Are you struggling with your college application? Are you worried that you might not be as good as others? I may not be able to give you any constructive help because I am not a professional person who helps people do their application, but I can share my personal experience with you. 

First of all, do not trust anyone who tells you that senior year is the most relaxing and easy year in your high school life. I think senior year is the most stressful and busy year in my entire high school life, because you have to prepare your AP tests, finish all your applications, and choose which college you want to go to, which can completely influence your future. Try to finish your applications as soon as possible, otherwise you’ll break down and cry at the end just like I did. 

I am not a native speaker, so when I was doing my application, I was really unconfident. During my senior year, my teacher asked us to make a chart about our advantages to help other teachers write your recommendation letter, just like your resume with more details. This part took me a lot of time, it also hit me hard and I was really depressed because of it. The more I wrote, the less confident I was. I thought that I was the most useless person in the world because I didn’t have any work experience, my English was not fluent like a native speaker, and I was not doing so well in the SAT test. Also I was procrastinating, and I had a little bit of a time issue though, so don’t be like me. Just start early. Time was ticking away and I couldn’t even come up with any point that I am worth admitting to a college. It’s quite embarrassing, but as I was trying to write all of this, I started crying. 

My mother heard me crying like a child that hasn’t grown up, and came to comfort me. Actually I thought she was going to scold me that I procrastinate on my homework until the last minute again. But she didn’t, she sat next to me and thought about my advantages with me. She said “You can speak Korean. You hosted a Japanese student exchange event. You were the president of the Debating club. You won a speech contest. How come you have no advantages?” I was still crying and said “But that’s all from Taiwan, I can’t use it in my resume.” In my opinion, I think these were not suitable in my resume in America because they didn’t show my English ability, the things that I did in Taiwan were all using mandarin. On the other hand, my mom told me “Even though these are not showing your English ability, they do show your other abilities such as leadership” After that, I was starting to feel that I am a little better than others. At the end of my high school year, I got every college offer that I applied to. 

I want to use my personal experience to show you that everyone is special and it is impossible no one has any advantages. One of the Roman philosophers had said “If you have no confidence in self, you are twice defeated in the race of life. With confidence, you have won even before you have started.” As a result, having self-confidence is an important step to success.