nccotus

Update on my college personal essay 45 years later.

I wrote about running away from home.

Then, I had to go to college as a runaway!

so, after “reveling in misery under the overhang of a roof at a Grand Union” I was completely lost on a nearby highway and took a ride from a man in a tan van. He whipped it out and said “Play with it.”

I escaped wirhout being raped and killed. I didn’t put this in the essay.

the “minions of man and nature” at the NY Port Authority included a large Black woman who let me sit beside her all night long, a couple of street kids, and a pimp who engaged me in conversation for about 15 minutes before I was able to get to safety on the bus back to my high school in Connecticut.

i didn’t put any of this in my essay. It read like a simple and sweet allegorical tale, much like Samuel Johnson’s “Rasselas” which I referenced or like Ecclesiastes which I didn’t know to.

a lot of fancy words by a struggling young woman. So, I sort of lied a bit about extracurriculars. But not about my SATs. 750 750.

well, I didn’t strictly lie but the information that I provided wss misleading.

Then, something happened at home over the Christmas holidays after I sent off all those lovely and beautiful applications. It galvanized me to go to Harvard as I did, sort of as a runaway.

And here I am today.

stopping to take a breath and look around me.

all I know is that I have a kid whom I love and adore. And that through this I found Jesus.

This is my witness.