<p>The EA deadline has just passed. Well, it's about to, in about 15 minutes. I know everyone is anxious about the EA/ED decisions, and I was wondering what we could do to cope? </p>
<p>** Introduction to the Journey **
Time always flies for me. I don't know why, but now it seems to have come to a screeching halt. When I was preparing my EA application, time flew very quickly -- I was worried about meeting the deadline, finishing the application, etc.</p>
<p>* The Essays *
I met the hardest challenges of my life during this EA season. I had writer's block for my application essays for two months (my first essay for Georgetown.. the initial draft was 1,400 words). My first essay.. it was to show who I was.. It was amazing to see how difficult it is to express myself, when I should know myself the best. <em>shrug</em></p>
<p>I didn't know how to start or end the essay. All I knew was what went in between. A dozen things rang through my head as I was trying to revise it: "show, don't tell..." "don't use cliche's..." etc. So every time I tried to write my essay, I ended up doing something else -- to clear my thoughts, and moving away from the headache of it all. Thus, the procrastination.</p>
<p>It wasn't until the morning of sending the actual application that I woke up, and sat down, focused on finishing that first essay. I cleared all the thoughts out of my head -- almost in a Zen-like meditative state, and just started hacking and slashing. I rewrote this -- I revised that, oh, and I certainly had to get rid of that. I'm quite sure the final product isn't the best I could have written -- but it's the best I could have shown myself -- what I do, and who I am. </p>
<p>I remember in my extracurricular short essay, I wrote that an officer (which he did) once told me that it is not the ability of true leaders to extinguish fear completely, but rather to suppress it to the point where it no longer affects a person's mind. At first, my first essay had no focus -- it was simply a narrative where I told what I did. My thoughts weren't included, in fact, it was as if I was "Cliff's Noting/Sparknoting" my entire day. It took me three and a half months to figure this out -- and I never got it proofread, either! But I would rather take a slightly incorrect, but passionate essay over some boring narrative of my life. </p>
<p>My second essay -- the passion was there when I wrote it. There was no writer's block there -- the inspiration came from elsewhere. </p>
<p>* The Statistics and the Academics *
I'm not going to say that I am the perfect student. I'm far from your typical 1600-4.** GPA, 1st in the class valedictorian. I'm the normal Joe 1340-3.7/3.8ish, top 4% guy.. I know where I made my mistakes, and I've tried my best to recover from them.</p>
<p>The two classes that I've received a "C" grade in were Art 111 (Contemporary Art History) and Economics 001. I was naive (and still am now) and in the 10th grade, and I decided to take these classes at City College. Back then, my counselor told me these classes were weighted -- nope, they weren't. You could imagine my anger when I had first discovered this. So I pondered, and I pondered... and althroughout Sophomore year, I pondered.. Finally, I decided to show that I had a good grasp of the subject material, and I took AP Art History and AP Macroeconomics... I received an "A" in both classes, and a 3 in AP Art History.. taking the AP Macroecon test this year.. </p>
<p>I'm not a grade hog. I'll explain that below. One of my city college professors told me "It is better to receive a C and learn everything, than to receive an A and learn nothing.." His words are right.</p>
<p>I also made several mistakes during freshman year. I was transitioning from middle to high school -- I didn't know where I was going. One of my middle school teachers called me an "lazy academic maverick" -- I knew a lot, but I slacked off waay too much for my own good. I left middle school with a little over a 2.0 GPA.</p>
<p>I arrived at high school, knowing that I couldn't do the same things I did in middle school. I forced myself to turn my life around -- thus the upward trend in grades on my transcript. In middle school, I saw my GPA dip into the 2's and even the 1's at times.. I told myself never again..</p>
<p>But I knew in middle school that my love was in the Social Sciences. It was in 2000, when I found myself supporting Al Gore in the 8th grade. Little did I know my politics would change. I've still got much to learn...</p>
<p>I'm no good in standardized testing -- I can score moderately high on the SATs -- but not that well. For those parents that know me well, the reason why I score better on the Writing and the AP English Language tests is because the words smoothly flow into my head; it's my work, my composition -- I don't need to use them in some awkward analogy in which I'll never use again. It's not as if a 1600 student never uses a thesaurus or a dictionary in college. </p>
<p>With that being said, I'm not writing my best right now. I have inspection in two days, and my staff has been slacking, so I have to do the administrative work for them. :(</p>
<p>* Incomplete Conclusion *</p>
<p>I have more to write, but I feel as if I've been dragging on already. Feel free to comment, I'll post more later.</p>
<p>I'm not plaguing myself with "what if's.." I'm not pondering whether or not my application got lost in the mail (partially because I sent it Express Mail, I paid for Teacher's Recommendations to be sent certified, same with the SSR and Midyear reports). The wait has become a huge weight (ha ha, nice pun) on me, and now..</p>
<p>I'm sure this anxiety is seasonal; every college applicant who applies EA/ED probably goes through it every year. I'm sure the parents are pretty accustomed to it -- but for me, it's a once-in-a-lifetime thing.</p>
<p>As I wrote for my cover letter to Georgetown.. there is only one word that describes my feelings for it now: "Hope."</p>