I hate writing personal statements/statements of purpose for grad school applications. I hate trying to write "I'm awesome; you should let me in" things. I'm terrible at selling myself. Bikes--sure. Science, no problem. But I keep trying to come up with reasons why I want to go to grad school and I can't get anything beyond "I want a PhD and a career in research." I have no idea what I actually want to do my research on, just a list of things I'd like to avoid, and I'd be happy doing almost anything that isn't on that list. The only things I can actually talk about in any degree of detail are my undergrad research project (and that's fuzzy just because of distance) and my master's thesis, nothing from which has been published yet so I need to keep it kind of vague. Aptitude for graduate study? I've been bashing my head against a wall with my project and I haven't quit yet?

This whole process is soul-sucking. And I haven't even gotten to the personal history statement.