Many students think that writing a personal essay is easy. Well, yes, if you have sufficient experience and skills in writing such essays, you won`t experience any difficulties with this task. However, if you have never written such papers before, you may need professional assistance with some stages of the writing process. Most students have difficulties with writing the opening part of their personal essays. In our handy guide, we will provide you with information on how to start an essay about yourself. Just be attentive and you will succeed!

Writing an essay about yourself is a common task assigned to students. Such an assignment allows the tutor to assess the student`s writing and critical thinking skills, as well as help the student evaluate their achievements and mental growth. An essay about yourself is a unique academic task that requires applying a different strategy compared to other assignments. For instance, you are allowed to use the first person when writing such an essay. At the same time, as well as any other academic paper, a personal essay should be free of inaccurate and irrelevant information. A good personal essay should be written about you, your aspirations, and your career plans. If you are lacking writing inspiration and want to understand what to write in your personal essay, you will need to have a look at some well-written examples. Although you may use these samples for boosting your writing talent, you should understand that you cannot copy-paste from these sources because the essay about yourself should be totally unique and authentic. On the whole, your personal essay may focus on:

• Your educational background;
• Your work experiences;
• Your knowledge and skills;
• Your life goals;
• Your hobbies.

Pay attention that writing an essay focusing on all those things is a bad idea. Ideally, you will need to focus only on the aspects that comply with the purpose of your essay. For instance, when you need to write a personal essay as a part of the admission process, you will need to emphasize the achievements and experiences that will help you become a valuable asset in the educational institution chosen. If you are writing a scholarship essay because you want to get financial aid, you may inform your reader about the hardships you had to overcome and explain how this financial aid would change your life.

Writing a Personal Essay: Efficient Tips

1. Choose a good topic. If you are allowed to choose a subject for your essay, you will need to pick up the one that is relevant and interesting. Pay attention that your personal essay should allow your reader to learn more about you, your values, and your beliefs. In other words, it is highly recommended to choose a topic that will help you reveal your personality from different angles;
2. Brainstorm your ideas. Once you know what to write in your essay, you will need to spend some time on the brainstorming process that will help you choose the most relevant and accurate information that should be presented in your essay. After brainstorming, you may need to write an outline that will help you organize all the important points that will be presented in your essay in a logical way;
3. Get your family involved. We assure you that writing a good-looking personal essay can be easier if you ask your family for assistance. You may forget about some episodes of your life that have helped you grow into who you are today but your mother will help you remember all the interesting moments, as well as suggest some angles of your personality you could have ignored;
4. Be honest. Honesty and integrity are the basic things you should take into consideration when writing your essay. Many students commit the same mistakes when they pretend to be who they are not. You should know that your tutor probably knows all those samples that are available on the web. By copy-pasting some of them just to make your essay look better, you will definitely fail your essay;
5. Get inspired. Even such a simple task as a personal essay requires writing inspiration. If you cannot write your essay for some reason, perhaps, you just need to get inspired. For this purpose, you may watch an interesting movie, go for a walk, spend time with your friend or do any other thing that would help you forget about writing your essay and bring you emotional pleasure;
6. Manage your time. Of course, leaving your task until the last minute is not a good idea because this paper is too important to put it at risk. Pay attention that you will need to spend a considerable amount of time on thorough planning, writing, and revising your paper;
7. Pay close attention to the prompt. If you are writing an admission essay, you will need to make sure it meets the prompt provided. Most probably, the educational institution you apply to is looking for a student with a particular set of traits and ambitions. Thus, you will need to convince them that you are just an individual they have been looking for;
8. Revise your essay before its submission. Undoubtedly, numerous grammatical mistakes will show your carelessness. Although your personal essay won`t be evaluated for its mechanics, it is better to avoid any mistakes that may compromise the final outcome;
9. Write a great introduction. If you are not certain how to start an essay about yourself, we highly recommend you to think about what makes you different from other students. Many other applicants also write personal essays and you will need to convince your reader that your candidacy is more preferable. You should know that you won`t have the second chance to make the first impression on your reader. This means that your introductory part should be perfect.
10. Don`t write the things that may hurt your audience. In your essay about yourself, you should not touch any sensitive themes such as gender, religion, race, etc.

How to Start an Essay About Yourself?

Many people reasonably think that a well-written introduction is a key to success. Well, this statement is correct because an introduction is the first thing seen by your reader. To begin your paper well, you will need to answer the following questions:

• Who are you?
• Why are you writing this essay?
• What is your background?
• What are your main achievements?
• What are your talents?
• Have you faces any challenges? How did you manage to overcome these problems? Did they help you grow?

In fact, you may make your introduction sound general gradually moving to more specific points. For example, you may need to start with a list of your experiences and talents that would help you convince the reader that you can successfully join their educational institution. Then, you will need to make your writing more specific explaining what skills and competencies will help you achieve the desired goals. All in all, you should understand that your main task is to convince the admission committee members that you have enough passion and ambitions to become a successful student.

If writing a personal essay is a part of your academic curriculum and you want to come up with a good subject for your essay, we recommend you have a look at the topics provided below:

• The day when my life was changed;
• The impact of my brother/sister on my worldview;
• What I see when I look in the mirror?
• How I survived my high school. My bullying experience;
• My experience as an international student.

Essay Sample About Yourself

No one could have imagined what was about to happen with me when I was nine years old. I still remember as if it was just yesterday when I saw Aran…

It has been five years since my family and I moved to USA. I had a little social and cultural insult when we moved here. Everything is so unusual. My family immigrated from China as soon as I graduated high school. We lived in the eastern part of China, in a suburb. Our small town wasn’t different from all the others. Actually, nothing special happened there. I went to the simple school, had no real friends, met the same people, saw the same landscapes, and did almost everything the same day by day. I was so kept in the borders of public opinion and customs that sometimes, even being a little girl, I realized that I was thinking almost like all the others did, I was afraid of any changes, of everything that wasn’t traditional.

As you might know, agriculture is a vital industry in China, employing over three hundred million workers. Almost all families living in a country where farmers, and ours was not an exception. We were a traditional Chinese family. Most families grow different kinds of crops. Of course, rice is the most important one. But our family had a little turtle farm. Maybe a little strange for Americans, but quite a usual thing for Chinese people. Sometimes it seemed that my father loved that farm more than anything, or even everyone else. He worked hard to make his business successful, and as a result I was constantly complaining for lack of attention, although I knew he did everything right.

We rarely went out of the borders of our home-town, but once for three-four years father had a habit of taking us on vocation abroad, to visit his cousin. I’ve been there only twice when I was a kid and nothing reminded me that place. So, we went to the center of Indochina peninsula - Thailand.

Although nowadays Thailand celebrates New Year on the twenty first of December according to the solar calendar, our family still stuck to old customs and the traditional New Year’s Day (from thirteenth to fifteenth of April), and so called “Songkram” festival was then held. Like in most cultures, respect towards ancestors is an essential part of spiritual practice in every family. On this holiday our family gathers to celebrate it by visiting temples, sprinkling water on Buddha images and on each other’s hands, wishing good luck. This day marks the unity of our family.

My father’s cousin and his wife couldn’t have kids, so they decided to adopt a boy. It was a very complicated and expensive procedure, but they managed to do this a year before our arrival. When we got to Krabi (a city, where our relatives lived), not far from the Andaman sea, I could hardly remember the picturesque scenery I saw on our way. They lived in a beautiful house. They met us with all amiability and hospitality one can imagine.

It was the first time I saw Aran. His name signified “wood, forest” in Thai Language. And for good reason. Our relatives’ house was in the highlands, and as I understood a few hours later, he spent almost all his spare time walking in the little wood over the hills. In the foot of the mountain, there was a narrow stream. It was Aran’s dwelling place, his most beautiful spot on the Earth.

At the very first moment we saw each other, it seemed to me that we felt a special bond and became best friends. He was my soul mate.

He was not like all the other boys I have ever seen. Aran was tall, slim, with pale skin, he had middle-long fair wavy hair, thin lips, snub nose, and big close-set dark brown eyes. His sight was so perceptive, it seemed like one can see a universe in those eyes. In other words, his appearance spelled a great impression upon me.

All our free time we tried to spend together. Aran often took me to his favorite place in the world – to the forest. He explained why it meant so much for him. There was hardly a person who could understand his thoughts and beliefs, so he had no friends. He escaped to the wood from the reality and mockery. He made-believe that place was his own property. And he invited me there too. He taught me how to feel relaxed and have your body and soul absorbed in your imagination and gave it full freedom. We imagined that the forest is our kingdom. We lived in the glorious castle. As it usually happens in fairy-tales, Aran was the King and I was the Queen. There were hundreds of beautiful, kind and awful, chunky creatures in our imaginary world. We called this world ”Prasath” (that means “castle” in Thai language).

Prasath was shaped in our imagination for many natural influences, including the main castle (which was the biggest tree in the wood), gorgeous fountains (the streams), etc. There was a treasury place (city’s top attraction – “Tiger Cave”), where all our valuable riches were laying. For enriching our treasure we used everything interesting we could find: broken watches, nice stones, toys, old coins, keys, all interesting or just useful knick-knackery we could get.

Nearly once a day a great performance for the Queen was happening in our castle: the chivalrous fight between the King and the most powerful and frightful beast -the Dragon. Sticks and stones were for swards and other weapon. The sure thing is that the king always won, and after the monstrous beast was defeated, a special ball was held. All kind creatures were invited. We could dance and have fun all day long.

Aran adored traditional Chinese holidays and that’s why we imitated many of them. His favorite was the Dragon Boat Festival (called ”Duanwujie”). It is celebrated on the fifth day of the fifth month of the lunar calendar (approximately it coincides with the summer solstice). It is a very colorful ancient holiday. During this day the rice pyramids wrapped in bamboo leaves are the main dish. Children wear colorful neck amulets depicting a tiger and filled with sagebrush. And we did the same. We danced near the Tiger Cave, driving evil creatures and spirits away and bringing good luck to us and our kingdom. The other holiday we acted, was the holiday of harvest (called “Zhongqiujie”), held on the fifteenth night of the eighth month (September). During this day we worshiped the god of the Moon. We tried to arrange our holidays as close to real as possible.

We made up special signs and language for only we could understand. For example, for greeting we used bows (the fingertips had to touch to the ground to show respect to each other). To show dishonor to evil creatures we pointed on them with our feet (the foot is considered the dirtiest part of the body). For that, those beasts sometimes ruined the gates that led to our castle, but then our faithful guardians – magnificent and gracious giant birds defended our kingdom. To show them gratitude, we danced for them, expressing our “thank you”.

The eating ceremonies were also extraordinary. The tables, as well as chairs were decorated with ambience of jasmine flowers. During all the banquets a bird choir sang for us. We ate fruit, ate jasmine variety rice (very popular there, also known as Hom Mali rice), drank jasmine tea and our souls seemed to blossom like a spring flower. The entire castle was buried in greenery. The harmony was everywhere, all the colors of our castle amazingly blend into each other, everything was due to our taste, we had everything we wanted, it was our special universe, our Prasath.

I was so deeply immersed into our world that I completely forgot about our soon depart. I was trying not to think about it and escaped to Prasath more and more often. I didn’t want to live this perfect place. In few days I had to go. My father gave a word to visit our relatives and now my best friend at least once a year. It’s a pity but as I mentioned in the beginning, due to certain circumstances we had to move to USA, and that heavy-hearted fact made my dad’s promise impossible.

Sometimes we exchanged letters with Aran, and he told me what innovations and changes he made in Prasath. Now we both are grown-ups and for several years we haven’t mentioned about our childhood imageries, considering it could be weird. But I know that such exciting, even if imaginary adventures, and such amazing and a little mysterious friendship, happens not to every kid, and I was the lucky one. Aran made me feel comfortable in any place and any time, be it the USA or any other corner of the Earths. I can cope with any difficulties or misunderstandings, designing my own reality if needed. He encouraged creative thinking, different from the others. Trough showing his world, my friend opened my own one.