I wrote a personal essay in college that was extremely, intensely personal and sincere. It was essentially a raw first draft and was all over the place to the point of incoherence. It had jokey asides that didn’t work and random anger at misdirected targets that I wasn’t expressing well or uniquely. In retrospect I feel bad for the reader, but boy I sure didn’t at the time.
The professor simply wrote “very heartfelt” before giving me a D.
She was right. What else was there to say?
