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<p>I know how you feel. Even though the freshman application process is very much over for me, there are still moments when I would scream expletives at the world out of frustration.</p>
<p>Frustration not over the rejection letters I’ve received in these last couple of weeks (although I’d be lying if I told you that they were not frustrating in their own right), but rather over having wasted the first three years of my high school career, both in regards to academics and just life in general. </p>
<p>One of the coping methods I’ve used is to do things I enjoy. I enjoy sleep and I get a lot of it, so that’s about 5/12th’s of a day spent in oneiric bliss already. While I’m awake, I hang out, read a little here and there, and watch crazy comedies on my computer until the screen makes me sleepy, at which point I go to sleep. Before I know it, the next day has arrived. You could adopt a similar regime.</p>
<p>I think your main ‘goal’ should be to live life to avoid regrets, which is something that I think all of us should remember. As counterintuitive as it may sound, the best way to avoid regrets is probably to avoid contemplation, to avoid worry because if you have to contemplate whether or not you should do something, worry will be impossible to avoid. You’ll always be thinking about the what if’s that are already polluting your mind. To me, what if’s only come in two variations, neither of which has anything to do with the future. The two species of what if’s are:</p>
<ol>
<li>“Oh man, what if I had done that? Things would be so much better”</li>
</ol>
<p>and</p>
<ol>
<li>“Oh man, what if I hadn’t done that? Why did I do that!?”</li>
</ol>
<p>Nothing good comes out of either one, so it would be best to avoid both of them altogether. </p>
<p>Speculating about the future is useless because events will either unfold exactly as you predict, meaning that they were predictable to begin with, or they will surprise you. Nothing should ever surprise you, except maybe a conversation started by a boy whom you’ve liked but has never talked to you heretofore, or your hometown sports team’s upset. Here in New York, I’ve come to expect Knicks’ losses (and now they’re completely irrelevant, seeing how they’re not even in the Playoffs lol), and I’d rather not get into how the ladies have treated me. </p>
<p>If one of the few decisions you have to make as an adolescent has one option that seems favorable to you, go with your instinct. Do it without even thinking about possible consequences. That is not to say that you should be headlong, but if you have good judgment, trust it. Love gossiping with your friends? That’s fine. Love doing crazy stuffs? That’s fine too. Do them as long as they don’t interfere with your grades. I’m not preaching good grades as an universal standard that must be upheld at all costs (although good grades are always better than bad grades), but I’m making the assumption that you are someone who values good grades yourself. </p>
<p>As long as you don’t ask yourself “what if I had done better” when admissions comes around, you’ll be just fine. Harvard and its Ivy League peers may ask better of you, but you shouldn’t give them any reason to. The best is all that you can ask of yourself.</p>
<p>I think ForHarvard is definitely wrong in saying that you should do it to impress someone you like, and even his opinion that you should do it for the world has some faults in it. The only tenable target would be yourself, but even then you should not be impressed with yourself.</p>
<p>When the Harvard admissions letter comes, will you say to yourself “Damn, I’m impressed?” You might be elated, ecstatic, some other word starting with ‘e’ (effulgent…donning an effulgent smile?), but you would not be impressed.</p>
<p>After all, you will have been expecting it all along, right?</p>
<p>P.S. I want to hear more of these application stories. That ben on crack guy is hilarious.</p>
I do have reasons why I want to go to these schools: