Over the past two decades, narrative—the "universal grammar" that underlies storytelling—has emerged as a powerful cognitive tool. Assigning a beginning, middle, and an end to the inundation of chaotic impressions constantly buffeting us has evolved far beyond the movies and tv that transfix us, the ballads we sing, and the fairy tales we tell our children. Doctors use narrative techniques to arrive at diagnoses, lawyers to provide the framework for the cases they present to juries, just as athletes visualize themselves as winners; strategists conjure up scenarios; and business schools create case studies.

Narrative therapists have found that if we can revisit an earlier conflict or trauma, we are actually capable of rewriting our own life stories, thereby reshaping our destinies for the better. To my delighted surprise, according to Dan P. McAdams, Professor of Psychology and of Human Development and Social Policy and Director of the Foley Center for the Study of Lives at Northwestern University, the college essay is the first way students begin to see the redemptive power of overcoming personal adversity as a foundation for leading meaningful and productive lives.

From working with hundreds of seniors for the past 14 years, I've observed that, more often than you might suspect, this character-defining episode took place in middle school, when, for the first time, a perceived, paralyzing personal frailty ceased to be worrisome. When a reminiscing high school senior reassesses that moment, many find they can consciously and permanently integrate it as the resilient core of their individuality and begin to confidently foresee an engaged and purposeful future. Indeed, I believe the resulting personal essays (as amazing as they invariably prove to be) are almost secondary to the process of coming face to face with the insight itself.

If someone has failed to shed this middle-school script of shame and guilt, then there will (hopefully) come a time in his/her life when he or she must psychically return and face this unresolved, "contaminated" issue in order to belatedly become generative. I did.

Facilitating that discovery is collaborative, even shamanistic. Moreover, having experienced this connection once teaches you that other equally powerful discoveries are everywhere, just waiting for your next insightful metaphor to be released. Attaining that knowledge is the key to writing, creating, researching, discovering everything. It has nothing to do with the amount of ivy clinging to some building, or the lofty name immigrant masons chiseled there.

When I ask, "WHY does your college essay/application need to be your best effort, and for WHOM?" if your answer is, "So I can get into a name-brand college," click elsewhere. If you wonder, "What are 'they' looking for?" "they" are looking for those independent-thinking, idiosyncratic, unique students who, ironically, simply don't care what they're looking for.

So here's the real question: Are you up to investing 15 hours on an open-ended, yet formally structured journey to collect, connect, and convey your own unique narrative? to experiencing the "shock of recognition" when you meet it? To learn how you too can (re)write your future.

Because Uniquely U. GUARANTEES that it can get you to that place.

~Maxene Fabe Mulford
Uniquely U. College Essay Consultants