Self-care Isn’t Always About Letting Yourself Indulge In An Activity Or Do Whatever You Want. Sometimes

really cute

barcelona, march 2019.

okay, so here in california precautionary measures against COVID-19 have become increasingly intense. most schools have closed and are preparing to make the transition to “distance learning” aka online classes. this is a big change for many of us – but don’t panic!

welcome to surviving online classes 101!

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✐ self discipline

this is more of a warning than a tip. working from home means you will have to exercise a lot more self discipline. it can be a little bit boring or lonely at times. you cannot count on motivation from others (professors, classmates, friends, etc.), so you will have to learn some self discipline. 

✐ create your own classroom

a good way to make the transition is to try and mimic the classroom setting as closely as possible. something that might be helpful is to set up a space designated for work. try to avoid the temptation to work in your bed or on the couch. that trains your brain to be alert in those places and makes it harder to relax/fall asleep. at least during online lectures, try and eliminate distractions that wouldn’t be present in a regular classroom (like tv or netflix playing in the background, or having your phone out)

✐ dress for success!

dress in the way that makes you feel most productive. if you’re one of those people who usually rolls into class wearing sweats and still kills it, good for you! if you’re one of those people who needs to put on a full face of makeup to feel alive and ready for the day, do that! even at home!! i personally never wear makeup but if i try to be productive in pjs… disaster. i’ve also found that cute workout gear makes me feel badass while still being comfy.

✐ create a schedule

now more than ever you need to figure out how to manage your time. you can use a planner, bujo, google calendar, the forest app, whatever. just make sure you keep track of things like

due dates and TIMES

exam dates

lecture times

hours spent studying

meals (pls eat 3 if possible)

water intake

sleep schedule

✐ pack your bag like you usually would

i know this probably sounds so dumb, but when you’re done working clean up after yourself. pack everything up like you would at school, to sort of signal to your brain that academic time is over for now. and then unpack and set up when you’re ready to get to work again. this is just another way to trick your brain into that school mindset while you’re stuck at home.

✐ don’t overwork yourself

break up your studying into chunks. being cooped up all day can make us feel like we’re wasting time, but be sure to schedule breaks and reward yourself after a solid study session. i’m a big fan of the pomodoro method, and it can be customized really easily to allow for more or less study/rest time. 

✐ maintain a healthy sleep schedule

now is the time to develop that healthy sleep schedule we all dream about. staring at a computer all day is exhausting and hard on the eyes and brain, so make sure to give them enough rest and time to recover each night. also, consider investing in glasses that block blue light, even if you don’t usually use glasses. this will keep our eyes young lol. 

✐ communicate with your teachers and classmates

most of us are making this transition to online learning together. any time you have questions, email your professor. reach out to your classmates at the beginning and exchange emails/phone numbers/social media so you can build a support system. if something goes wrong, screenshot it immediately and reach out to your professor. technology isn’t perfect, and mistakes can happen, just communicate them.

✐ turn things in early

this is my biggest tip. when you are relying on online submissions for assignments and digital lectures, you always want to allow extra time to fix any errors you might encounter. your professor will also be much more willing to help you fix a problem two days before a deadline rather than two minutes before a deadline. eliminate that uncertainty by playing it safe with online submissions. 

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GOOD LUCK EVERYONE!! YOU GOT THIS!! WE GOT THIS!!

what did you write your college essays about?

all sorts of things!

common app: prompt about background/identity/interest/talent - a book my mom bought me in third grade called why do men have nipples? and how that initiated my lifelong curiosity and questioning of the things in this world and how i use poetry to answer those questions

stanford: extracurricular - feminism club (i used this essay for any college asking about an extracurricular)

stanford: intellectual vitality - my obsession with japanese pens and how it reflects my experimental/sciencey mind that i use in research

stanford: roommate -  i basically kindly asked that my roommate make room for my muse, because she takes up a lot of space, and then i just talked about my muse/writing process

stanford: what matters to you and why - memes and how one particular tumblr meme reflects the importance of languages/communication

brown: why the major you chose - languages/growing up learning languages and psychology/research and its implications

brown: why brown - open curriculum, comp lit department not so eurocentric

brown: where have you lived - suburbia is boring but also grateful for good support system

brown: community - school lit mag

columbia: why columbia - columbia shp and psychology, comp lit department

columbia: why the major you chose - creative writing and psychology

cornell: why cornell - passion for languages, comp lit department, psychology, personality attachment and control lab, cornell traditions

dartmouth: When you meet someone for the first time, what do you want them to know about you, but generally don’t tell them? - this one is kinda hard to explain bc of its format but basically i wrote about creative writing, psychology, and social activism

harvard: your choice - being biracial, feeling excluded from both cultural communities, and the process of learning that i am not half of each, i am both

princeton: the prompt about culture - biracial (same as harv essay)

uchicago: how are apples and oranges supposed to be compared? - i basically just bashed wallace stevens for being pretentious, then wrote a parody of his poem “study of two pears” titled “study of not two pears, but of one apple and one orange,” then analyzed the “meaning” behind my parody poem, and continued to bash wallace stevens during the “analysis” lol

uchicago: why uchicago - i wrote about how when i visited uchicago over the summer with a friend, instead of listening to our tour guide, we spent the majority of the time running away from bees. then i wrote about how despite the bees, uchicago’s numerous redeeming qualities far outweigh the prospect of living in a beehive for the next four years. and i like talked about the comp lit department, traditions like scav, kuvia, and the latke/hamantash debate, and concluded that uchicago is hella weird and nothing like what it seems on the surface. i actually had sooo much fun with this essay hahhaha

uchicago: favorite things - i wrote about how my favorite food is ice cream and how everyone i’ve told this to always claims that ice cream is not a food and so this was a defense of “my beloved ice cream”

penn: why penn - comp lit department, kelly writers house, penn traditions

yale: why yale - ok this essay is really really bad and basically i thought i was being ~bold~ and ~gutsy~ but honestly in hindsight it just came off really rude and i don’t blame yale at all for rejecting me LOL (i took up 70 out of the 100 words talking about how the best part about yale was the singing in its music video “that’s why i chose yale,” and then i said i was kidding, and then i wrote one sentence about a literature class and a psych lab specific to yale lol rip)

yale: your choice - biracial (same as prince and harv)

macaulay honors college: of which activity do you derive the most joy - my obsession with writing and the brain and research

macaulay honors college: overcoming an obstacle - biracial essay (same as prince and yale and harv)

mit: cultural background and identity - biracial essay

mit: hobby - tumblr

mit: which program - writing department

mit: betterment of community - feminism club extracurricular essay

mit: world you come from - suburbia and how it’s boring and how at mit i will experience a new, innovative environment that’s entirely different and whatnot

mit: significant challenge - learning to love myself

i think that about covers all of my essays lol lmk if you want me to post any of them :)

There are three rules.

1. If you do not go after what you want, you will never have it. 

2. If you do not ask, the answer will always be no. 

3. If you do not step forward, you will remain in the same place. 

i love flora

essays for days (i love this app 🌲)

a list of my favorite study tips (and when to use them)

summer:

invest in a book of short stories for each language you’re studying, and keep the book(s) on your bedside table. take advantage of the free time while out of school to get in the habit of reading through the short stories whenever you can. just a few minutes of reading the short stories every day will immensely improve your foreign language skills and keep you from forgetting the vocab & grammar over summer break

acquire a list of the books you’ll be reading for school in the fall and start reading them. to get the list of books, try asking someone who’s already taken the class, your future teachers, or a school counselor. reading the books ahead of time will not only put you ahead of the rest of your class by giving you time to work through the material in advance; it will also significantly lessen your workload during the school year.

this applies to the school year as well, but especially when you’re reading books in advance, keep a journal and pen at hand every time you read. write down the major plot points of the section you’re reading, what you like/agree with, what you dislike/disagree with, and one or two quotes that summarize the main themes of the section (make sure you include page numbers!!!!). when school starts & you’re assigned an essay on that book, you’ll already have the main points of the book laid out, and lots of great quotes—with page references!—to use in your essay.

two weeks before school starts:

take a look at your syllabus and get started on your first assignments. if you start now, you can stay at least one week ahead on all of your assignments throughout the year. this is a HUGE lifesaver when something comes up unexpectedly during the school year—like getting sick or having to go out of town for a few days at the last minute—and you don’t have time to get homework done, because if you’ve done it in advance then you won’t have to worry about falling behind.

get a planner app for your phone. i like egenda, but you can use any app where you input homework assignments in advance and it alerts you at various intervals of time before they’re due. it’s impossible to get a good grade on an assignment if you forget to turn it in on time, so just alleviate that issue altogether.

throughout the school year:

take notes. have a notebook open in every class, and write down all important names, dates, quotes, formulas, and theorems. write the current date at the top of each page, and have a separate notebook for each subject. if a teacher repeats something more than once in a class, underline it, because those are the things that appear on midterms and finals.

help yourself memorize things by writing essays about them. even if you’re not assigned an essay about a topic, try to write/type two or three paragraphs every week to summarize what you’re learning in a class. writing things in your own words is one of the best ways to remember them, and it will also help you to improve your writing skills. additionally, this should be applied to all subjects, not just literature or history (because even if you’re studying a STEM field and writing isn’t a huge part of the curriculum, you should still have the ability to write about STEM concepts in a way that is understandable and engaging).

befriend the smartest person in the class. figure out who always has the right answers and make yourself their ally. be a good friend to them, and then when you’re struggling with a concept, they will either explain it to you or—if they don’t know what the explanation is yet—they’ll help you search for it.

take advantage of indexes. almost all books have one, and they can be lifesavers if you don’t know the answer to a question. especially in history class, when there are a bunch of names that are super difficult to memorize. i know this is a pretty basic tip (if you can even call it a tip), but i’ve had a lot of friends completely forget about indexes, so this is just a brief reminder. :)

participate in class. this might sound super obvious, but you cannot retain information without discussing it! if you’re like me and participating in class sucks because of social anxiety, try to force yourself out of your comfort zone & remember that you are your own worst critic, but it’s also okay just to discuss things with a close friend or family member instead. the important thing is that you’re repeating what you’ve learned out loud and practicing explaining it to someone else, which will really help you to grasp the concepts.

three weeks before midterms/finals:

now is when all of your notes come in handy. go back through the notes for each class and study them, particularly the parts you’ve underlined. you shouldn’t try to memorize the pages, but you should study them enough that—by finals week—you could summarize the contents if someone asked you pointed questions about them. this is also when it becomes extra helpful to be friends with the smartest person in the class, because they will be an excellent study buddy. just make sure that you reciprocate if you ask them to help you study.

fill in any gaps in your notes by talking to your teachers and attending all of the office hours that you can. many teachers will give you a study guide if you ask for one, and you can literally go through and fill it in with info from your notes. remember, most of your teachers really do want you to do well, and they’ll try their best to help you achieve the best scores possible.

if any of your quizzes are open book, ask your teacher if you can put completely blank sticky notes on pages. bookmark the pages that have important events, quotes, facts, etc., and then if you forget something on a test you can refer to the book & it will be much easier to find the information. personally, the only open book finals i’ve had are the kind where you just write three 1000 word essays in 3 hours, but we are required to have at least 5 quotes in each essay, so if that’s the case for any of you guys then this tip is super helpful for bookmarking those quotes as well.

while taking a final/midterm:

read through the whole test first. figure out how long it is, how much time you have, and how many points each question is worth. if you’re worried about running out of time, start by doing the problems that are worth more points, and then out of whatever’s left do the ones that look easiest first. this will guarantee that you make the best use of your time & get the highest grade possible

and that’s all i can think of right now! hope this can help at least a few people :)

me next year

29.10.2018.

major mood

Are you in love with someone?

Nah I got shit to do