dropofgoldensun

[dropofgoldensun]

@ihsmarat OMG OP THE WAY MY HEART MELTED READING THIS 😭💖💝💓 thank you for your kind words :(( i do love writing haechan blurbs lol he fits every scenario so well :D

[12:25 pm]

you’ve been avoiding making eye contact with donghyuck through the mirror for the past half minute or so, pretending to busy yourself with brushing your teeth. the morning (afternoon?) has been slow, with you waking up first and him complaining when you laid across his stomach. now that you’re standing in the bathroom, you can see how you’re both sporting equally chaotic bed hair, and you try to ignore the pillow marks on your cheek.

for a split second, your eyes dart to donghyuck’s face, and he chooses that moment to wiggle his eyebrows at you—a great combination with his lopsided glasses and the toothbrush sticking out of his mouth.

you choke on your toothpaste, sputtering into the sink as you hear him laughing behind you. “you’re gonna regret that, hyuck.”

he merely smirks in response, gesturing to the toothpaste dripping down your chin. you quickly wash it off, cleaning your toothbrush and finishing your time at the sink with a flick of the wrist in his direction. he jumps, water droplets sticking to the lenses of his glasses, and he narrows his eyes at you.

you’re in for it.

he spits into the sink, and, ignoring the fact that you’ve started fixing your hair, he scoops you up, runs back to his room, and tosses you onto the bed.

“hey—!” your sentence is cut off as donghyuck sits on you, effectively preventing you from going anywhere. a devilish smile plays on his face as he leans down next to your ear and whispers,

“are you ticklish?”

[dropofgoldensun]

omg hiiiii i am here from cat (@luvdsc) wondering if you could offer any advice about college apps 🙏 especially about the uc piqs? thank you so much i hope ur doing well!!!!!!!!

yes yes hello friend !! 💝 miss cat directed you to me because i did my college apps last year !!! (yikes one year passed already?? why does that feel ages ago 🤧)

first of all, congratulations on making the decision to apply to college !! i know it’s been hard for a lot of people our age to figure out the college situation recently, so i’m proud of you for choosing to take the extra step this summer to buckle up and write those essays 💞

i’ve compiled a few tips on answering the PIQs (i was actually in the middle of typing this up when i received your ask haha), but some of them can be applied to other essays, as well !! they’re all under the cut (because, unfortunately, being brief is not my forte) 😊

(and for reference, the prompts i chose were #2 (creativity), #6 (subject), #7 (community), and #8 (anything) !!)

tip #1: understand the prompt.

before you even begin writing, it’s important to understand what the question is really asking. for the UC PIQs, this will look different depending on which four prompts you decide to do.

in question one, for example, they want to know about your skills in leading others, but notice that they’re also curious about your resolution abilities and teamwork experience. or in question two, they don’t want to know that you paint and that you love painting—they could be asking how resourceful you are, how you think outside the box when you have an idea.

once you know the question you’re going to be answering, you can move on to brainstorming!

tip #2: write down three (3) key takeaways.

these are like the most basic, not-even-a-sentence answers you would give to each question. so for me, in response to question eight (“what do you believe makes you stand out as a strong candidate for the UCs?”), my answers were perseverance, courage, and character. i had a story about that, so i wrote about my experience with martial arts.

i recommend you do something similar. decide on three things that you want to communicate to your audience, and write them in the footnote of your document. your goal is to cover all three points so that, if anyone were to read your essay, they would walk away understanding those three things about you.

i found this strategy really helpful for keeping my essay streamlined while writing—if a sentence didn’t relate to any of those main points, i would cut it since those words would take up valuable space in the word count. stay focused on what needs to be in this essay, and if you have extra words left in the word count later, you can add those details back in.

and once you’re done with your essay, make sure to refer back to your takeaways and check that you covered all of them sufficiently!

tip #3: highlight your stories.

i sent cat an ask a couple days ago with a few pictures of my response to an end-of-year college counseling survey that referenced this tip (you can find it here). basically i said that, when choosing what topics to write about, pick things that interest you! if you get excited talking about it, your audience should get excited about reading it, because they’ll pick up on the passions you have and then everyone’s excited !!! :D

i’ll tell you a secret: everyone you meet, everyone you see, has countless unique experiences that few others may have. me? i spend hours making mashups out of kpop songs. i earned my black belt years after a traumatizing experience during training. i get russian harry potter and spanish dr. seuss books from the library. and i created a collaborative online google photos album for my classmates that now has thousands of entries. although these aren’t necessarily unique to only me, they’re still special enough to the point where, when you put them all together, you get a better image of the person i am, and what i value.

so find a story, a habit, a hobby that makes you different, because i believe that everyone has them. give them some food for thought, or that one-liner that sticks in their brain and won’t go away. and remember: these stories don’t all have to be extraordinary—they should be about people or moments of special value to you, because that’s what matters.

personal tip: when i was brainstorming ideas, i decided that the best way to get ideas out there was to go on a rant (because sometimes it helps to just have a conversation with yourself !!) and i recorded myself, so i could replay what i said !! this was so so crucial to me finding my own voice for writing essays. notice the way you word things when you talk—a good line or two may make it into the final draft :)

i found it helpful to read sample essays as well! they give a lot of great ideas on the kinds of topics people write about. (also, it’s kind of fun, because who doesn’t love a good story?)

but the people reading your essay won’t be there to just enjoy your story; what they really want you to do is to tell them what you learned from your experience. they want to know whether you’re teachable and willing to grow both as a student and as a young adult. so make sure to take note of the life lessons you learned, experience you gained, character you built, etc.

minor tip on ending your essay: if you’re telling a story that happened in the past, then close with what you learned and how you can apply that to your life moving forward. if you’re telling a story that has no definite end yet (like a passion or dream you have), you probably don’t have everything figured out (and you can say that in your essay!), so it might be better to close with your hopes for the future.

tip #4: ask your family for help.

peer-editing is one of the most effective ways to detect errors and inconsistencies in your writing, because, after staring at your essay for so long, you might gloss over glaring contradictions. for all of my essays, i printed them out and asked my parents to help me revise them. we’d meet every other night (or every night, depending on how much time was left) to review and discuss improvements.

i actually kept some of those printed drafts (only the first and the final ones for comparison), and let me tell you from experience—you’re probably going to have a lot of drafts (i think the most i did was seven? but you don’t need to go that far!). this part of the process does take some time, so remember to be patient and kind to yourself :) these essays won’t happen overnight!

enlisting the help of others also helps keep you accountable. one of the struggles many seniors face while writing essays is just... setting aside time to do them. and even though the constant reminders from your parents will definitely get repetitive and a bit stress-inducing, i can tell you from personal experience that i’m so glad they did; otherwise, i don’t think i’d have my essays done in time :’)

while writing college essays is challenging, your family will be there supporting you each step of the way. chances are that they’ll have their own pointers to pass on to you, since they probably remember doing this process themselves! and, out of everyone in your life, they probably remember the most about you (because you probably don’t remember much when you were four or five), so they might have a couple starter ideas for topics when brainstorming. you can rely on them for their advice and their experience.

tip #5: self-editing.

here’s the part that takes the longest time.

use action words. this is probably something you’ve heard all throughout elementary school where they didn’t like you to say “said” because it was “boring”… but honestly, the difference between “doing my own version” and “infusing it with my personality” could go a long way. also, use words that you would actually use in an essay—then it’ll have your own special flair, and not sound like it’s taken from some stuffy 80s textbook!

here are some of the words i used (once again, you shouldn’t use these words if they don’t sound like something you’d write/say): potential, overlay, wrestle, launch, analogous, weave, infuse, experiment, outlet, revel, fascinate, satisfaction, pursue, expand, distinction, capture, range, archive, engage, beyond, build, adversity, cultivate, preserve, commit, explore, convey, naturally

also, be on the lookout for repeated words. i once wrote an essay without noticing that i used “hope” three times in the same paragraph. don’t do that! use synonyms :) personally, i tended to run short on synonyms, so i always kept a tab or two open on my computer reserved for searching up new words.

side note: unfortunately, during my search for synonyms, i discovered that thesaurus.com just didn’t give me what i was looking for. i highly recommend using wordhippo instead; it has so many more options and they’re grouped by the different definitions of your word! i found the synonyms i needed really quickly and it was very satisfying!

avoid the passive voice! my teacher gave me this tip for theses or any other college-level writing. here’s an example of the passive voice: “there was a large part of me that wanted to turn back.” that’s twelve words taking up precious space in your word count! instead, say something like, “i considered turning back.” you’ve just freed up eight words :)

tip #6: final revisions.

this is the step where you fine-tune your essays. meet that word count.

read your writing out loud. does it sound like you? it should. every writer has a different voice, and you need to ensure that yours is pervasive throughout your essay. feel free to use contractions—not only do they reduce your word count (this was a good thing for me, since i had a problem with getting under 350 words), but they also give a more casual tone to your essay, as if you’re telling a story to someone in the room.

next, pretend to be an admissions officer and have someone else read your essay to you. do you get excited hearing about this student who shares your name? if you do, there’s a good chance the real admissions officers will love your essays, too. this also gives you a chance to review to your essay as a whole. pay attention to the overall flow. is there a clear beginning and end? do you resolve the issues and overcome the trials you brought up? listen to it as if it’s a story, and take this time to enjoy what you’ve written. you worked hard!

final thoughts / encouragements.

oh my goodness, did we make it to the end? honestly if you did, thank you so much 🥺

okay but despite my relatively optimistic tone throughout this post, i’m still going to be honest with you—the college essay writing process is difficult. it requires you to look inside yourself and analyze the “why” behind some of the things that you love, and that isn’t easy to do at all. it’s intellectually and emotionally challenging, because not only do you need to use so much energy writing, but you also have to dig deeper to understand yourself, and that’s not easy, either.

but i wanted to encourage you, too. no matter what you may think of yourself at 12am, 2am, 4am writing these essays, believe you have a personality that others love and will love when they meet you. you are an interesting person with unique experiences who deserves to share your thoughts with others. you have so many people behind you, supporting you during these next few months. and when you find that you can’t write any more, remember to take time to care for yourself. have a warm shower. go to bed early. i could go on and on about why sleep is good for your brain but i’ll spare you the details in this post 😉

one last thing: keep the bigger picture in focus. remember, by december or january, you will be finished with most of the application process. that’s no small accomplishment. you can do it. 💝

i really hope you found tips that you were looking for, and that they’re applicable to your own PIQs and other essays !! if you have any other questions, feel free to send in another ask (i promise my response won’t be this lengthy LOL) 💘💓

oh, and if you feel comfortable enough reaching out about anything in particular, i’m only a DM away 💕 i wish you the best of luck on writing your essays and i hope you enjoy your final year of high school !! 💗🌸💟💖

#reblogging this because it's college apps season!! #good luck with essays everyone !!!

[dropofgoldensun]

pink fairy tyong ♡

#happiest of birthdays to the best leader ever #kindness personified heaven sent angel lee taeyong !! where do i start #you've always been such an encouraging figure to your group members and to those around you #you constantly push them to be their best selves and you do it all with so much heart #if anyone has ever deserved to lead it's you #and despite the spotlight that comes with it you are still so thoughtful and sweet and humble #thank you for all that you do for nct and czennies and everyone and i hope you have the best day ever <333 #taeyong

[dropofgoldensun]

feel my rhythm :: wendy

#pretty pretty #wendy

[dropofgoldensun]

hiiiiiii april it's steph (aqiaquas), happy birthday! hope you're well and enjoying college life 💖💖💖

omg aaaah hello steph !!! and THANK YOU 🤩💝💞💘💕 i can’t believe my first year of college will be done in two weeks! that’s crazy :’)) but as of right now, it’s been really fun, i had/have several end-of-the year banquets for the clubs i’m in and they were all such a nice final event to close out the year 🥰🥰🥰

#asks #mutuals

[dropofgoldensun]

https://www.instagram.com/p/BT1ImJ6FK_y

#aesthetics

[dropofgoldensun]

list of things that are special today-

22/2/22 (all twos)

22/02/2022 (PALINDROME)

22/2/22 on a tuesday (two-s day)

[dropofgoldensun]

I'M YOUNGEUN IN MY DANCE GROUP'S KEP1ER WA DA DA COVER AAAAAH

#EEEE so excited :DD #sundrops

[dropofgoldensun]

jisung ♡ heart (original by IU)

#what am i if not a jisung love blog #everybody say thank you jisung for this beautiful iu cover #his voice is so healing 🥺 #jisung

[dropofgoldensun]

[10:27 pm]

stargazing is like spending time with jisung—the longer you do it, the more you see that you didn’t notice before.

“how many of them do you think are up there?” jisung asks, staring at the open sky.

you scoff. “at least twenty.”

“hey, i’m being serious.”

the playground is bare except for the two of you, sitting on the swings with heads craned towards the sky. you weren’t sure why, but you always found yourself coming back here, to the meeting place jisung had chosen in first grade. or rather, the spot by the swingset where he’d sent a cherry ball flying into the side of your head and begged for your forgiveness.

you like to tease him about it every once in a while.

Keep reading

#happy jisung day :)

[dropofgoldensun]

#OurUniverseJisungDay🐹

#op this gifset is so cute omg #seeing all of his mvs in one place from chewing gum to beautiful makes me feel smth ;-; #happy jisung day !!! #gosh where do i start?? #jisung i'm so proud of how you've grown and changed over these years #i love the way you see the world and sometimes i wish we could all share a bit of the same wonder you have #thank you for blessing us with your lovely presence and amazing talents #and thank you for always working so hard and giving everything your all !! #ily even though you still don't know how to wash produce <3 #hope you have an amazing 21st birthday !! #jisung

[dropofgoldensun]

behind of we go up

#haechan #jeno #they're gorgeous

[dropofgoldensun]

alice_meow_ha

#aesthetics

[dropofgoldensun]

ephemeral | l.dh.

e·phem·er·al adj. lasting for a very short time.

pairing: donghyuck x reader

genre: victorian au, fluff, angst, young!donghyuck, young!reader, ft. brother!doyoung and donghyuck’sbrother!taeyong

word count: 1.5k

warnings: none

summary: you make a new friend at a dinner party that your family is attending. there is much in common between the two of you: you love eating biscuits, you love dancing, you love pretending to be stiff-lipped adults when you don’t have a care in the world.

a/n: this was originally a timestamp but then it ended up being really long and well… guess it’s a fic now :’)

“For you, my lady.” Young Donghyuck pretends to bow the way he has been taught, and he holds out a flower to you that looks suspiciously similar to the ones in the planters.

Your response is a “thank you, kind sir” that is stifled by your hands as you accept his gift, giggling as he hands it to you. You spin and your intricate lace dress flares out around you, and Donghyuck laughs when you almost fall over.

The dinner party you both are at is being hosted by a mutual friend of your families. Though this does not mean that your families are on completely good terms with one another, tonight they have at least been able to maintain a sort of cordiality while in each others’ presence.

Donghyuck and you have never met before, not until he noticed you struggling to reach a biscuit from the light snacks table, when he decided that he would help you. His first instinct had been to tell you that your pale pink dress and matching pale pink bow looked nice — it was his go-to at events like this, where there were many people to please and he had to be polite. But when you had turned to him with eyes shining and a cute “thank you”, the words had died in the back of his throat, and all he could do was stammer out a “yes”.

You learned that he was seven years old, like you, and he learned that this was not your first social event, like him. You both had older brothers (Donghyuck had pointed out one of his, Taeyong, from across the room), you both preferred chocolate wafers over vanilla, and you both liked to look at huge chandeliers while standing right underneath them (and every time you did this, your brother Doyoung would come and scoop you up to get you out of the way, as if he was scared it would fall on you).

And, with so many things in common, you wonder why you and Donghyuck have never even seen each other before.

Keep reading

#updated the cover for this one too !!

[dropofgoldensun]

hand sanitizer | p.js.

pairing: jisung x reader

genre: high school au, fluff

word count: 3.7k

warnings: none

summary: you just wanted to hang out with chenle and jisung and eat a bagel during class and enjoy the company of your classmates — and all three of those did happen, just not one after the other as you’d normally expected.

a/n: stay safe everyone!

Your break between your Friday classes is ten minutes, long enough to put your books down, grab a snack from your locker, and talk to Chenle before the teacher opens the class with an entertaining story about his three year old son.

But your usual teacher is not here today (he is at a wedding, after which your class can expect at least two stories about the experiences he had that day), and in his place is a substitute teacher, a mother of one of the students in your class who has brought your group some bagels to eat during the lesson. She is kind, and is at the moment reviewing some notes as you and Chenle catch up.

Chenle is animatedly recounting what happened in physics last hour, how him and Jisung were supposed to be making marble rollercoasters out of halved pool noodles and tape, and that Jisung kept dropping the marbles so often that him and Chenle had to switch jobs in their group.

“He really does have poop hands,” Chenle sighs, shaking his head at you as if to say, Can you believe this guy?

Keep reading

#updated the header!!

[dropofgoldensun]

[12:25 pm]

you’ve been avoiding making eye contact with donghyuck through the mirror for the past half minute or so, pretending to busy yourself with brushing your teeth. the morning (afternoon?) has been slow, with you waking up first and him complaining when you laid across his stomach. now that you’re standing in the bathroom, you can see how you’re both sporting equally chaotic bed hair, and you try to ignore the pillow marks on your cheek.

for a split second, your eyes dart to donghyuck’s face, and he chooses that moment to wiggle his eyebrows at you — a great combination with his lopsided glasses and the toothbrush sticking out of his mouth.

you choke on your toothpaste, sputtering into the sink as you hear him laughing behind you. “you’re gonna regret that, hyuck.”

he merely smirks in response, gesturing to the toothpaste dripping down your chin. you quickly wash it off, cleaning your toothbrush and finishing your time at the sink with a flick of the wrist in his direction. he jumps, water droplets sticking to the lenses of his glasses, and he narrows his eyes at you.

you’re in for it.

he spits into the sink, and, ignoring the fact that you’ve started fixing your hair, he scoops you up, runs back to his room, and tosses you onto the bed.

“hey — !” your sentence is cut off as donghyuck sits on you, effectively preventing you from going anywhere. a devilish smile plays on his face as he leans down next to your ear and whispers,

“are you ticklish?”

#haechan soft hours: always open

[dropofgoldensun]

[10:27 pm]

stargazing is like spending time with jisung—the longer you do it, the more you see that you didn’t notice before.

“how many of them do you think are up there?” jisung asks, staring at the open sky.

you scoff. “at least twenty.”

“hey, i’m being serious.”

the playground is bare except for the two of you, sitting on the swings with heads craned towards the sky. you weren’t sure why, but you always found yourself coming back here, to the meeting place jisung had chosen in first grade. or rather, the spot by the swingset where he’d sent a cherry ball flying into the side of your head and begged for your forgiveness.

you like to tease him about it every once in a while.

Keep reading

#jisung soft hours are always open !!!