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YOU can

Every great professional, every single one; every lawyer, doctor, architect, chemist, nurse, economist, teacher, engineer… started out as nothing more than what we are now, students. If they can do it, so can we. Work hard for your dreams.

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People now are like, “Your right to free speech doesn’t mean you can express an offensive opinion” Like what the fuck does right to free speech mean, then?

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I’d be foolish to gaze at the sky admiring the night lit stars when there’s a million galaxies in your eyes.

voicelessconfessions (via wnq-writers)

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its “thighs rubbing together under ya sundress” season

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Ballerina at the Barre

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what do we want? 
improved foreign language education in English speaking countries

when do we want it? 
when we’re younger and have better neuroplasticity

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Follow me for DAILY fun, inspirational and relatable quotes.

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I’m keeping track of my finances this year to make sure I don’t spend too much. I’m going to change some things about my habit tracker next month, but it was a good learning experience! I still like the idea but i think i’ll try blocks instead of one full page next month!

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Moving away from my bullet journal

Around the time I started this blog, in January 2015, I also started using a bullet journal. I had caught the studyblr fever and I was ready to go all in. It worked well for me for around a year, but when I got a new phone and new computer, I realized it wasn’t functional anymore. I’m going to address my transition to other organization methods here! 

What I Liked About My Bullet Journal

Having due dates and events separate from everyday tasks. 

Being able to write down random things, like a book I wanted to read or a question to ask a teacher. 

The physical action of writing in my bullet journal. And sort of just the idea of having one and posting photos of it? 

Honestly, the majority of the reasons I wanted to keep my journal going was for aesthetic and studyblr look of having one. 

Problems With My Bullet Journal

It was a hassle to get it out of my bag every time something popped in to my head or was announced in class, especially when I was already on my laptop.

I would only use one type of pen, which just added a new layer of difficulty. 

Moving events around was hard and messy. 

I didn’t want to carry it around in my purse, so when I was out with friends or volunteering or basically anything except school, I never had it. 

I had been using it for over a year and it was almost empty. Which isn’t a bad thing necessarily, but I felt like I wasn’t using it that much. 

When you have homework and tasks every single day, its great. But I can remember small things like “put away laundry” without writing it down and in most of my classes, there isn’t a ton of homework besides working on projects and essays – again, something I don’t need to write down. I found that I was using one page a month and spending 30 minutes just writing out headings for something I wasn’t even using. 

What I Did to Transition Away

First of all, I looked at what I needed: a place for due dates and events, a place for to-do school tasks, and a place for my quick to-dos and shopping list.

Due Dates and Events 

I started by using Google Calendar, which I’m not going to describe because there are separate posts about that and they would explain it better anyways. In my Google Calendar, I put all of my due dates and events. And even better, in syncs to my iPhone so I get reminders!! And I can put things in my Google Calendar from the regular calendar app which is amazing. That way I am never out of the loop. Here’s a pic of my calendar: 

I love that you can add colours to different events. I also set some events as all day even if they aren’t, because it makes them pop. Another added bonus is that you can get a Google Chrome extension which is like a quick view of your upcoming events, so you don’t have to open the full app. Exactly what I loved about my bullet journal but so much more convenient. 

School To-Dos

For this, I wanted to keep it all on my laptop because that is where I do most of my school work. So, I chose to use the built in to-do app that is found in the Momentum extension for Google Chrome. It is really simple and looks beautiful, and since it opens whenever there is a new tab, it is a constant reminder to get started on homework. 

Also, if you don’t use momentum, there is a really good Chrome extension called todoist that I love! 

Personal To-Dos and Shopping List

For this, I just decided to use the built in iPhone reminders app. You can create multiple lists within that one app, it doesn’t use up extra storage, and it is honestly amazing. The app is easy to use and really aesthetically pleasing. You can choose fun colours for this too! Using my iPhone for this is miles better than using a bullet journal! 

I don’t want to push people away from using bullet journals if that is what works for them. But I think that sometimes there is too much emphasis put oh having a bullet journal in this community. I just wanted everyone to know that there is a way to have all the benefits of a bullet journal with less of the hassles. 

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I think the most exhausting thing about languages is that each of them needs constant maintenance, even your native one, and that’s actually also the downside of the polyglot dream because the more new language you learn the more languages you have to maintain which means less time for new languages urgh

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Let’s Talk About College Elitism For The Billionth Time (Because Clearly It’s Not Getting Through)

A couple of days ago, a bunch of people in my class were discussing colleges because we’re all seniors and that’s going to be the only thing on our minds until January 1, when Regular Decision apps close. Somehow, we ended up talking about different programs of study within a university, and the subject quickly turned to a graduate of my high school who had taken a gap year to join the Marines because, among other things, he couldn’t afford college at the time.

He’s now at Columbia.

I never knew him personally, but I remember how proud I felt when I heard the story because it was the type of overcoming-struggle story that all of us at my high school strive for — after all, we’re inner-city kids preparing to enter a system historically unwelcome to us. We’re trying to make it, and he had made it — he’d enrolled through Columbia’s General Studies program, which was designed by Columbia especially for students who’d taken off school for a year for other pursuits or responsibilities. As the people in my class talked about his story and the people who knew him brought up how much he loved his college experience so far, a good friend of mine opened her mouth to speak and promptly blew me away with the disrespect and arrogance her words carried.

“You can basically sign up for General Studies,” she said. “It’s pretty much not even Columbia; his grades weren’t even that good in high school anyway.”

It denotes a hierarchy that only exists to people who think they’re better than others in the game of getting in, and it’s designed to further enforce the blatant elitism that this game was already geared towards.

That struck several nerves with me, because it was demeaning and dismissive and implied a score and stat-based hierarchy that shouldn’t exist in the college process. No one — and I do mean no one — is better than anyone else in the process of getting into college. Everyone who applies to top-tier schools, no matter what program, does so with the same goal in mind: to make a difference in the field that they’re pursuing. Yet throughout my high school experience, I’ve heard things ranging from “Cornell is the Rutgers of the Ivies,” to “NYU’s Liberal Arts Core program is pretty much fake NYU for CAS rejects.” And that pisses me off to no end because it denotes a hierarchy that only exists to people who think they’re better than others in the game of getting in, and it’s designed to further enforce the blatant elitism that this game was already geared towards.

Honestly, who gives a crap? If I become a part of Cornell Hospitality, a school I once heard referred to as the “stupid people major at Cornell,” it’s because I decided that I wanted to pursue my dream of revolutionizing the hotel industry at a prestigious Ivy League school that specializes in just that. It doesn’t, and will never, make me inferior to the Cornell student in the more selective Engineering school. Because guess what? Cornell Hospitality is still a part of the Cornell University, and nothing will change that.

We all have things we wish we could have to help us look better for our dream schools. I desperately wanted the National Honor Society, and was secretly crushed when I missed it by a rather small number of GPA points (my school ranks on a 100 scale.) I wish I’d had a thousand dollars to drop on Princeton Review SAT classes, because maybe then I would have broken a 2100 and been able to hold up my own against the NHS kids who didbreak 2100 and made damn sure everyone knew it. It’s easy to break under the college process, and this is why.

But at the same time, I have things to offer that no one else can. The only person who explicitly knows what’s going on my applications is me, and thus, I’m the only person who can accurately judge whether or not I deserve to be where I’ll end up. A friend of mine got accepted early decision to Cornell last year, and she wasn’t the NHS star student with a perfect SAT score — everyone who found out about her acceptance judged her because of that. But the people who made group chats about her and told her to her face that she didn’t deserve Cornell didn’t realize that she was a community leader. She was a vibrant speaker who blew away admissions officers with the eloquence of her interview process and the extracurriculars she carried, and she went the extra mile in her admissions process by establishing contact with admissions counselors and professors in her field of study.

It’s a blatant reinforcement of the very standards that make it harder for disadvantaged students and minorities to enter schools at all — because it validates the idea that even when they do, they’re still not worth it.

The point I’m trying to prove is that no one knows what anyone else can bring to the table, and so no one has any right to judge anyone else. No one has the right to take a dump on the accomplishments of another person by trying to degrade the way with which they achieved it. At the end of the day, a less-than-stellar SAT score doesn’t make or break the admissions process — your stats and your accomplishments are yours, and so the only person you’re allowed to judge based on that is yourself. You may have taken the billion-dollar prep classes and dropped another million on Barrons books, and you may have a GPA so pristine that the Mensa Society cowers under its perfection. But that doesn’t mean that only you and people like you have a chance at getting into college. That attitude, frankly, is shit. It’s a blatant reinforcement of the very standards that make it harder for disadvantaged students and minorities to enter schools at all — because it validates the idea that even when they do, they’re still not worth it.

Yeah, no thanks.

By David Guirgis, writing intern at The YUNiversity.

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Actual good first-time college student advice:

Wear jeans/pants that “breathe” and bring a sweater, even if it’s scorching hot out, until you know which building blasts the AC to 60 degrees F and which feels like a sauna

Backpacks with thick straps are your friend!  Messenger bags are cool and all but if you’re commuting with a lot of stuff, symmetrically styled backpacks are better for your back

You are your own person and you can walk out whenever you need to or want to, so long as you’re not disrupting the class.  Meaning you can go to the bathroom without permission, take a breather if you’re anxious, answer an important phone call, etc.

If you don’t like the class on the first day, if you can- DROP THAT CLASS AND TAKE ANOTHER ONE!  It’ll only get worse from there!

If you can, take a class outside your major; it’s a good break from your expected studies.

You are in charge of your schedule.  Your adviser and guidance counselor is there to ‘advise and guide’ but if you don’t like certain classes and you can substitute for others, that’s your choice.

Consequently, if you are changing anything drastic in your plan, talk with your adviser and instructors.

Pay attention to your credit hours and grades.  Never leave this to the last week of school, you will be sorry and stressed beyond belief!

Unless it’s a lab book or otherwise specified, go to the class for a week or so before buying an expensive textbook.  Some classes, while having it on their required list, do not actually use the textbook a whole lot and you might find some of it scanned online.  Rent if you can or buy used online (schools actually don’t give discounts).  Use your best judgement on what you think you need.

Tell the people who go up to you selling or advertising things you are not interested in that you are in a rush to class and don’t have time to listen to them.  It’s less rude and they’ll leave you alone.

The smaller the class, the better it is to have some sort of acquaintanceship with a couple classmates.  They might save your ass if you are absent one day or need to study.  And talking with them makes the time go by faster without it being so insufferable.

You don’t need to join a club or sport, but internships are cool and useful!

If you can afford it, take a day off once or twice each semester if you’re too exhausted.  Just be aware of what you missed and if it was worth missing!

Your health is the most important, this goes for mental health too!!  Note: College-age/upper teens is when mental disorders like depression and anxiety are most commonly diagnosed.  Most schools have therapy services, especially during exam time.  Look into it if you need to!

Communicate with your professor if you are having trouble with something.  Anything.

Eat and stay hydrated.  Bring a water bottle and snack to class.

All-nighters will happen but never go over 36 hours without sleep.

It’s going to be hard and there will be times you might think about giving up.  This WILL happen.  You just have to make sure what you’re doing isn’t making you absolutely miserable and/or there is something rewarding and positive to look forward to at the end!