And seriously, Tom, you could use that sentence as-is as an artist's statement or whatever. I say, not knowing anything about art or artist's statements!

I'm so sorry, Matt.

That's exciting, Tom! That seems like a perfectly cromulent biographical detail.

Lol, scandals are bad, but the "it's not a scandal it's a "scandal"" entertains me.

Just talked to my boss. She is checking whether I could take a leave of absence rather than quit, but if not, then to quit. I figure a leave of absence would only be good if I could take several months. And then I'd still probably be looking for jobs but it would be reassuring to know I could go back. On the other hand...freeeedom.

Why do you do photography?

While nothing can shut off the hypervigilance, instead of scanning the vicinity for nonexistent threats, composing photographs gives my brain something useful to do with the information it is bombarded with, and can be quite soothing.

If you don't want to include the detail about the hypervigilance, I think you could still use the last half of the sentence.

That sounds good, meara. So are you not working as of today?

Lol, scandals are bad, but the "it's not a scandal it's a "scandal"" entertains me.

Everything here becomes a scandal.

Just talked to my boss. She is checking whether I could take a leave of absence rather than quit, but if not, then to quit. I figure a leave of absence would only be good if I could take several months. And then I'd still probably be looking for jobs but it would be reassuring to know I could go back. On the other hand...freeeedom.

Woo! And yeah, if you could get like a four- or six-month leave, you could always quit during it.

Progress, meara!

Tom, I agree that the biographical wording works.

No scandals around here. Just too much work to do. Ran car to the dealership to get a new back window finally because when it was delivered it had a small crack in it. It was no hurry so I put it off until now. The loaner car makes me miss my car more.

DH has some kind of basketball banquet tonight so he is putting together 40 second clips of each of his players doing their thing. It would have been really nice if he had done this all season rather than going through a year's worth of video now.

I do not understand those who thrive on last minute stress.

No, still working until end of the month, as a notice period, but then either gone or LOA (if they let me).

While nothing can shut off the hypervigilance, instead of scanning the vicinity for nonexistent threats, composing photographs gives my brain something useful to do with the information it is bombarded with, and can be quite soothing.

I doubt that's the kind of biographical detail that they're looking for, though.

Tom, I think you could go personal if (and only to the extent that you) are comfortable with doing so.

If you would prefer to do so in a limited way, I like Teppy's suggestion. You could tweak the wording a little and you're most of the way there.

You might want to then consider relating that statement to the work you're submitting, and maybe add a sentence about how you see the world (or how the subjects speak to you on the theme in question).

You can do this. You do beautiful work.

To add to Tom's statement stuff, I think it would also fit to include something about how writing a personal statement is a challenge.