Personal Post - Personal statement topic?

Sam Tyler

Edit: I apparently didnt understand the difference between personal and diversity statements. I do now! This is a post about a potential personal statement. Edited the title.

Hey friends, personal post below. I'm Interested to hear if this would qualify as a good personal statement

I suffered from some difficult mental health problems that landed me in the hospital during my adoolesnce (depression, panic attacks, psychosis and hearing voices). I dropped out of university and lost a lot of my friends, it was a really rough period in my life. If it wasnt for my family and close friends who stuck with me as well as wonderful doctors and specialists I would never have made it.

I finally sought treatment, medication was huge but also I went Tree planting, which is this brutal job that is popular among students in Canada. For five seasons I worked outside 60+ hours a week, living in a tent and being feasted on by bugs with a small group of people who became some of my best friends. It was during these seasons and long days that my mental health improved the most.

I want to write a diversity statement called "how tree planting saved my life" or something, and tie my own mental health problems and my total 180 in terms of my own life (I'm getting great grades + good lsat score) could help me empathize with other people who arnt as lucky as me and didnt have the same access to supports. The criminal system is filled with people who feel through the cracks and it's important lawyers on both sides have the capacity to emphasize with the extraordinary difficulties people can face with their own mental health.

Is this an appropriate topic for a personal statement? Are there elements I should emphasize or things I shouldn't bring up? should I try and find something else?

Thanks

MissChanandler

This sounds a lot more like a personal statement than a diversity statement to me. Congratulations on all your progress!

Nabintou-1

I agree ^, think this would make for an excellent personal statement topic.

Tom_Tango

This is not diversity.

Sam Tyler

thanks for the tips! your totally right, I actually misunderstood the labels here, but I meant for this to be a topic for a personal statement, I didnt really understand the difference between personal and diversity statements. Its encouraging to hear people say they think this would be a good topic. Thanks!