3. What would you say is your greatest talent or skill? How have you developed and demonstrated that talent over time? Why is this talent or skill meaningful to you?

As I had trouble forming connections with my peers, throughout much of middle and high school I spent most of my time by myself. When not in class, I would usually spend my school hours alone, either working on assignments or waiting to go home. In my sophomore year English class, every student was required to keep a weekly journal. While I initially detested the extra work, over time I grew to enjoy it. As there were no rules surrounding what could be written, I tried my hand at coming up with short stories.

Even after sophomore year ended, I still wrote the occasional short story when I had the time. More often than not these were long, elaborate expositions to leading up absurd, anticlimactic punchlines, as this was the style of humor I loved most. One of my favorites was a drawn-out tale describing a case of betrayal, deception, and infidelity and only for the final line to be the chorus of “Cotton Eye Joe.” Recognizing how pathetic it was to laugh at my own jokes, I rarely mentioned this hobby to others. However on the sole occasion I brought it up to a work acquaintance, she invited me to a group chat with a few of her writer friends. They were quick to welcome me into the small community they had created, telling me what they enjoyed about my style of humor and how I could improve my skills as a writer. Over the next few years they would provide both lessons on how to better my writing and a sense of belonging I had lacked during my time in school.

Writing is meaningful to me as it provides me written evidence of progress since sophomore year, both as a writer and as a person.

how can I better this?it makes me want to vomit, especially the last line