Started 9-28-2013: Click the Map for Details

I gave away 100 copies of my ebook guide last week. (If you missed the giveaway, I’m planning on doing another in October.) Even though I’ve always had visitors from all over the world, I was overwhelmed by the enthusiastic students from so many countries. And they all shared one thing in common–they wanted out of Essay Hell!

I haven’t crunched the numbers, but I would guess only about 30 percent were from the United States. Some were from large public schools in New York, California, Virginia, Ohia, Utah, Connecticut, Wisconsin, etc. Others were from parochial schools and specialty (charter, magnet, Montessori, all girls, etc.) schools. Two were home schooled.

I was so impressed by the variety of countries. My favorite part was hearing all their unusual, distinguished names and home countries. Here’s just a sampling:

Bernice from Ghana.
Aawaz from Nepal.
Innocent from Kenya.
Ahn from Vietnam.
Peiching from Malaysia.
Azmayeen from Bangladesh.
Melissa from Dubai.
Yin from Singapore.
Jayani from India.
Guzman from Uruguay
Jezz from Taiwan
Aradhana from Thailand 

And that’s just a sampling. Based on their names, I’m guessing quite a few students from U.S. schools have rich ethnic backgrounds and possibly parents who were recent immigrants–Nimalen from Alabama, Ha from Pennsylvania, Preethiya from New York and Anjali from California.

I know all these students are going to do well in their college search and lives. How? First, they were scrappy enough to find this web site. That alone showed me that they were serious about their applications and understood the importance of these essays. They were already devoting time searching the web for help. And most of them had already read many of the posts (a time suck in itself), and then they sent me emails to win the free book. This shows the all-important quality called grit!

Not to mention that every one of them expressed a lot of gratitude for the help and book. How can you not love these kids?

In honor of all the students all over the world who are struggling to write these college application essays–especially those who are doing it pretty much on their own–I’ve added a visitors counter on my home page. From this point on, it will show the flag of each visitor’s country.

So no matter where you are–in a small village in India, or a high-rise apartment in Tokyo or a beach town in California–and are feeling like you will never find that great topic for your essay, and you have nothing to write about, and that you are sunk, at least you are not alone! Almost everyone shares your despair at some point. But, if you just take a deep breath and know you do have great stories to tell, and keep reading advice and tips on how to find them and then write a narrative essay, you will surprise yourself–and write a great little college admissions essay!

Before you know it, you will join all the other happy college students in the world and forget all about this hard blip of essay hell in your life. So get back to work! If you can just get started writing, you will be done in no time.

Try this Jumpstart Guide to get started. Good luck!