Author's Note: Okay. I tried to make this look like a different font, but since that didn't work…you'll just have to imagine that the paragraphs are in Rory's handwriting. Okay. This isn't a Literati fic (one of two that are coming soon), just a general GG one-off, even sort of a ficlet. This is what I think Rory's essay should have been after she realized that Hillary Clinton wouldn't work.

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Personal Statement for Lorelai Leigh Gilmore :

Please evaluate a significant experience that's had an impact on you.

Or:

Tell us about someone who has had a significant effect on you.

There have been many people in my life who have had significant effects on me, almost too many to count. The—admittedly—loony people who live in my town have become a family to me, and I love them as if they were blood relations. The town itself seems to have a persona all its own. I know, having lived here all my life. My best friend since kindergarten has also had a large impact on me as a person, not to mention my musical tastes. But the person who has had the most significant effect on me and my life was my mother.

Aside from the fact that without her I wouldn't be alive, my mother made me what I am today. It all started when she was sixteen. She suddenly found herself pregnant with me, and unable to stay with her parents for personal reasons. After I was born, she took me, most of my baby paraphernalia, and ran.

My mother didn't run very far, only about forty miles, as a matter of fact, to a small town outside Hartford, Connecticut. In this small town, she found work, a place to live, and a loving environment in which to nurture me. Though she worked long hours, I never for one moment thought that I was less important than anything else in her life. She always made time for me, always provided everything I needed, often at the expense of something she wanted or needed for herself.

We watched each other grow up as well as grow older. We were and are each other's support group. I saw her through her first forays after my birth into the dating world, reconciling with my grandparents and my father, and struggle for the independence she's always craved. I listened to every bad day she had, joined her in mocking those who annoyed us, and held her every time she cried, just as she did for me. In return, she saw me through traumatic days at school, problems with my best friend, and boyfriend troubles when they entered the picture. She attended every school function I told her about, became friends with my friends, and sacrificed personally to make sure I had the finest education she could give me.

Things in our house were never in terms of "I." It was always what would be best for both of us, beneficial to the Gilmore laides as a team. Everything that happened in my life that would have been unpleasant was made into an adventure, which helped us both get through it. My mother taught me to face my fears head on. Or, if that didn't work, to sneak around, under, or plow through them until they went away. It is a policy that has served me well.

Despite the stigma of being a young mother, she has held her head high, never letting herself feel as if she's taken the wrong path in life. She's taught me there is no wrong or right path through life: there's only the one you've taken, and thinking about the others is useless unless you're trying to torture yourself with what might have been. The path you take in life can only be changed by what you do today, not what you could have done, or should have done, yesterday. She has never once made me feel like I've ruined her life with my very presence, though many have tried to convince her that I have. Never has she told me that everything that's gone wrong in her life is my fault. Responsibility for one's actions is another important lesson she's taught me.

To this day we are best friends. We always make sure to spend some time together each day. Whether it is to talk about the world's problems or to watch something lame on TV to make fun of it, we never miss it. She has supported me in everything I've ever wanted to do, whether it be writing for the school's newspaper or go out on a limb in my personal life (though she wasn't happy about that last, she supported me).

Through my life, I've seen her turn a fly-by-the-seat-of-her-pants teen mother into a successful businesswoman…who often flies by the seat of her pants. She, in turn, has watched me go from bumbling toddler, to gangly adolescent, to strong woman who very much admires her mother. Together, we've achieved far more growth as people than we could have ever hoped for on our own.

I will forever be thankful that I was born to Lorelai Victoria Gilmore. She's the best mother, friend, and woman in the world. It's a privilege to be her daughter.