Statement of Purpose

A statement of purpose, is a brief and focused essay about one's career or research goals, and is frequently required for applicants to universities and professional schools. To the naked eye the above words are enough to describe the SOP, but trust me there’s more to what meets the eye. Just like every other desperate media artist in India I decided to go for further education as I wasn’t satisfied with my career statistics. I went to an educational adviser, we short listed Sheridan University. The lady passed me a list of documents I had to arrange, she said with great ease please write a statement of purpose. Its very easy; all you have to do is write why you want to go, what are your goals and maybe something about yourself . I had already started dreaming about assisting Steven Spielberg on his next multi million dollar venture. At home my brother was waiting as he knew about my visit, the knowledge was passed on to him as he sat back and stared at the fan, I am sure he must be imagining himself driving the red Ferrari after I become a successful director, after I assist Steven Spielberg, after I graduate from Sheridan and after I write my SOP. Its in the family we get carried away very easily, we like to call it creativity. Writing the SOP was not tough at all.It got over within half an hour, everything seemed perfect and I was one step closer to Steven. I have already started calling the great Steven Spielberg as Steven as if I am responsible for his status in the industry. It was time to evaluate the SOP. So I mailed it to a friend who was studying somewhere in Europe, his response was quick and short. It said, "Don’t mind me brother but your SOP sucks, it is full of trash and unprofessional language. U better write a new one.I'll give you some tips.Follow them, he said. Disappointed with the mail, I started again and this time followed the tips and wrote a bright and shiny SOP .It was literally shining like a brand new car. Again time had come to evaluate it, this time I chose my parents as they are generally aware of everything. They read the SOP several times and said ,"Don’t mind us but your SOP sucks; it needs a professional touch" and it was the second time I had heard those words in the past five days. I almost believed that sucking comes naturally to me, in the mists of all this drama the dead line for the application was getting close. The news of my not so successful SOP was all over the place.I was the zoo monkey everybody wanted to see and tease. You done with your SOP was the question my cousin Pushkar used to ask me everytime I logged into my mail account, as much as I wanted to say “yes” you peanut butter eating fat man I have done it but I couldn’t because I hadn’t. The career counselor added misery to my already misery driven life by reminding me that another 5 days had passed and the application dates were closing in. Google my tiny brain said to itself, let’s copy a good SOP from the net and get over with it. So I followed the instructions and copied a very intriguing SOP. Just changed the names, places etc “voila!” SOP ready for final inspection, this time I spoke to a lady who writes SOP’s for other people and has great experience in this line. To me creativity is “Creating something out of nothing” and its definition to me keeps changing because it is something that can’t be restricted to just one definition. That was the only line I had written myself in the SOP. The lady read it and got furious as she was on the phone with me while reading it. What is this line? It does not make any sense! Who do u think you are? Creativity is defined. I am creative and I know what creativity is, I write SOP’s every day and this one sucks. U better start all over again. She must be suffering from obsessive compulsive disorder, I thought to myself as she was pounding me on the phone. I could literally feel her slapping me. She was after me as if I had run away with her daughter, got married and had come to her for blessings. I hung up the phone and got back to sulking, I was getting used to this. In fact I had started liking it. You done with your SOP asked pushkar, this time I really wanted to slap him but it was not possible. Something had to be done to control my anger, I went to my orkut account and opened the slapster application and started slaping pushkar's face over and over again till my hands hurt. Time was running out I had lost too much time, now I had to do something constructive .I sat down and started writing the SOP keeping everybody's suggestions in mind. I took a day and it was ready. I was satisfied with it. All I had to do was go to the consultant and pass it on but it was too late. I had lost all intentions of going for further education. It just didn’t feel right. I was not interested at all. I don’t know what happened. Maybe it was the SOP, maybe it was just me. The reason for me to go for further education became the reason for me not to go.