I've been there, and to make myself feel better about myself, I'll imagine that you've been there too. Faced with the dreadful burden of writing my application essay for graduate school, I sat in the dark of the night as a bright screen of text glares down upon me. I had spent hours poring over what I felt was the essence of my soul, grasping at any semblance of substance in my life story and launching them at the page in a frenzy. I prayed that the reviewer, wielding the omniscience that someone with as much godlike power ought to possess, can unravel my text and relive my life through my own eyes. I tell myself that upon reading my personal statement, they will realize that they were born for this moment to accept me into the program. Satisfied with the splotches of black as witnessed through my bleary eyes, I save the document and go to sleep. The next morning, I open the document. Sure, there might be a couple grammatical errors---after all, I threw those letters togeth