An Essay on Humbleness

(a real college essay submitted by me)          

“As I am trying to maximize my efficiency in this program, completing classes at a rapid pace while working and single-parenting full time, I find myself frustrated that I ‘wasted’ an entire night of time and coursework on what is, according to these attachments, a completely incorrect submission,” I had the audacity to type to an unknown-to-me University of Maine Professor exactly one day into my first college course in twenty years (Boles, 2025). My struggle was never with the composition process, though; it was with the internal triggers and subsequent turmoil of returning to college “so late” in life to complete a degree that, in my opinion, I had already earned threefold in my real-life career. In short, I had a chip on my shoulder about being forced (by whom? by myself) to prove my competency in order to progress toward my career dreams.

            It is no secret that I am here to grab power. After a gruelingly entrepreneurial approach to solving the world’s problems, my career screeched to a poverty-inducing halt when my passion project failed to sustain funding. In the ashes of that devastation, through the tear-stained awakening of yet another ego death, it occurred to me that it was about time I “earned my papers” so that I could finally gain the prestigious law degree, respect, and influence I truly desired. That desire burns especially now, especially when the entire system is post-collapse. If I can fulfil my own haughty prophecy of “completing classes at a rapid pace,” it is feasible that I may be an eligible presidential candidate in time for the next election cycle. Absurd, ambitious, and perhaps even arrogant if it was not born of a demonstrated altruistic response to my own lived trauma – this is an intentional return to my earliest and longest-held life goal.

            I model my aspirational style after heroes like Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr., leaning heavily on spiritual models like Rumi and Ram Das. I intend to be a love-incarnate leader. So, it is only fitting for (and pleasing to, even postmortem, if they are watching) my staunchly peaceful and eloquent heroes that my first lesson was not to improve my writing skills but rather to return to humbleness, to remember that I am, and we are all, just a student here.

            My first essays were clean cut, technical, mechanical pieces that I wrote in spite of myself. They were a huffy nod to “doing school” as a box to check. Today, though, with this and the prior submission, my tough exterior has been cracked by the remembrance of humbleness. I enjoyed flexing critical writing muscles that have been atrophying beneath the ease of a career level at which I more or less write and say only what I want, how I want. I am enjoying poking fun at and genuinely acknowledging my growth as a human who wants to inspire those who walk beside me. And I am positively giddy when I receive an “exceeds expectations,” because it is a glimmer – the opposite of a trigger – sparkling at the edge of my perception like a memory of an earlier time when, despite it all, I did really well at something I loved.

Works Cited

Boles, Brittany. “Re: ENG 101-CBE1 (43171) (Spring 2025) Course FAQ, Milestone Guide, and Supplemental Resources.” Received by Daniel Ayala, 14 Jan. 2025.