Personal design statement help!

Getting Started….
The personal statement comes from inside you, passionate and gutsy. Its composition is organic, a natural growth dictated by an obscure, internal logic. You don’t “make it up”; instead you listen. You “get it down.”
First, you must trick your brain into letting you play. It wants everything nice and tidy, arranged in neat, labeled cubbyholes. Your artist brain is messy; like playing with finger paints. Lull your logic brain to sleep:
􀂙 Engage in mindless, repetitive activity. Turn off the TV and stereo; go for a run, do dishes, dig holes. Do anything that keeps you busy but allows your mind to wander. Be sure to keep a micro cassette recorder handy! Ideas may come thick and fast.
􀂙 Begin writing as soon as you wake up in the morning. Don’t shower, don’t eat (OK, you can have coffee), just turn on the computer. So you’re not fully awake; that’s good. Neither is your logic brain.
Now do this everyday. Well, maybe not every single day; make appointments with yourself. You won’t have brilliant ideas each time. Some days you sit and stare at the computer screen. Nothing happens. You develop imaginary rashes that need immediate medical attention. You suddenly remember a test you should be studying for. But you sit there; you focus; eventually, an idea bubbles to the surface. You start writing.
From Getting Creative with the Truman Personal Statements, written by Jane Curlin, Ph.D.; Director of Student Academic Grants & Awards, Willamette University; writer and consultant.


Reflect on some specific questions that may lead you to a more general expression of yourself.
• What errors or regrets have taught you something important about yourself?
• When have you been so immersed in what you were doing, that time seemed to evaporate while you were actively absorbed?
• What ideas, books, theories or movements have made a profound impact on you – be honest.
• To what extent do your current commitments reflect your most strongly-held values?
• Where or how do you seem to waste the most time?
• Under what conditions do you do your best, most creative work?
• To what extent are you a typical product of your generation and/or culture? How might you deviate from the norm?