Hi there. I'm applying to PhD programs in history this winter almost 10 years after having graduated from undergrad ('10). I had been feeling physically awful throughout high school and undergrad and shortly after I graduated I had a cascade of issues that forced me to take medical leave from the job I took after college in 2011 (legal assistant at my dad's firm, I just needed a job to start with and always wanted to go back to school). Long story short, I was not an easy case to crack and it took until last year for me to be diagnosed properly and start to improve enough to even think about work or school. I'm lucky that my family could afford to support me. Unfortunately I was diagnosed with a serious chronic illness (although thankfully I have a mild form of it) and now that I know what it is and what I can do about it I'm much better. I am working my way back to the path that I had always wanted, and with nearly 9 years of thinking about it I can say that I'm absolutely sure about wanting to go for the PhD and exactly what my intended focus would be.
Despite being as sick as I was (without even knowing it) I thankfully managed to make it through undergrad with a very good GPA, nominations for writing awards, cum laude honors, and as a member of the Phi Alpha Theta honors society for history. I have already contacted my professors from undergrad and they have enthusiastically agreed to write recommendations which I'm sure will be awesome. So in that respect, I'm not worried about what my academic history says about my potential for doctoral work. I have also identified professors of interest at schools that I want to apply to and started to contact them as well as attending open houses at the schools, all of which has gone well so far.
What I am having trouble with is figuring out how to deal with my statement of purpose since I am so far removed from my undergraduate years and don't have any relevant work experience to speak of due to being ill. I know that the statement should consist mostly of describing the period and aspects of history I want to cover and how I would translate that into a doctoral level dissertation topic, but every example I have seen so far ties that into the writer's current work whether in academia or otherwise. In addition, when I was in college I didn't focus on the time period and geographical area that I am now interested in. I studied a lot of 19th and 20th century European, Soviet, East Asian, and early American women's history because I liked the professors who taught those classes. I chose these professors because they were mentioned to me at the beginning as the most challenging/rigorous in the department, mostly because after a subpar high school GPA I wanted to become the best student that I could possibly be. I am now very interested in modern American history with a focus on the cultural and culinary history of the early 20th century, an interest which started with one of my last papers in undergrad for an American history class but is also rooted in my love of cooking and food history in general. Can I explain this in some way in my SOP or is it better to just skip over it. Or is this the type of thing I should include in my CV in academic experience?
As you can tell, I have a lot of questions and doubts in regards to writing my SOP as well as a personal statement/optional essay to go along with it to explain the illness so I don't have to do it in the SOP. I would greatly appreciate any advice that anyone has for me and thank you in advance for reading this!
