Instructions:
For your personal essay, write a two page essay about your personal strengths and how you will use them to achieve your career goals. You need to make sure you are telling me what your strengths are, giving me specific examples of you using the strength to prove that you have it, and then giving specific examples of how you can use that skill to be successful in your future career.
Your thesis should be “My personal strengths of _____, _________, and _________ will help me be a great _________.” Fill in those blanks with the specific strengths you want to say you have and with your specific career choice. If you have not decided on a career path, you can talk in general about how those strengths will make you successful in any career. Your thesis should be the last sentence of your intro paragraph and whatever you say in the thesis is the point you are working to prove in the rest of the essay. Then, I recommend that you have 3 body paragraphs that each focus on a different strength. In each of those paragraphs, you should give specific examples to show you have the strength (stories of you using that strength in your job, schoolwork, extracurriculars, or personal life) and also specific examples of how you will use that strength in your career. Make sure you address both of those things (proving you have the strength and discussing how you will use it in your career). Also, make sure you keep the focus on yourself; you should say I, me, and my a lot in these essays. You should not ever say you or your. You are not telling someone else about how they should have these strengths; you are focusing on how you have the strengths and will use them. For example, DO NOT say “you need to be caring to be a nurse because you will have to deal with patients who are struggling.” You should instead say “my strength of being caring will help me as a nurse when I have to care for patients who are struggling.”
Please see the How to Write Essays page in the Start Here module for information on formatting, what should and shouldn’t be in your essay, and how I grade them.
My paper:
MY PERSONAL ESSAY
Everyone has their own diverse types of personal strengths that vary from person to person. This is what makes us all unique in our own way. I have thought long and hard about what my personal strengths are and have narrowed it down to the best choices for my personality. My personal strengths of having a positive attitude, showing good effort, and being respectful will help me be a great man in life.
My strength of having a positive attitude has helped me with a lot of things in life so far. One important thing that I have realized about having a good attitude is that it lightens up the mood in tense situations. In my experience as a baseball player, having a good attitude in baseball helps me not only be a better player but to also be a better teammate as well. When I have a positive attitude, whether it is at practice or in a game, it shows in my performance on the field. During a game if I was to strike out and come back to the dugout throwing my helmet and my bat, it would change the whole mood of the dugout and that is not the kind of teammate that I choose to be. I strive to be a teammate who has a good attitude and someone who encourages others to do the same. When I see my teammates struggle, I have always been the person who says something positive to reassure them that it will be okay, to keep their chin up and keep playing hard. I have been told by my friends, parents, and teachers that they like how I always have a good attitude. I would say having a positive attitude is my strongest strength.
The next strength I have is good effort. By showing good effort in baseball, it shows my coach and other coaches that are watching me that I want to be on the field, and that I want to get better at what I am doing. Putting in the work and the effort helps me make myself achieve the goals that I have strived to achieve. I grew up hearing that there are two things you can control and that is your attitude and your effort. When I achieve the goals that I have set, I put even more effort into the next goal that I want to accomplish.
Finally, my last strength is being respectful. My parents have raised me to be respectful, and that has poured over into the game of baseball. I have learned to respect the constructive criticism given to me by my coaches and my parents. As hard as it may be to hear at times, I know that they are doing it to help me be better, not only as a baseball player but as a person. There have been times when an umpire has made a bad call, but I know that I must respect the call, the umpire, and keep playing the game with respect, a positive attitude, and effort. I respect the game of baseball and all that it has taught me.
Life is full of difficulties, as baseball is full of failures. I have learned valuable lessons through baseball that will help me in whatever career path I choose. Having a positive attitude, good effort, and being respectful have helped me this far in life. I am confident that these personal strengths of mine will continue to help push me to achieve any goal that I want to succeed at in the future. I have been taught to put in the work if I want something and that is what I will strive to do into adulthood. For now, I am going to continue to focus on my high school studies and of course baseball.