ginger
coons
cv
exhaustive list of traits, skills and interests
life story
law school letters
areas of interest
school things
cv
exhaustive list of traits, skills and interests
life story
law school letters
areas of interest
school things
The following are drafts of the letter of intent that
ginger coons was writing as part of the admission procedure for law
school. Since writing these, she has come to the decision that there
are better paths for her than law.
Life Story
I Want to Impress You
Titles
Which One Doesn't Belong?
Epiphany
Life Story
I Want to Impress You
Titles
Which One Doesn't Belong?
Epiphany
I Want to Impress You
There is something fundamental to my process. It may be a good something, and it may be a bad something. Either way, it is this: When I have work to do (design, writing, anything), I do it over and over and over again, until I am satisfied with my output, or more often, until I have no more time left to revise. To this end, I have put the same circuit boards together multiple times, planned out many different versions of presentations, and stayed up half the night before a paper was due, doing it over again because I didn't like it enough. This is draft five of this personal statement. I do this because I am a perfectionist. I do this because I am never satisfied with my work. Because I do this, I strive. I am constantly driven to do better. And I do believe that I am becoming better.
I want to impress you, yes. I want you to offer me a place in your program, take my money, and teach me all sorts of things I don't know now. I want to study law, for three years, or four, or six, or the rest of my life. I want to have the opportunity to make a nuisance of myself. I want to be an activist who can't be easily dismissed as uneducated in the ways of law and government.
I want to impress you, but not so much that I've been working at it for years already. Instead, I've been spending time getting to know myself. I've learned how I work. I've learned that my best output has, as input, things that I care about. I've learned that I get far more out of things that I put more into. Entropy is not a feasible option for me. I've learned that I'm quite good at many things, but that what I want most of all is to be the best.
I want to impress you, but I know that the first step in doing so is impressing myself. And lately, I've been doing just that. I turn out work that I really, truly love. And by loving that work myself, and putting more into it, I often find that other people love it, too.
I want to impress you, and I've started on it, whether you know it or not. Finally, after a break I didn't even know I was on, I've started impressing other people again. It's amazing to come out of a slump I didn't even know I was in. I've started impressing the people around me again. I've gotten back my voice, my audacity, my ability to organize and rabble rouse. I'm not giving them up again. I've gotten back the confidence that moves people, and that gets action in motion with a few words. I've gotten back the me that other people want to impress. And because I've gotten back all of that, I think that I can impress you. That's what I'm trying to do right now.
I want to impress you with how much I care about the world, and just how fantastic I am at anything I choose to do. I am a designer. I am a dreamer, and a thinker. I am an activist, but not for just any cause that comes along. I want to improve the world. More accurately, I want a world to live in when I'm older. I want air to breathe, and civil liberties. I don't want to see equality die before it takes its first steps. Above all, I don't want to see our cultural attitudes regress. I want to see consumers with rights, and I don't like the way things are going at the moment. I want to see technology acting in the public interest. And I'm profoundly curious about what's to come in the wild frontier that is the internet. These are the things that I care about, that I want to work on and towards.
I want to impress you, but only if you can be impressed by what I've written above. If you can only be impressed by spotless transcripts and high GPAs, I won't impress you. I will not impress you by being a perfect machine built for studying. I've taken my own time to become what I need to be, sometimes at the expense of grades in classes such as German or Art History. I refuse to make excuses for those grades, or for the GPA that results from them. There is no reason to make excuses. I've taken my time about it, but I've managed to become remarkable again. Accept me as I am, have confidence in me, and I will impress you.
There is something fundamental to my process. It may be a good something, and it may be a bad something. Either way, it is this: When I have work to do (design, writing, anything), I do it over and over and over again, until I am satisfied with my output, or more often, until I have no more time left to revise. To this end, I have put the same circuit boards together multiple times, planned out many different versions of presentations, and stayed up half the night before a paper was due, doing it over again because I didn't like it enough. This is draft five of this personal statement. I do this because I am a perfectionist. I do this because I am never satisfied with my work. Because I do this, I strive. I am constantly driven to do better. And I do believe that I am becoming better.
I want to impress you, yes. I want you to offer me a place in your program, take my money, and teach me all sorts of things I don't know now. I want to study law, for three years, or four, or six, or the rest of my life. I want to have the opportunity to make a nuisance of myself. I want to be an activist who can't be easily dismissed as uneducated in the ways of law and government.
I want to impress you, but not so much that I've been working at it for years already. Instead, I've been spending time getting to know myself. I've learned how I work. I've learned that my best output has, as input, things that I care about. I've learned that I get far more out of things that I put more into. Entropy is not a feasible option for me. I've learned that I'm quite good at many things, but that what I want most of all is to be the best.
I want to impress you, but I know that the first step in doing so is impressing myself. And lately, I've been doing just that. I turn out work that I really, truly love. And by loving that work myself, and putting more into it, I often find that other people love it, too.
I want to impress you, and I've started on it, whether you know it or not. Finally, after a break I didn't even know I was on, I've started impressing other people again. It's amazing to come out of a slump I didn't even know I was in. I've started impressing the people around me again. I've gotten back my voice, my audacity, my ability to organize and rabble rouse. I'm not giving them up again. I've gotten back the confidence that moves people, and that gets action in motion with a few words. I've gotten back the me that other people want to impress. And because I've gotten back all of that, I think that I can impress you. That's what I'm trying to do right now.
I want to impress you with how much I care about the world, and just how fantastic I am at anything I choose to do. I am a designer. I am a dreamer, and a thinker. I am an activist, but not for just any cause that comes along. I want to improve the world. More accurately, I want a world to live in when I'm older. I want air to breathe, and civil liberties. I don't want to see equality die before it takes its first steps. Above all, I don't want to see our cultural attitudes regress. I want to see consumers with rights, and I don't like the way things are going at the moment. I want to see technology acting in the public interest. And I'm profoundly curious about what's to come in the wild frontier that is the internet. These are the things that I care about, that I want to work on and towards.
I want to impress you, but only if you can be impressed by what I've written above. If you can only be impressed by spotless transcripts and high GPAs, I won't impress you. I will not impress you by being a perfect machine built for studying. I've taken my own time to become what I need to be, sometimes at the expense of grades in classes such as German or Art History. I refuse to make excuses for those grades, or for the GPA that results from them. There is no reason to make excuses. I've taken my time about it, but I've managed to become remarkable again. Accept me as I am, have confidence in me, and I will impress you.