Personal Statement #1

This statement is far too short, far too unfocused, and far too flippant. Further, it relies on exploitation, which I have always despised in application essays.

On August 27, 2007, on his first day of college classes, my younger brother Michael was stabbed in the neck by an ex-employee of the University of Colorado-Boulder. This posed a major problem for everyone, as I was just starting my road trip to leave home, had made it to New York to pick up my cohorts, and was on my way to Los Angeles with them. I was informed that the stabbing had happened on the day before we were to leave. I talked to my brother later that night and told him I would see him in Boulder and he told me to take my time.
The next night we stayed in Harrisburg, PA in a motel and my sister called me from Chicago and told me I had to immediately stop my trip and return there, because she had to move to Boston immediately, and I had to be there in the name of family support. The rest of the family was in Boulder. While I do wish I had taken her advice now, I did not want to abandon my plan then.
Two days later my cohorts had a motorcycle accident just outside of Roanoke, VA, and I continued the rest of the way to Boulder alone. I saw my brother there, he was fine, but my family was in mediation with the university. They then put out the carrot to me that I should apply to a graduate English program, with suggestions of easy admittance and TA-ships. Only I couldn’t apply to both an MA and an MFA program. I chose the MFA program, despite its higher selectivity, and like the year previous, when I applied to 7 such similar programs, was met with rejection.
Now, it’s August 4, 2008. I left Chicago on August 21, 2007 of last year with $20,000 in my bank account, and now I’m down to almost nothing. There are a variety of explanations for the loss of this money over the last year, and none of them are very noble. I am greatly upset by my position in society at the moment and I have decided to take one last desperate push for a serious career in law. I have always tried my best in school, but I never pursued a serious enough degree to find work after college. As a creative writer, I may boast a plentiful collection of short stories backed up on my computer, along with two novels that have been the fruit of my labors since college, but I have not seriously attempted to establish myself by publication. Though I have sent out queries to agents about my first novel, I have not been met with any interest, and I find the publishing industry far too difficult to establish myself within at an age when I am going broke, and can’t quite figure out a way to make it work economically. A dual career as a lawyer and writer is my aspiration. Whether that means I want to practice law as it relates to the arts, I am not sure. But I don’t intend to give up my goal of being published.