“Trust the process.”
Hanging on to those words — willing myself to believe them — I tackled my assignment as a first-time volunteer writing coach at College Summit‘s four-day college application workshop for students from low-income communities.
“You’ll feel despair — hopeless– on Friday night. You’ll feel like you’ll never get there.”
Reading the first drafts of my students’ personal statements late Friday night, despair did creep in. The task felt impossible — guide four sleep-deprived high school students over the remaining 36 hours to produce essays that clearly communicated their personal stories, in their own voices.
“Trust the process.”
As the clock ticked towards the finish line on Sunday morning, “Joshua” listened attentively as I finished reading his third draft out loud. ”Wow, that’s pretty good,” he said tentatively. I watched him relax and grow animated as he realized what he had accomplished over the four days. “I can’t believe I actually wrote that. I didn’t think I could do it.”
Yes, Joshua. You did it. You got there.
We did it. We got there.
We trusted the process.
Filed under: College Application Essay Guidance, Writing Tagged: college application essays, College Summit, volunteer, writing coach, writing process
