The "Brag Sheet"

It's Labor Day weekend and I am filling out what is commonly known as the "brag sheet".  In layman's terms, it's the "answer-all-these-bizarre-and-surprisingly-hard-questions-so-that-we-can-write-you-a-really-good-recommendation-letter" form.

I understand the point of this form, but I don't even know what I'm supposed to put on some of these questions.  For example, "Which of your activities (including hobbies, clubs, work experience, community service, family commitments, athletics or any special interests) have meant the most to you?  Why?"  If you recall, I mentioned on my very first blog post that I have belonged to zip, zero, zilch extracurriculars throughout my entire high school life (except the gaming club which I have very very VERY recently joined).  So exactly what am I supposed to put for that?

And here's another one, "Describe a challenge you have faced in your life.  How has this experience impacted you?  (This could very well be a college essay question you will soon see!)"  Okay, I totally get what they're talking about with the college essay thing.  All the winning college essays I have seen have all been about this.  But the thing is, if I actually KNEW of a worthwhile challenge in my life, I would know what I'm going to write about on my college essay (which, by the way, I am greatly struggling with).  The biggest challenge I have ever faced was getting on with my life after my boyfriend dumped me, but I highly doubt that anyone is going to see the worthwhile-ness in THAT (not to mention that I don't really want the college admissions office knowing personal issues like that).

Oh, and what about this one?  "How will you set yourself apart from all other applicants?  What talents, characteristics, and/or traits do you have that will impress a college and make you UNIQUE?"  Again, if I knew that, I would be furiously writing my college essay right now instead of updating my blog content.

I'm not going to bore you with the rest of these questions, but let's just say that they are all pretty hard.  Perhaps I'll take a break and come back to this form later.