Ugh.

I haven't been posting anything on this blog for a while. This, I can attribute to a number of reasons - laziness, lack of inspiration, no mood, et cetera.

However, as a direct consequence of this inactivity, I fear that some of my knack for writing may have worn off a bit (maybe the sharper ones among you may notice that this is what I have implied in the seemingly-uninspired title to this post). Usually, this wouldn't be much of a problem since I'm not exactly doing anything academic for the time being.

Unfortunately, one of the scholarships I am currently trying to apply for is requesting that I submit a 500-word essay as part of my application. Besides the usual "Why this scholarship is for you" dross I also have to write about "How would you contribute to the good governance practices and leadership development of Malaysia?".

Yes, it's the Khazanah scholarship. After a bit of research on Google I have reason to believe that for the past four years at least, potential applicants have been writing about the exact same thing while applying for this exact same scholarship.

"So, what's the big deal?" you may ask. Well, frankly my task has gotten a bit more difficult, thanks to this small bit of information. How on Earth am I supposed to come up with something original for this essay? Something eye-catching? Something that makes me jump off the page? Something that at least four years' worth of applicants hasn't thought of yet?

Well, firstly - chances are, the ones reading the essays this year probably aren't gonna be the same ones who did it last year, or even the years before that.

Secondly - everyone's got a different story to tell. If I can avoid the cliches, maybe I'll be able to set myself apart from the other applicants.

Thirdly - and this one's a very, very long shot - most people will have turned away from the scholarship because of the essay. Thus, the competition is narrowed down. Although this would quite likely mean that the ones left are the really good applicants.

Well, writing this post is one way to get the creative juices flowing again. The deadline for the scholarship application is April 1st, this Sunday. Hopefully I'll be able to carve out a masterpiece by then.