Are you the star of the show?

Happy Monday, everyone!  College classes for juniors will begin when we get back to school in January, and this post by Meredith Lepore at Levo League (one of my favorite sites) emphasizes one of the first lessons we cover.  If you don't promote yourself, take the lead, be the star - who will?

In my experience, girls have a harder time talking about their strengths and talents.  I've often thought it's a southern thing, but I don't think that's all there is to it.  Girls just seem to have more difficulty talking about themselves, especially in a positive light.  We often joke in class that a boy with average athletic skills has no problem telling anyone who will listen how good he is at basketball while a girl who is the star of her team simply says, "Yeah, I play basketball." 

In the college admissions process, students must be able to talk, almost boast, about themselves.  They have to admit that they are a talented writer, an inquisitive scientist, a gifted linguist.  They should be able to acknowledge their athletic and artistic skills.  They should own up to their creativity, their curiosity, their talent.  After all, as Walt Whitman or Bear Bryant or Dizzy Dean once said  (it's been attributed to all of them), "It ain't bragging if you done it."

If it makes you uncomfortable to talk about yourself, try thinking about more palatable ways to discuss your gifts until you get the hang of it.  For example, rather than saying you are the best creative writer at your school, you can say something like "I've been writing my own short stories since the second grade, and last year I started my first novel.  Who knows whether it will published, but I'm excited about the possibilities, and I might even try to self-publish it!  In the meantime, I've found a home in the GPS creative writing club, and I'm even trying my hand at editorial writing through the school newspaper."  That idea works for something like softball too.  You can talk about how long you've played (since you were five?), how many teams you're on (the GPS varsity, a summer team, the region all-star team?), or even how many positions you've played (left field, first base, even pitching).

Do you see what you've done?  By the very fact that you've been doing something since you were a small child, you've implied you're probably pretty good at it by now.  You've also demonstrated your commitment to your work, and best of all, you have most likely started a conversation (with a college admissions representative) and that will give you the opportunity to keep talking about your other interests.

But back to the Levo League article.  To quote the author, "you have to be the star of your own film and step into the spotlight."  You need to tell your own story, and now is as good a time as any to decide what role you want to play.  Are you going to be the star, the leader, the go-getter?  Or are you going to watch from the sidelines?  It's up to you.

On a side note: over the weekend, I came across this article about "selfies."  While I don't agree with her 100%, she does have a point, and I wanted to share it with you.