Personal essay questions

I. The Conversational Element (xxiv-xxv). Would you describe yourself as someone who often feels ambivalent about issues? Are you the kind of person who has lots of doubts? Do you make a habit of examining your doubts?
I would not call myself ambivalent, per se. I love to have intellectual conversations with anyone who is willing (and capable), and I consider myself open minded to others' views. I am opinionated and persuasive, but also not too resistant to persuasion myself if the argument is good enough. Throughout the course of an argument I might adjust my viewpoints due to either external or internal input -- that is, through another's persuasions or my own counterpoints in a stream of consciousness. I am not so much doubtful as a thorough thinker.

II. Honesty, Confession, and Privacy (xxv-xxvii). Would you describe yourself as a private person or do you tend to be more of an "open book"?
Like most people, I cannot fully place myself on one side of the fence. On one hand, I like to talk about myself as much as I like to hear about others. On the other hand, there are some things about me that some people don't need to know. For the most part I am honest about myself -- or at least how I perceive myself -- but the amount of information I withhold from others depends on to whom I am talking. Also, I find it much easier to talk about who I am than what I have done. Characteristics are easier to admit to than actions because they are generally more consistent.

III. The Contractions and Expansions of the Self (xxvii-xxix). How comfortable do you feel about talking about your flaws or things you've done in the past that embarrass you now? Are proud of your knowledge of a particular subject?
Things that happened in the far-off past are fairly easy to talk about when served with a healthy dose of humor. Sometimes it is difficult to get an objective view on more recent embarrassments and flaws when there is not enough time to think past the emotions involved. I prefer to discuss things when I can think rationally about them.

As for knowledge, I am proud of my amount of knowledge on etymology for someone who has not taken lots of classes on the subject. I feel like I have a fairly good grasp on words and their origins, and I am actually weighing my options as to how I can expand on that and use it in my future career, whatever that may be.

IV. The Role of Contrariety (30-31). How comfortable do you feel expressing an opinion that you know others will disagree with?
This is a funny subject. At first I am excited to express my viewpoints. Then, right after I've said it, I realize that people don't actually like my opinions and I often instantly regret saying anything ... and yet I do it again without thought next time.

Actually, this is not always true. My willingness to offer my opinions is usually dictated by how intimidated I am by the party. Usually I am not, but every now and then someone comes along that really kind of scares me. Maybe the person is adamant in the fact that he or she has the only correct opinion in the universe, or maybe they just don't seem like the type that would like to talk to me in a civilized manner. Whatever the case, I would rather keep my mouth shut in fear of getting my feelings hurt. Perhaps this makes me a coward in some sense, but in the case of self-preservation it's a character flaw with which I am willing to live.

I also realize that not everyone disagrees with me. It is astounding how many likeminded individuals I have found -- in college, especially -- when I am someone with such a strange combination of conservative and liberal ideals. However, there seem to have been more people than not who would rather boisterously put down the opinions of "that weird chick" than discuss things rationally.