Happy writing!

Diarly is secure, simple & beautiful. Start your digital journal today!

Lauren Harkawik

Lauren Harkawik is a journalist, essayist, and fiction writer based in Vermont. You can read her writing on her website.

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Goats and Soda

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• Coronavirus FAQ

How do you keep calm and carry on in a world full of crises?

Gabrielle Emanuel

From left: Irma Sitompul of Women's Earth Alliance plants wee forests in Indonesia; Bernard Chiira , founder of the Assistive Technologies for Disability Trust, won't hesitate to nix an early plan and cook up a better one; Rana Dajani , a biologist in Jordan who studies trauma and DNA, believes that "If you can imagine it, then it can happen." Photos by Gabrielle Emanuel/NPR hide caption

Plant just a few trees. Don't be afraid to reject your own ideas. Humble brag in a journal.

This is some of the advice we heard last week when about 1,500 people who try to make our planet a better place – from scientists and philanthropists to activists and entrepreneurs – descended on Oxford, England. In big forums and little coffee shops, they discussed what to do about some of the world's biggest problems and swapped advice from their work on the front lines. The Skoll World Forum brought these people together in a bid to "accelerate innovative solutions."

We pulled a few of the participants aside and asked for their wisdom. We wanted to know their advice for the next generation of altruists. And with the "keep calm and carry on" motto of England in mind, we also asked what keeps them going when things get tough.

Their answers have been edited for length and clarity

Zolelwa Sifumba is a doctor and activist in South Africa. She's a survivor of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis and works with the nonprofit TB Proof, which aims to raise awareness and combat TB. In 2022, TB killed more than a million people. Gabrielle Emanuel/NPR hide caption

Zolelwa Sifumba is a doctor and activist in South Africa. She's a survivor of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis and works with the nonprofit TB Proof, which aims to raise awareness and combat TB. In 2022, TB killed more than a million people.

Zolelwa Sifumba: Be honest and vulnerable

Advice to those just starting out: Look at the pain that brought you [to your work] – it could be your own pain, it could be pain of people around you, pain that you witnessed. Look at that pain and don't ignore it.

I am someone who wasn't allowed to express themselves growing up. But that changed when I contracted multidrug-resistant tuberculosis as a medical student. They took us to a TB hospital, but when we got there they didn't give us protection [such as a mask since TB can be transmitted through airborne particles]. So it was from there that I learned that my health and my wellness isn't a priority in the health system. But after I spoke to a second year group [of medical students], they told the faculty that if you don't protect us, we're not going anywhere. And so that was a powerful example of what my words could do.

Getting TB can be deadly, but it also saved my life because I finally got to use my voice. And I've never stopped talking. I've never stopped. And it really feels good to be honest and to be vulnerable.

Julian Gerhart co-founded Zmudri , which roughly translates to "Get Smart" in Slovak. The group produces videos for teenagers and young people with a focus on civic education, including the spotting of disinformation. About a fifth of the teachers in Slovakia have signed up to use Zmudri's materials. Gabrielle Emanuel/NPR hide caption

Julian Gerhart co-founded Zmudri , which roughly translates to "Get Smart" in Slovak. The group produces videos for teenagers and young people with a focus on civic education, including the spotting of disinformation. About a fifth of the teachers in Slovakia have signed up to use Zmudri's materials.

Julian Gerhart: Humble brag in a journal

How to 'keep calm and carry on': I'm going to be practical because entrepreneurs love specific steps and takeaways. So what I do is that I have a journal and I write my small successes in that journal. And it could be anything. It could be one student coming up after our workshop and telling us he loved the workshop. A small thing, but it's very heartwarming.

When I feel bad, when I feel depressed, when things are not going my way and I start scrolling [through my journal], that's how I calm myself very quickly. You start to realize how much impact you have. And it sounds pretty obvious but when you feel depressed your mind kind of forgets about positive things. If I didn't write these things down, if I didn't codify them, my mind would just forget them. So it's very important to celebrate these things, to document them.

Irma Sitompul is the Southeast Asia program director for Women's Earth Alliance . She supports women in obtaining the skills and resources they need to help their communities manage and protect natural resources. Gabrielle Emanuel/NPR hide caption

Irma Sitompul is the Southeast Asia program director for Women's Earth Alliance . She supports women in obtaining the skills and resources they need to help their communities manage and protect natural resources.

Irma Sitompul: Plant a tiny forest – or do anything that's small to boost your odds of success

Advice to those just starting out: When there's a system that needs to be transformed, reformed, reshaped, it can take decades, sometimes generations. When we know that from the beginning, it will help prevent us from getting burnt out. So my advice would be to identify some small things, some small objectives that you can really focus on.

I wanted to build more forest in my homeland, Indonesia. And I started doing it in 2020 with my husband. I plant mini-forests, tiny forests – sometimes just 4 by 4 square meters. Now, we've already planted 3,000 trees on my land, on the community's land, on other peoples' land and on businesses' land. It's been a great way to reforest our urban areas because we don't need a huge piece of land. I started to take action, and I can see the results within my lifetime.

Rana Dajani is a molecular biologist at Hashemite University in Jordan. She studies the impact of trauma on people's DNA, how it impacts future generations and what can be done to mitigate trauma's impact. the author of Five Scarves , a book about seeking gender equality, she started a program called We Love Reading. Gabrielle Emanuel/NPR hide caption

Rana Dajani: Ask yourself 'what can I do now?'

Advice to those just starting out: I'm a biologist. I have to talk about science [to give advice]. Every human being is unique. Nobody's DNA is like anyone else who has ever lived, who lives today or will live in the future. So you're special.

And because you are special, you have a special perspective on life. So whatever bothers you, go try to find a solution yourself. Trust your gut feeling. And don't worry about changing the world. Think small. It's those small steps that make a difference.

How to 'keep calm and carry on': I'm an optimist. My husband says I see an ocean in a drop of water. [When confronting a challenge,] I think: "What can I do?" and I draw this from my religion as a Muslim. Islam tells me: It doesn't matter what happens in the end. What matters is what you do now. And so I start thinking, "What can I do now?" And that gives me a purpose. And because I have a purpose, I get into action. And because I'm getting into action, it gives me hope. There's a saying: If you can imagine it, then it can happen. And so I do that. And the other thing is I reach out to people. Nobody can solve anything alone. It's about collective humanity.

Gabriel Marmentini founded the Brazilian Association of Head and Neck Cancer after his mother got laryngeal cancer and lost her voice. In addition to creating a support network the group aims to create public policies to help people who've lost their ability to speak access technology that can assist. Gabrielle Emanuel/NPR hide caption

Gabriel Marmentini founded the Brazilian Association of Head and Neck Cancer after his mother got laryngeal cancer and lost her voice. In addition to creating a support network the group aims to create public policies to help people who've lost their ability to speak access technology that can assist.

Gabriel Marmentini: Consistency is more valuable than a really high IQ

Advice to those just starting out: I am hiring people who are 18 or 20 years old and the way they think is different from [my way of thinking] and I'm just 31. The younger generation wants results tomorrow. They are so immediate. They want things now. I see them changing clothes, changing relationships, changing work. But this is a real challenge for people that want to build things that are going to last. You need to have discipline and put in effort. So why have I been successful? It's because I've been disciplined for nine years. It is not because my mind is illuminated or my IQ is really high. It's not. It's just that I do things consistently. And I know you're not going to find all the answers with ChatGPT or TikTok.

Bernard Chiira founded the Assistive Technologies for Disability Trust or AT4D. It is an accelerator that has supported 45 startups from 11 countries. Many of the startups aim to help people with disabilities access the technologies they need – including wheelchairs. Gabrielle Emanuel/NPR hide caption

Bernard Chiira founded the Assistive Technologies for Disability Trust or AT4D. It is an accelerator that has supported 45 startups from 11 countries. Many of the startups aim to help people with disabilities access the technologies they need – including wheelchairs.

Bernard Chiira: Don't be afraid to change your mind

Advice to those just starting out: I mentor entrepreneurs, and I would say be very open to learning and be flexible to actually changing your mind. You may end up building a completely different solution to what you had thought was the solution. [Entrepreneurs] will naturally have a bias to love their ideas. And sometimes it can be very challenging to kill it and say, "I was wrong. It's not going to work." It can be heart-wrecking but, remember, the good thing is that entrepreneurs are like idea factories. You can always get more ideas.

Your turn: Tell us how you keep calm and carry on in the face of crises and catastrophes

What do you do to stay positive and productive when bad news mounts up? Email us at [email protected] with the subject line "Keep calm." We may feature your strategy on NPR.org. Please include your name and location. Submissions close on Monday, April 22.

NPR suspends senior editor Uri Berliner after essay accusing outlet of liberal bias

Npr suspended senior editor uri berliner a week after he authored an online essay accusing the outlet of allowing liberal bias in its coverage..

NPR has suspended a senior editor who authored an essay published last week on an online news site in which he argued that the network had "lost America's trust" because of a liberal bias in its coverage, the outlet reported.

Uri Berliner was suspended Friday for five days without pay, NPR reported Tuesday . The revelation came exactly a week after Berliner publicly claimed in an essay for The Free Press, an online news publication, that NPR had allowed a "liberal bent" to influence its coverage, causing the outlet to steadily lose credibility with audiences.

The essay reignited the criticism that many prominent conservatives have long leveled against NPR and prompted newsroom leadership to implement monthly internal reviews of the network's coverage, NPR reported. Berliner's essay also angered many of his colleagues and exposed NPR's new chief executive Katherine Maher to a string of attacks from conservatives over her past social media posts.

In a statement Monday to NPR, Maher refuted Berliner's claims by underscoring NPR's commitment to objective coverage of national issues.

"In America everyone is entitled to free speech as a private citizen," Maher said. "What matters is NPR's work and my commitment as its CEO: public service, editorial independence, and the mission to serve all of the American public. NPR is independent, beholden to no party, and without commercial interests."

Heat exposure law: Florida joins Texas in banning local heat protections for outdoor workers

Berliner rails against NPR's coverage of COVID-19, diversity efforts

Berliner, a senior business editor who has worked at NPR for 25 years, argued in the Free Press essay that “people at every level of NPR have comfortably coalesced around the progressive worldview.”

While he claimed that NPR has always had a "liberal bent" ever since he was hired at the outlet, he wrote that it has since lost its "open-minded spirit," and, hence, "an audience that reflects America."

The Peabody Award-winning journalist highlighted what he viewed as examples of the network's partisan coverage of several major news events, including the origins of COVID-19 and the war in Gaza . Berliner also lambasted NPR's diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) policies – as reflected both within its newsroom and in its coverage – as making race and identity "paramount in nearly every aspect of the workplace.”

"All this reflected a broader movement in the culture of people clustering together based on ideology or a characteristic of birth," he wrote.

Uri Berliner's essay fuels conservative attacks on NPR

In response to the essay, many prominent conservatives and Republicans, including former President Donald Trump, launched renewed attacks at NPR for what they perceive as partisan coverage.

Conservative activist Christopher Rufo in particular targeted Maher for messages she posted to social media years before joining the network – her  first at a news organization . Among the posts singled out were  a 2020 tweet that called Trump racist .

Trump reiterated on his social media platform, Truth Social, his longstanding argument that NPR’s government funding should be rescinded.

NPR issues formal rebuke to Berliner

Berliner provided an NPR reporter with a copy of the formal rebuke for review in which the organization told the editor he had not been approved to write for other news outlets, as is required of NPR journalists.

NPR also said he publicly released confidential proprietary information about audience demographics, the outlet reported.

Leadership said the letter was a "final warning" for Berliner, who would be fired for future violations of NPR's policies, according to NPR's reporting. Berliner, who is a dues-paying member of NPR's newsroom union, told the NPR reporter that he is not appealing the punishment.

A spokeswoman for NPR said the outlet declined to comment on Berliner's essay or the news of his suspension when reached Tuesday by USA TODAY.

"NPR does not comment on individual personnel matters, including discipline," according to the statement. "We expect all of our employees to comply with NPR policies and procedures, which for our editorial staff includes the NPR Ethics Handbook ."

NPR staffer express dismay; leadership puts coverage reviews in place

According to the NPR article, Berliner's essay also invoked the ire of many of his colleagues and the reporters whose stories he would be responsible for editing.

"Newsrooms run on trust," NPR political correspondent Danielle Kurtzleben said in a post last week on social media site X, though he didn't mention Berliner by name. "If you violate everyone's trust by going to another outlet and [expletive] on your colleagues (while doing a bad job journalistically, for that matter), I don't know how you do your job now."

Amid the fallout, NPR reported that NPR's chief news executive Edith Chapin announced to the newsroom late Monday afternoon that Executive Editor Eva Rodriguez would lead monthly meetings to review coverage.

Berliner expressed no regrets about publishing the essay in an interview with NPR, adding that he tried repeatedly to make his concerns over NPR's coverage known to news leaders.

"I love NPR and feel it's a national trust," Berliner says. "We have great journalists here. If they shed their opinions and did the great journalism they're capable of, this would be a much more interesting and fulfilling organization for our listeners."

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Comparative investigations of aftersintering of UO 2 fuel pellets

• Theory and Processes of Formation and Sintering of Powdered Materials
• Published: 06 May 2010
• Volume 51 , pages 173–176, ( 2010 )

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• V. V. Basov 1  

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The basic parameters of comparative tests of UO 2 fuel pellets produced by the technology of powder metallurgy for aftersinterability using their repeated thermal treatment (aftersintering) in different gas media, namely, with and without humidification, are presented. The results of an evaluation of the level of aftersinterability of these pellets by different procedures is presented, they are analyzed, and a substantiation of the expediency of using this operation manual for evaluating afersintering without the humidification of the gas medium developed at the OAO Machine Building Works (MSZ), Elektrostal’, Moscow oblast, is presented.

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OAO Machine Building Works, ul. K. Marksa 12, Elektrostal’, Moscow oblast, 144001, Russia

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Original Russian Text © V.V. Basov, 2009, published in Izvestiya VUZ. Poroshkovaya Metallurgiya i Funktsional’nye Pokrytiya, 2009, No. 3, pp. 27–30.

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Basov, V.V. Comparative investigations of aftersintering of UO 2 fuel pellets. Russ. J. Non-ferrous Metals 51 , 173–176 (2010). https://doi.org/10.3103/S1067821210020185

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Published : 06 May 2010

Issue Date : April 2010

DOI : https://doi.org/10.3103/S1067821210020185

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Guest Essay

Many Patients Don’t Survive End-Stage Poverty

By Lindsay Ryan

Dr. Ryan is an associate physician at the University of California, San Francisco, department of medicine.

He has an easy smile, blue eyes and a life-threatening bone infection in one arm. Grateful for treatment, he jokes with the medical intern each morning. A friend, a fellow doctor, is supervising the man’s care. We both work as internists at a public hospital in the medical safety net , a loose term for institutions that disproportionately serve patients on Medicaid or without insurance. You could describe the safety net in another way, too, as a place that holds up a mirror to our nation.

What is reflected can be difficult to face. It’s this: After learning that antibiotics aren’t eradicating his infection and amputation is the only chance for cure, the man withdraws, says barely a word to the intern. When she asks what he’s thinking, his reply is so tentative that she has to prompt him to repeat himself. Now with a clear voice, he tells her that if his arm must be amputated, he doesn’t want to live. She doesn’t understand what it’s like to survive on the streets, he continues. With a disability, he’ll be a target — robbed, assaulted. He’d rather die, unless, he says later, someone can find him a permanent apartment. In that case, he’ll proceed with the amputation.

The psychiatrists evaluate him. He’s not suicidal. His reasoning is logical. The social workers search for rooms, but in San Francisco far more people need long-term rehousing than the available units can accommodate. That the medical care the patient is receiving exceeds the cost of a year’s rent makes no practical difference. Eventually, the palliative care doctors see him. He transitions to hospice and dies.

A death certificate would say he died of sepsis from a bone infection, but my friend and I have a term for the illness that killed him: end-stage poverty. We needed to coin a phrase because so many of our patients die of the same thing.

Safety-net hospitals and clinics care for a population heavily skewed toward the poor, recent immigrants and people of color. The budgets of these places are forever tight . And anyone who works in them could tell you that illness in our patients isn’t just a biological phenomenon. It’s the manifestation of social inequality in people’s bodies.

Neglecting this fact can make otherwise meticulous care fail. That’s why, on one busy night, a medical student on my team is scouring websites and LinkedIn. She’s not shirking her duties. In fact, she’s one of the best students I’ve ever taught.

This week she’s caring for a retired low-wage worker with strokes and likely early dementia who was found sleeping in the street. He abandoned his rent-controlled apartment when electrolyte and kidney problems triggered a period of severe confusion that has since been resolved. Now, with little savings, he has nowhere to go. A respite center can receive patients like him when it has vacancies. The alternative is a shelter bed. He’s nearly 90 years old.

Medical textbooks usually don’t discuss fixing your patient’s housing. They seldom include making sure your patient has enough food and some way to get to a clinic. But textbooks miss what my med students don’t: that people die for lack of these basics.

People struggle to keep wounds clean. Their medications get stolen. They sicken from poor diet, undervaccination and repeated psychological trauma. Forced to focus on short-term survival and often lacking cellphones, they miss appointments for everything from Pap smears to chemotherapy. They fall ill in myriad ways — and fall through the cracks in just as many.

Early in his hospitalization, our retired patient mentions a daughter, from whom he’s been estranged for years. He doesn’t know any contact details, just her name. It’s a long shot, but we wonder if she can take him in.

The med student has one mission: find her.

I love reading about medical advances. I’m blown away that with a brain implant, a person who’s paralyzed can move a robotic arm and that surgeons recently transplanted a genetically modified pig kidney into a man on dialysis. This is the best of American innovation and cause for celebration. But breakthroughs like these won’t fix the fact that despite spending the highest percentage of its G.D.P. on health care among O.E.C.D. nations, the United States has a life expectancy years lower than comparable nations—the U.K. and Canada— and a rate of preventable death far higher .

The solution to that problem is messy, incremental, protean and inglorious. It requires massive investment in housing, addiction treatment, free and low-barrier health care and social services. It calls for just as much innovation in the social realm as in the biomedical, for acknowledgment that inequities — based on race, class, primary language and other categories — mediate how disease becomes embodied. If health care is interpreted in the truest sense of caring for people’s health, it must be a practice that extends well beyond the boundaries of hospitals and clinics.

Meanwhile, on the ground, we make do. Though the social workers are excellent and try valiantly, there are too few of them , both in my hospital and throughout a country that devalues and underfunds their profession. And so the medical student spends hours helping the family of a newly arrived Filipino immigrant navigate the health insurance system. Without her efforts, he wouldn’t get treatment for acute hepatitis C. Another patient, who is in her 20s, can’t afford rent after losing her job because of repeated hospitalizations for pancreatitis — but she can’t get the pancreatic operation she needs without a home in which to recuperate. I phone an eviction defense lawyer friend; the young woman eventually gets surgery.

Sorting out housing and insurance isn’t the best use of my skill set or that of the medical students and residents, but our efforts can be rewarding. The internet turned up the work email of the daughter of the retired man. Her house was a little cramped with his grandchildren, she said, but she would make room. The medical student came in beaming.

In these cases we succeeded; in many others we don’t. Safety-net hospitals can feel like the rapids foreshadowing a waterfall, the final common destination to which people facing inequities are swept by forces beyond their control. We try our hardest to fish them out, but sometimes we can’t do much more than toss them a life jacket or maybe a barrel and hope for the best.

I used to teach residents about the principles of internal medicine — sodium disturbances, delirium management, antibiotics. I still do, but these days I also teach about other topics — tapping community resources, thinking creatively about barriers and troubleshooting how our patients can continue to get better after leaving the supports of the hospital.

When we debrief, residents tell me how much they struggle with the moral dissonance of working in a system in which the best medicine they can provide often falls short. They’re right about how much it hurts, so I don’t know exactly what to say to them. Perhaps I never will.

Lindsay Ryan is an associate physician at the University of California, San Francisco, department of medicine.

Source photographs by Bettmann and Fred W. McDarrah via Getty Images.

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