My personal statement:
I walked into the silent, empty room. It was cold and lifeless. In the room sat a singular empty chair. In front of it were two desks with a long black sheet to hide whatever lived behind it. I sat down in the chair as I watched the feet from underneath the desk tap and shuffle around. My heart was beating so loudly that I swear I could hear it echo throughout the room. A voice called out to me.
“Clarinet number twenty-three, please play your C major scale,” and the audition began.
What makes a successful musician? Dedication? Excellent performance? Leading? If it was any of these things, I’d done exceptionally well in all of them. I was in multiple top ensembles, played four beautiful solos, led my section. Yadda, yadda, you get the point. Sure, I had important responsibilities, but in a large ensemble, you start to become one in a million. Soon, always being overlooked started to bother me. Why can’t I sit first chair? Are other players really better than me? Am I not dedicated enough? This drove me insane and sparked my dedication to become the best in my section. I hardly got the opportunity to showcase my individual talent, but this would soon change when auditions come around.
Senior Regional Orchestra is one of the most competitive ensembles to audition for in the state. They take three clarinets in the region, and our particular region consists of twenty-one cities all auditioning for a spot. It’s extremely difficult to be accepted into such a small ensemble within a large region, but the competition only makes me want it more. Auditions at first were a creative outlet for me, a way for me to better my musicianship. This audition, however, was a competition for me to prove my dedication to everyone and myself.
An audition is composed of three main components: Major and chromatic scales, prepared etude, and sight reading. My scales were mostly memorized at this point, but mostly wasn’t good enough for me. Every day I would play all twelve scales, and if I messed up, I’d start over. I could play my full chromatic up and down at a decent tempo, but it needs to be at 120 bpm. Every time I’d play it perfectly five times in a row, I’d increase the tempo, and I’d decrease it if I messed up. I’d never been so hard on myself. But what drove me insane is the prepared etude.
The thing with a prepared etude is you can never really perfect it. There’s always ways to play more musically outside of just perfect notes and rhythms. I’d spend every lunch period locked away in “Practice Room D” down in the dark band hall. Repetition after repetition, I’d practice every minor detail until my lips chapped and my fingers cramped. Intonation. Phrasing. Dynamics. All the key components that make a great piece perfect.
Finally it was the day of the audition. I’m waiting in the warm-up room for them to call my number.
“Clarinets number twenty through twenty-five,” a student calls out.
I leave the room along with four others.
I’m walking down the hall. The lights are dim, and everyone is nervous.
“I really hope I do well,” Clarinet number twenty-two says as we’re waiting outside the audition room.
“You’re going to do great,” I tell her in a subtly snarky way.
She enters the room and begins to play. She sounds amazing. How was she nervous? How could I make it in when I’m going after her? Now I have to be perfect.
She walks out and looks at me with a smile. My face is mortified. I attempt to smile back, but I feel like I just got kicked in the gut. As she walks away, another student comes out and calls out to me. “Clarinet twenty-three?”
I enter the room.
Reflection:
Applying to colleges and universities can be intimidating and stressful. However, Getting a head start on your personal statement can help eliminate stress later down the road. The Common App’s personal essay gives admission officers a glimpse into who you are as a person, outside of grades and academics. I personally started my personal statement in November of my junior year, and by the time I started my Common App in August, it was significantly easier. If you’re currently a junior, I would recommend looking at all the prompts on Common App now. This way you can have an idea of what topic you’re going to write about before the end of your junior year.
When you choose the topic you want to write about, I would recommend making a layout. Having a road-map of what you want to talk about can keep you from getting off topic. This can just look like a simple list of things you want to touch on in each paragraph.
650 words may seem like a lot, but you can reach the word limit faster than you think. The first draft of my essay went 50 words over the limit. This is why it’s important to stay on topic. I went into a lot of unnecessary detail about the story of my essay, but I ran out of time when I got to the end of my essay. It’s important to tell a good story but always tie it back to the prompt.
The introductory paragraph should grab the attention of admissions officers. This will set the tone of your entire essay. A boring introduction will make officers less interested in what you have to say. I started my essay by setting the scene for my story. I go into extreme detail to illustrate the intense scenery inside my audition room. I intentionally start my essay at the end of my story to leave the readers thinking, “How did we get here?”
The body of your essay should tell a story. You should go into specific detail to make your readers feel as if they’re in the story with you. I recommend that every time you introduce a new setting or character, you should use descriptive language to illustrate what’s happening to the readers. I used my body paragraph to describe all the intense preparation I did before my audition.
To bring your story to a close, you can either tie your story to the prompt and tell your readers the key takeaway of your essay, or you can leave it on a cliffhanger. I chose to do the more bold approach of a cliffhanger because I felt the body paragraph of my essay did a good job at answering the prompt already. I didn’t want to reiterate something that was already told in my story, so instead of having a “what did we learn” moment, I tied the end of my essay to the beginning. To do this, I talked about the day of my audition and everything that led up to me walking into my audition.
