Every so often during my bike ride home from work, I’ll slip into a fantasy about peddling all the way to…Canada. Maybe a result of spending too many daylight hours staring at a screen or merely of inhaling hallucinatory levels of car exhaust, I’ll imagine starting a frosty new life free from the trappings of the nine-to-five. Maybe …
If you haven’t told your parents you got into Northwestern, now would be a good time
This time last year, I still hadn’t told my parents that I had been accepted into Northwestern. Or, for that matter, that I had even applied. I’m a transfer student, and the college application process looked a little different the second time around. Aside from the general disaster that was applying to college while in …
“Maybe I should study [complete opposite of current major] instead…” and Other Pre-Professional Angst
Maybe it was being asked over Christmas dinner what I want to do with my life, anyway. Or maybe it was talking to friends from home with majors that flow logically into a career path and feeling the need to overcompensate by saying, "I can do anything I want with this!” while actually meaning, “I …
How to Transfer: The Real Life Fiasco
Freak out when you’re not happy every minute of every day – If college is supposed to the best four years of your life, then every minute counts, after all. Spend too much time scrolling through your Facebook newsfeed and wondering why your Thursday night is being spent scrolling through your Facebook newsfeed and eating …
Pseudo-Adulthood
The Trials & Tripulations Departs Arrives Fares 7:30 7:45 PEAK Continuously snooze your alarm until you’re at the point where you won’t be able to eat breakfast and you’ll give yourself, and your Mom whose driving you, a heart attack trying to make the train. 7:45 7:50 PEAK Search for your retainer that you still …
Losing Ourselves
Part 3: Whose Life is it Anyway?
Part 2: About the Learning
The Nightmare Before Prom
’Twas six weeks before prom and all through the school Reacting to the word with an "Ugh" was the rule. With college applications still fresh in our minds Now its a date we still had to find. One Thursday morning we woke up with a fright A prom dress group on Facebook had appeared overnight. “They’re going to run out of …
Part 1: Good Enough?
The Bleh
I had expected to feel happy and done and carefree and just plain free. I had expected to finally be able to focus on writing and reading and learning and everything I had put off doing until “after I’m done with college shit.” I had expected to use the lowered expectations and lack of grades …
Re: D-Day
From: TheCollegeofYourDreams@nevergonnahappen.net They aren't judging you, they're judging your application. They aren't judging you, they're judging your application. They aren't judging you, they're judging your application. Who am I kidding - I JUST WANT TO KNOW. I'm not allowed to freak out yet. I still have almost an entire week. I'll just write some other applications to take my mind off …
Hello My Greatest Fear Is…
What if instead of detailing our GPAs and number of Facebook friends and SAT scores and early decision schools and attractiveness ratings out of 10, our hypothetical name-tags showed only our greatest fears? If going into any conversation or interaction or relationship, we already understood the motives behind the other person's words and actions? If …
Second Quarter is the New Second Semester
Just write it. But I don’t want to. But you should. But I don’t want to. Fair. That’s fair. It is, isn’t it? But Rachel, you chose to do an independent study. You want to be a writer. You like to write. But I have my whole life to write. What’s stopping you from thinking …
Continue reading "Second Quarter is the New Second Semester"
To Press Submit
I had expected to feel anxious. Or excited. Or relieved. Or something a little stronger than ambivalent. My whole life had led up to this moment. Three years of cramming, of freaking out, of constantly feeling like there was more I could and should be doing. Five years of community service I didn’t do out …
More Than a Number
Number a sheet of lined paper from 1-25 and move your desks away from each other. You may begin. Grade on last math test: ________ Number of likes on your current profile picture: ________ SAT/ACT score: ________ Average number of Snapchats received per day: ________ Number of A's on last report card: ________ Number of clubs …
Why Press Snooze?
6:30 – I can’t. 6:35 – I still can’t. 6:40 – Should’ve studied last night. 6:45 – I’m not in the mood for school today. 6:50 – And my bed is just so comfortable. 6:55 – I’ll just study during homeroom. 7:00 – Five more minutes. 7:05 – Please, five more minutes. 7:10 – Shit …
That Time I Hit a Pole…and 19 other reasons driving’s not all it’s cracked up to be
1. It’s surprisingly easy to crash into things. "I've hit a parked car, a small tree, a moving car, and the curb. But thankfully no people...yet." 2. Especially if you drive the family mini-van "My parents should be thanking me for the fact that I've only backed into two other cars considering I basically drive …
SAT: The Self-Assessment Test
1. Did you study enough? Yes, you took a two-month long prep class and were tutored for weeks after that. But you didn’t always do all of the homework you were assigned because tests and clubs and friends and projects and Drivers Ed got in the way and it’s impossible to fit nine 25-minute practice …
An Abridged Dictionary of SHS
ACT |āsēt|-- The four-hour-long test that isn’t the SAT. Anxiety |a ng ˈzī-itē|-- The drumming of fingers on a desk or the tap tap tapping of an Ugg-clad foot or the coloring in of an entire sheet of paper with highlighter that occurs as you sit in class thinking about the 75 Spanish vocabulary words you need …
What’s in an Hour?
23 minutes out of 60 spent actually doing work. In other words, 37 minutes out of the 60 during which I was supposedly working were wasted doing anything but. Maybe I'm just easily distracted. Maybe I need more discipline. Or maybe I am going about the work I have to do in exactly the wrong …
This is Normal
This is normal. I color in entire sheets of paper with highlighter as I sit in class thinking about college or wondering whether I have done enough or am enough. This is rational. I chew on my bottom lip until I taste metal in my mouth as I lie in bed worrying about what I …
To Get Into College
For every college you might apply, sign up for newspaper emails; if admissions has a blog or website, sign up for updates; email a professor who might be interested in the documentary you’re making; if you have questions that are really not anywhere on the website feel free to email admissions—colleges keep track of all …
Losing Ourselves 