<p>any of you still go on that matthew chang essay site</p>
<p>i took my essay off and canceled my membership</p>
<p>I was going to post my essay and join, but I decided that 1) reading other people's essays would just make me nervous and anxious and make me doubt myself and that 2) I really didn't want to risk any sort of plagarism or anything, even though the system is designed to prevent that. I got the feeling that a lot of people posting there were trying to show off (not that I've actually read any of the stuff on the site, so I know that's not a good judgment to make).</p>
<p>I don't know how the people on there can stand reading other people's essays when their own essays are already in and unchangeable... I know I'd start thinking of all the problems with mine, or what I should've changed, or some great idea that I should have had.</p>
<p>IMO it's a bad thing to put your essays out there for all to read/review - and borrow from. It's hard, but the essays are supposed to be about personal expression, and just like chance threads, what you get back from others is just gratification or despair, rarely constructive advice.</p>