his_sarah_jane | [Oncoming Storms] Response

What or who do you think made you the way you are today?

Sarah tapped her pencil against her desk, sighing as she stared at the question in front of her. It was a jumping off point, something her aunt had suggested in framing her personal statement for her university applications. However, if you were to ask the seventeen year old, it was a bloody pain in the arse. A waste of an afternoon that could be far better spent meeting up with some mates down at the park for a game of field hockey.

The question, though, seemed to glare up at her from the page. What or who do you think made you the way you are today? Why? It was a stupid question, as stupid as every other question Aunt Lavinia had suggested she answered.

“You’re the writer,” she had said. “I’m positive that it won’t take you long to think of something. But here’s a list of topics I clipped out of the daily paper. It may help.”

So far, none of the questions had helped. She was down to the last one. Her personal statement: five hundred words proving that Sarah Jane was capable of a university education, capable more so of entering a journalism program. And in the past two weeks, she had come up with nothing.

With a sigh, Sarah stopped tapping her pencil against the desk and braced her hand to write. Maybe words would flow better on her typewriter, but she had absolutely no desire to waste the ink.

“Who or what made me the way I am today?” Sarah read aloud, rolling her eyes as she did. “Who bloody well cares?”

My aunt, Lavinia Smith.

No. She didn’t like the sound of that. Sure, Aunt Lavinia imparted wisdom upon her niece while she was growing up. Sarah certainly knew that her feminist attitude had all to do with her aunt’s beliefs. But that wasn’t enough.

It seemed that this question was going to be a whole lot harder than it looked. Sarah let out a frustrated breath and returned to tapping her pencil a few seconds longer before scribbling down more ideas. Each was quickly scribbled out after the first.

My aunt, Lavinia Smith.

The loss of my mum and dad.

Being unable to save Andrea. Watching her die.

Lois Lane DAFT!

Sigrid Schultz.

Field hockey.

Writing my first essay Oh, who am I kidding?

~~My parents did technically make me. Daft answer to a daft question? Sounds perfect.~~

Me?

Sarah Jane stared at the last item on her list, underlining and then circling it with thought. It was a possibility alright. Who needed someone else to shape them? Who needed some bloody event you didn’t even want? Certainly not her. A small grin crossed her features as she nodded. For now, it had to be the best answer she came up with. With confidence, she began to write:

Most individuals would answer this question claiming a specific life-altering event or perhaps a role model in whom they placed the upmost degree of confidence and admiration within. It is, after all, what this question is begging for to be penned. Without a doubt, I have had my share of life altering events. I have known people in my life that have been role models without even realizing. But none of them, not a single course of action or a single word of advice, possess the influence to make me who I am today.

That honour falls fully and completely to me.

It is I who, in the end, chose the lessons to abide by, picked the people to learn from. No one in the whole of Earth exists who would have made the same decisions I made if put in my shoes. I can’t claim to have chosen wisely, nor can I claim that I’ve stuck with those decisions I made. But, as a whole, it was my actions and my choices that led me to be writing this essay today.