Sitting here trying to work on my personal statement for the PhD programs I'm applying to (need to submit it in next week or so). After I read yesterday how competitive the one program is--and I already KNEW one of the other two is highly competitive (less sure about the third)--I just keep thinking there's no chance I could get in. (Despite good grades in undergrad and grad school, pretty good GRE scores, and what I'm hoping are good letters of recommendation.) Which is making it really hard to focus on writing my statement. Or I keep thinking, "Maybe the statement is the one thing that will sway whether I'd get in or not," so then I'm putting more pressure on myself. Like I have to write the exact perfect statement, without knowing what that is (I mean, I know what needs to be in there, it's just the more "personal" part where I'm debating what angle to take). I really hate how my brain works...it's so self-defeating.