Lately, I've had a tough time brainstorming what to write. My past few articles have been things that I thought hard on what their topics could be and then they almost became mindless writing once I got to it.

This week, I had the same problem. What would people find interesting about me? Do they want to hear about my summer classes or my part-time job that became a full-time job this week? Do they want to know about how I'm obsessed with AmazonPrime Originals and PBS shows? Do they want to hear about how excited I am for formal sorority recruitment this fall, after I spent most of my freshman year feeling that I was missing something and that maybe Greek life could help me find it? Or do they want to hear about the more unique things in my life, how the wind set off my house alarm and called the local police to sweep my house for intruders at 2am (and the whole deal made me sleep with the lights on for a week)?

Whatever they want to read this week, I'm still not sure myself, so I googled "personal essay prompts." The first result was the Common Application and their personal essay prompt for college applications. It's been almost two years since I wrote my personal essay and since then, I haven't had to think so critically about myself.

After scrolling past the Common App, I clicked on "500 Prompts for Narrative and Personal Writing" on the New York Times. Most recently updated last March, the NYT Staff has compiled a list of questions based off of articles written over the years that they have asked high school students. These questions prompt you to think critically about yourself, your upbringing and your surroundings. They're separated by categories, focused on life stages, upbringings, families, and ethics, making it easier for you to pick and choose what you plan to explore about yourself.

As I read through the list of questions, I started to realize that I myself don't know the answers. There are a few that I could easily answer, like "What were your favorite picture books when you were little," Go, Dog Go and Green Eggs and Ham and "Who are the characters that make your town interesting," which is easily "flag man," this guy that rides around town in his pickup truck or his bike, both decked out in American flags and plants flags in unusual spots, like the intersection in front of my high school or the town courthouse.

But the others? I'm still not sure. I can't quite explain how I define family other than my immediate family and I'm still not quite sure "how full" my glass is. It may not be on this list, but I always seem to struggle with the "tell me a fun fact about yourself" part of syllabus week. That's something, like the questions on this list, that I need to explore.

But that's okay. That's what this list is for; it helps us ask ourselves these questions and think more about who we are as people.

After spending the afternoon trying to answer some of these questions, I think that I'm going to spend my next few weeks (and any other time that I can't seem to find a topic) answering these prompts on the Odyssey. It might not be what exactly what would answer the question of "what do people want to read," but it will help me answer "who am I?"