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The Lasting Value of the Personal Essay
This writing form has a value that goes beyond the college application as it nurtures self-reflection and inspires creativity.
I still remember my own personal essay that I wrote decades ago during my college admissions process. My essay focused on movies and how movies were a conduit of curiosity. It was also about the death of my father and how movies, in part, had provided a common ground for us—a connection. Although my essay, of course, was not the sole determining factor in my admission, it’s a predominant memory from that time of my life. To this day, I feel it had a persuasive effect on my admittance.
In fact, now looking back, I can’t recall my grade point average or my class rank or the final grade that my English teacher gave me on my literary analysis of Heart of Darkness. Even my exact SAT score, back then a real measure of academic aptitude, remains fuzzy to me all these years later, “shaded in wistful half-lights,” as described by Norman Maclean. I can, however, remember nearly every sentence, if not quite every word, of the personal essay I submitted to my first-choice college, which has undoubtedly, for me, over the years remained one of the most important pieces of writing I have ever produced.
The personal essay is an enduring literary genre and an art form that provides often-challenging material in English classes. In my Advanced Placement Language and Composition course, we frequently read works from an array of authors from various eras, including Michel de Montaigne, Virginia Woolf, E. B. White, Joan Didion, André Aciman, Brian Doyle, Dr. Oliver Sacks. These writers function as exemplars for my students to both analyze and model not only for their rhetorical value but also for their stylistic technique and philosophical ruminations.
Power of Personalization
One of the most predominant rhetorical strategies we recognize in these texts is personalization. And so Woolf’s “The Death of the Moth” has impacted my students throughout the years with its frank depiction of psychological tension, addressing philosophical themes on an existential level that never fail to capture their attention—so much so, that a group of students painted a mural on the wall outside my classroom, a visual interpretation of Woolf’s essay that they titled Memento Mori .
The candor and intimacy of Dr. Oliver Sacks’s depiction of his final days before his death from cancer have engendered numerous touching and insightful comments from my students during our Socratic seminars analyzing his almost unendurably moving personal essay, “My Periodic Table.”
Students respond viscerally, it seems, to the personal. Sadly, many students have been touched by some of the same tragic subject matter that we analyze through these texts. During our seminars and journal assignments, my students have revealed their own personal connections to some of the personal essays we read in class, connecting, I think, to the shared experiences that we have all had throughout human history.
Our students often find themselves facing a vortex of standardized tests, AP exams, and benchmarks throughout the school year, which often emphasize the formulaic. The active process of personal choice on topic and subject seems lost. So often my students ask me questions when writing an essay, seeking a particular answer, as if literary analysis were calculus. Missing is the creativity, the exploration of writing free from academic constraints like rubrics and scoring guides. Writer-editor Steve Moyer asserts in Edsitement , “Nuanced thought... requires a greater gestation period than the nearly instant gratification made possible on Twitter.” I have witnessed this impatience from my own students.
There can be a restlessness in the writing process, a hesitancy for revision or drafting. Personal essays require self-reflection and a free-flowing freedom from rigid form that my students embrace in a way that they don’t with an argument or research-based essay. On more than one occasion during parent-teacher conferences, I have had parents tell me that their child used to love creative writing, but somewhere along the way, the rigor of school seemed to have killed it.
Personal essays, then, restore that creativity, since they encourage a freedom from form. Students can experiment with style and figurative language and syntax in ways that the traditional academic five-paragraph essay often thwarts.
Personal essays also allow teachers to really get to know our students, too. The inherent intimacy of a personal essay, the connection between the writer and the reader—in this case, a student and a teacher—provides insight into the concerns, the dreams, the emotions of our students in addition to allowing us to assess how they exercise their compositional skills, including imagery, syntax, diction, and figurative language. Here, then, a teacher has the best of both worlds. We’re able to both connect to our students on an emotional level and evaluate their learning on an academic level. Personal essays also serve as an emotional outlet.
There seems to be a common assumption that personal essays for high school students serve only the college application process, so the process begins during their senior year. Personal writing, however, should occur throughout a student’s academic experience. The narrative essays that most elementary school students encounter evolve into the more ruminative, philosophical, and reflective personal writing they will encounter during their senior year from many of Common App essay prompts.
Many teachers implement journal writing in their classrooms that provides a firm foundation for the type of personal writing that the college admissions essay requires. In my own class of juniors, the last assignment we complete for the year is a personal essay. My intent is to help prepare them for the college essay they will write, hopefully, during the summer so that they will have a solid draft before the application process begins.
Teaching our students this strategy in their own writing benefits them in their futures, not only for the imminent college application process but also for job interviews. For example, I was mentoring a student, a senior who had no desire to go to college, about the job interview process he would soon face after graduation. We rehearsed and practiced the types of questions he might encounter from a future employer. I encouraged him to remember the personal details of his experience, personalizing everything in a way that would allow him to ideally stand out as a job candidate.
Through personal essay writing, my overarching, grand ambition is to instill in my students ultimately a love of reflection, looking back on their experience, reminiscing on significant memories that linger, carefully considering the seemingly little moments that, only upon reflection, have an enormous impact on us.
High School Reflective Essay
Most of the essays seem to be easy at first. As we go along the writing process , it become a little harder than we thought especially if we do not know its basic structure. Try to observe some examples of other academic essays like argumentative essay sample , narrative essay sample , descriptive essay sample , and informative essay sample . They all follow the same structure which contains the introduction, a body that contains at least three paragraphs and a conclusion. Reflective essays have the same thing. It also needs to have coherence to capture audience attention. In this guide, we are going to explore about the details of a reflective essay.
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What is a Reflective Essay?
A reflective essay is a type of writing that enables you to reflect, to evaluate your life and to tell something about yourself. Now, you already have a topic to discuss. You may consider evaluating your feelings and the memories you have experienced.
Since this is all about yourself, you have to make it interesting just like telling a fictional story . Your readers will always look for something exciting to read, so you have to be focused and find a way not to let your readers be bored. This is a very special type of essay as it allows you to reflect or evaluate, write about it and explain.
Why does it have to involve feelings and memories? It is because those are already a part of you. You have to describe the feeling and the memory you had since these elements bring life into your essay. They let your readers think of an image.
Outline of a Reflective Essay
The reason why it is being called “reflective” is that the writer should examine his or her life experiences. Th main purpose of a reflective essay is to give the writer an opportunity to explore the changes he encountered in his or her life and learning he or she found from it.
The format may vary depending on the type of audience you want. It may be academic or a general piece of writing. When you have already decided to write a reflective essay, you should keep in mind that this type of essay is highly personal. You will be given a chance to take a look back at your experiences and how those experiences influence your present behavior and how your life has been changed by it. Some reflective essays include real-life experiences, imagined experience, an object, a place, a person even something that you have seen, heard or read.
Below is an outline of a reflective essay:
Your outline should establish details for your output – it is always important to prioritize the information that are on point and is relevant to what you aim to talk about.
Your outline will serve as you guide map – always make sure to provide a thought that is easy for your readers to understand. Do not miss any idea so that you won’t be having a hard time going back to fill in what you have missed.
Making an outline could save your time – you will be able to save a lot of time since you are already familiar with a guide that will help you focus on what you have to say. Doing so will make you give more time in editing your paper to ensure quality work.
What is the point of having a hook in your essay’s introduction?
The “hook” will grab your readers’ attention in which it consists of some aspects that makes your story interesting to read.
Why do we have to write in chronological order?
This is to avoid confusion to the readers. You have to tell a story that happens in a particular time to ensure a kind of writing that is systemic and coherent.
What could be some of the main points to consider during the writing process?
First, get an inspiration through reading some of the reflective essays found in online publications or library materials. Don’t think so much to the point that you will struggle on how to begin your piece. Support your information by describing how it gives an impact to your life. Do not forget to write using 1st person point of view.
In order to achieve an efficient reflective writing, you must take into consideration that punctuations are also important. You can use a variety of punctuations if you want. Use imagery to awaken your readers’ imagination. Highlight your turning point to make your thoughts and feelings valid. Lastly, don’t forget to put the lessons you have learned from those experiences.
High School Reflective Essay Generator
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Reflect on a moment that defined your high school experience for your High School Reflective Essay.
Describe a challenge you overcame during high school in your High School Reflective Essay.
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The La Salle Falconer
The High School Experience: A Personal Reflection
Filled with growth and life lessons, the high school experience has been a journey worth the climb.
Anna Waldron , Editor May 4, 2022
High school is arguably the most transformative time of a person’s life. My own experience has been filled with more memories, laughter, stress, and — most importantly, growth — than I ever could have anticipated when I began.
The lessons I have learned about myself, about others, and about the world in the last four years have shaped who I am today, and that person is far from the naive 14-year-old girl who walked through those glass doors of La Salle nearly four years ago. I was oblivious to the overwhelming emotional distress that I would feel when I started high school.
In some ways, it feels like an everyday battle.
As a freshman, the struggle began with adjusting to what felt like a whole new world. I was desperately trying to make friends, considering I had only one. I never knew what it was like to feel alone in a school with so many people. I felt like I had to act a certain way or be a certain person in order to maintain a basic conversation with people in my classes or on my soccer team.
Every day, my head was filled with an overwhelming concern about how I could manage to make myself look like someone with more friends than I actually had at the time.
I remember constantly thinking, “I’ll start enjoying this at some point, right?”
The truth is, I did.
To anyone who is feeling the way I once felt, please know that those feelings do go away. By the end of my freshman year and into the next, I enjoyed myself. School wasn’t particularly challenging, and I was spending my weekends having fun with my friends and going to basketball games and sleepovers. I had finally created a routine and felt mostly content with my life, aside from daunting thoughts in my head telling me it was all a lie.
I think that’s something that all teenagers deal with. It comes with the age, the questions, “do my friends actually like me?” or “am I enough?” — “do people worry about me or have I tricked myself into thinking they do?”
I continued to move throughout my sophomore year feeling a new level of comfort with my life. Then, the pandemic hit.
The original two weeks of quarantine turned into two months, and then two years. The predictable high school experience I had become accustomed to was no longer my reality, and instead, high school turned into an atypical rollercoaster of isolation from all the essential parts of the experience.
To say it was hard would be an understatement, but after the initial forced adjustment to a remote life, I was forced to be content without relying on others.
Without having to fear other people’s judgments of me or having to conceal myself in social situations to appear more “acceptable,” I gained independence and confidence within myself that I didn’t know existed.
Then finally — after over a year — the long-awaited return to school arrived.
I rejoiced in my ability to thrive academically again and I was so relieved to feel like I was really learning. I reconnected with my friends, ate lunch outside, took finals, and then — after a blur of two months — the year ended. My junior year flew by like no other.
When senior year rolled around, I felt out of place. I couldn’t imagine a world where I belonged to the oldest class at the school. In the beginning, it was odd getting used to, but after a few weeks, it was nothing but a thrill as I planned what the next weekend alongside my friends would hold.
My friendships were flourishing and I was becoming closer and closer with people I had never really gotten to know.
Unlike the three years prior, my senior year has felt like a stereotypical high school experience, and I could not be more grateful for it.
I always thought of myself as someone who was above enjoying things like attending soccer games, getting ready for homecoming with my friends, singing karaoke in someone’s basement, or going to a trampoline park for an 18-year-old’s birthday party.
The truth is, I’m not.
I regret that I spent so long depriving myself of the things I love in order to fit a narrative that I created for myself.
I love that I will graduate high school happier and more fulfilled than I ever felt during my other three years here. It feels like everything has finally come full circle, after all these years of feeling so alone.
So yes, it was transformative. I am finally content with the person I have become and the life I have chosen to lead. I wouldn’t be the same without La Salle and I wouldn’t be the same without the people I’ve gotten to know here.
I know that I will look back on my high school experience here, not feeling critical of the insecurities I have felt, but feeling grateful for the memories and lessons that came regardless of them.
Senior Anna Waldron has lived in Portland, Oregon her whole life, in the same neighborhood as nine members of her extended family. Outside of The...
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Home Essay Examples Education High School
High School Reflections
- Category Education
- Subcategory School
- Topic High School
Many people would tell us that our high school years “are the best years of our lives”. How when we walk across the stage in June, nothing would ever be the same, for the better or for the worst. As a graduating senior, I thought it would only be appropriate to write an essay reflecting on these four years, filled with intolerable essays, nerve-wracking exams, and excessive homework.
These past four years, I realized that I was able to learn a lot about myself such as my work habits, attitudes, weaknesses, and strengths. The first thing I learned freshman year was responsibility. Coming from a middle school where teachers only cared if I turned in my school assignments, and were not held liable for whether or not I understood the lessons or even showed up to class. I had to learn to take initiative if I didn’t understand something. I was responsible for asking for help when needed, and showing up to class every day to receive an education.
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I was also able to learn about what my parents told me, how the friends we surround ourselves with can have an influence on our beliefs, attitudes, and future actions to be true. Unfortunately, I was the one who fell into the “negative” friend group during my sophomore year. My grades dropped drastically because I had this “herd-mentality”. I saw that my then friends would not try in class, so I would not try either to fit in. When report cards came and I was able to see how many classes I was failing, my heart dropped to the floor. I realized then and
there that there would be a possibility that I would not be able to graduate on time if I hung out with my “friends”. I did the responsible thing and set up a meeting with my counsellors and they helped me get back on track. I learned to surround myself with friends who help you learn from your mistakes, are able to teach you new skills, and help you become the best possible person.
During my sophomore year, many upperclassmen would tell me that junior year was the “hardest” year. Yes, junior year was hard, but it also thought me about time-management. I was able to learn how to schedule tasks, and to prioritize my tasks and goals based on how much they were worth. When I start college I would be able to learn how to properly manage my time, and how to handle all the stress of paying with my tuition, going to classes, and managing any extra curriculums.
Lastly, I learned to accept everyone regardless of their background. I am so grateful to have been able to attend such a diverse highschool with so many different races and backgrounds. I was able to see how although my fellow peers might have different skin colours, our cultures held many similarities. With learning about all these different ethnicity’s it helped me better connect and find out who I am. I couple of years back learned that my great-great-grandpa was a Native American. With the help of some fellow peers, I was able to learn more about Native American culture and connect to my roots.
In conclusion, although highschool had many ups and downs what those people said about these years being “the best years of my life” can be understood. Highschool is that sweet spot where we do not yet have a lot of responsibilities that the college students have, or are treated like children like middle schoolers. In a way, I am going to miss high school because of the amazing friends, and work ethics I was able to make along the way.
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Home — Essay Samples — Education — School — Looking Back on My High School Experience: the Best I’ve Ever Had
Looking Back on My High School Experience: The Best I've Ever Had
- Categories: High School Personal Experience School
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Published: Apr 5, 2023
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Home / Essay Samples / Education / High School / Personal Reflection About Senior High School Journey
Personal Reflection About Senior High School Journey
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