What's your story, Dandelion?

A personal take on what should be the right approach towards writing an SOP

As soon as you decide to jump onto the bandwagon of studying abroad, there starts an endless cycle, a catastrophe of events of preparation, research, anxiety attacks, portfolio building, applications, the butterflies in stomach, offer letters, interviews and finally the feeling of getting detached to fly away to a new land of self development and growth - almost like the dandelion seeds floating through the wind.

But let's pause, let's rewind! Let's go back to the beginning... Why are you where you are in the first place? What's your spectacular journey that has brought you here? The whole ambience of university admissions almost makes us feel like we're on a battlefield, trying every move to prove our worth to be studying at that prestigious institution, proving every step of the way why we should be the one who belongs on the university grounds where you can sow yourself, hoping to bloom as time goes by.

Unfortunately, in this hassle, we forget what makes us special. There's thousands of students applying to universities every year, a single breath sending thousands of dandelion seeds floating in the air! So does it mean all of them follow the same path? the same journey?

The answer is a big fat 'NO'. But this is where the anxiety and stress creep in. It's this point where we have to stop ourselves from falling into the race to prove our worth. What universities look for isn't why you deserve to be there, what amazing things you have done that'll get you the gate pass into their bubble. They look for authenticity, they want to know your journey, the places you stumbled into, the places you dusted yourself and rose to the occasion, the times which taught you life lessons, the memories where you were an explorer, the moments where you surrendered yourself to a situation as well as the moments you fought back. So when the universities ask you for a 'Statement of Purpose' (SOP) it literally means as it reads - What's your purpose, dandelion? ...and how can the university be the wind that catalyses your journey towards your purpose?

It does sound hard, isn't it? But I'll share one little secret that I have always believed in and has always helped me excel in unexpected situations. And that is - Do not listen to anyone, but yourself! Do not follow any generic template, any advice or do's and don'ts! Although you are here exactly for the reason of understanding how to write your SOP, I'm more interested to help you navigate on how you can approach your writing. The points I mention below are some pointers I have listed only to help you keep an eye on yourself whether or not you're being truly authentic and genuine to yourself and your journey while writing down your story.

1) How do I begin?

A million times we want to begin our writings with a quote, our conventional schooling has trained us in such a way through our English exams, that we're tempted to start with some fancy quote about architecture, a phrase/dialogue by a famous architect or some thought of the day you read somewhere and found unique. At that moment, you should pause again and question yourself, is that quote valid? Does it, in any way, resonate with me? Is it a product of my journey so far? Does the quote summarise my struggle, my learnings, my passion and my hunger for more? If even one of these gets a whisper of a 'No', scrap the idea of beginning with a quote right there, or dig deeper within yourself to find why that quote needs amends.

2) What's your Once Upon A Time...?

Your beginning doesn't have to be something very catchy that draws interest, but it should simply be something that begins your story - something as simple as a 'Once upon a time...'

The reader is already there on your story. There are a million stories that begin with Once Upon a Time, but each one is unique, with a diverse ending. And even if we listen to this quote over and over again, we are still latched onto it because we are curious to learn what different does this story have to offer me? It's the same with the person reading your SOP. You might just be another 'Once upon a time' for them, but they'll still be eager to know what makes your story special.

So my word of caution is that don't get caught into a whirlpool of thoughts of how do I begin. Travel back to where your professional journey started for you - a memory trapped deep inside your mind, could be a memory from childhood that triggered your interest in a particular topic, a friend who introduced you to it, a respected person who you came across, a stranger you crossed paths with and had a memorable chat, an incident filled with agony, or perhaps even a memory of remorse... if you search well and declutter your thoughts, you'll find that one unique reason that made you choose the field you're in, that one reason that makes you surprisingly highly unique, but at the same time just another dandelion seed in the thousands floating in the air. How ironical that is! But it shouldn't stop you from moving forward...

3) Find The Breeze!

After a genuine introduction of your story, there is a point where the story starts getting very interesting. It could involve your recent past, your wrong turns, a blessing in disguise you discovered or a genie in a bottle that opened up a lot of possibilities. It could be your educational journey through your bachelors, or probably that one evening in your third year, with your best friend, a talk with your classmate or a scolding from your tutors, a book in the library or a guest at your college, a day at your internship which provided a channel to your professional approach. What I'm aiming for here, dandelion, is for you to think of the breeze that gave your professional thoughts a flow, a direction, that laid the foundations of the way you perceive the world around you.

Once you understand what the breeze was and have revealed it to the reader, the story has already become interesting and the reader now wants to know what path you are heading to, with this wind driving you.

4) The Crossroads

The breeze takes you into uncharted territories, newly discovered places and simultaneously nurtures you into a better version of yourself. Throughout the flow, there are twists and turns, there are some swift currents, some soothing moments, but now, the breeze is long gone and has dropped you at a crossroad, has nurtured you enough and given you the power to sow your way forward. Narrate all these incidences to your reader, and just like the wind, drop him at the crossroads with the same suspense the breeze left you with. The reader realises your position and is now curious to understand how you'll be making the choice. The choice isn't what course, specialisation, module, subject, university reputation or ranking. But the choice of which direction you want to grow in.

Now here's the chance to hook the reader fully into your story! You can narrate the things you see on each path, each direction and leave it to the reader to guess what you may be hinting at, or the other way around, you can describe in detail, everything that attracts you towards one particular direction. Either way, all the reader wants to see is the passion by which you narrate the details of your state of mind while taking a decision at these crossroads.

5) The Way Ahead

If you have been true to yourself throughout the previous four milestones of the journey, you are already at the end of your SOP! Now all you're waiting for is a smile on the reader's face, or a little smirk when he reads through the last reveal of the climax. You can either leave him at the crossroads, or go one step further and choose a path, proudly telling the reader that the story isn't over yet! And that more fun awaits on the path that you have chosen. A path that, for you, directs the way you want to grow in life. A path that'll travel through the university of your choice - what all you imagine seeing on that path, all the fun you'll have along the way and all the learnings you can assimilate as you walk through it.

If you're able to express these five turning points of your journey to the reader, you have the ever so perfect SOP that the reader will be pleased to read and absorb. Your SOP will not be an end product of a generic process which has 'accept me please' written all over it, but will be a true reflection of yourself and your purpose in life. I guarantee that it will sketch your image as a human being in front of the reader, a human proud of their small, yet so far significant accomplishments. After that, it will be up to the reader to decide whether or not they like your story, but as a writer, you'll be proud to have written a damn good one!

Of course I haven't touched the grammatical aspects, the thesaurus, the use of complex sentences, the apt use of English or not even mentioned manipulation of your story into word counts! But all those are talks of another day, something that I can write about anytime of the day in a plain, mundane, straightforward, well-researched way. A lot of articles, blogs, websites online can probably guide you better than me on the method of writing the SOP and acing the language. I, on the other hand only want to be the wind that helps you find the will and motivation to start writing one!

What I aimed through this article is to set your mind running, set you on a treasure hunt of memories, of moments that drive you to make the hard choices, all those tiny dandelion bristles, that make you, into YOU - a bright, fresh Dandelion ready to take a leap of faith and scatter into a thousand seeds, only to grow through those thousand ways! Dust off all the old boxes, grab your pen and paper, it's time to write.

So tell me now... What's your story, Dandelion?