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@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?”

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 !! 💗🌸💟💖

pink fairy tyong ♡

feel my rhythm :: wendy

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 🥰🥰🥰

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

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)

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

jisung ♡ heart (original by IU)

[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

#OurUniverseJisungDay🐹

behind of we go up

alice_meow_ha

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

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

[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?”

[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

[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.

the two of you used to have competitions to see who could swing the highest. and you sometimes wondered, if you went high enough, could you go up and around the top of the swings in a loop? other times, you would try to be in sync with one another. it never lasted very long, because jisung was heavier than you and reached the ground faster.

you slow yourself down to a mere sway, your sneakers gently brushing the platform below. “then i don’t know. ask google.”

“but i asked what you thought,” he says, sighing. you don’t have to see his face to know he’s pouting.

finally, you comply. “trillions, then. or more. once you get past trillions it doesn’t make much of a difference, does it? it’s just a lot.”

jisung hums, satisfied with your answer. the chains of his swing creak as he slows down to match your pace, and a comfortable silence falls between the two of you as you enjoy the night ambiance.

“look!” he fervently points at some arbitrary spot in the sky.

“what?” your neck cracks as you try to follow the direction of his finger.

“i just saw an asteroid,” he whispers, as if it’s some rare occurrence that he just witnessed, something even supernatural. that’s jisung for you—he notices the smallest details and makes you think about it for a moment. at times, you admit, it still catches you off guard, but that’s one of the things you like about him, how he never seems to lose his sense of wonder.

a smile makes its way across your face. “isn’t it called a meteorite?” you lower your gaze back to earth, back to him, just in time to see him scrunch his nose at you.

“whatever.”

it’s peaceful once more, save for the breeze that blows by your ears. you lean your head against the chains of your swing, pensive. oh, if only your best friend knew that the wonder he has for the world, you have for him.

“what are you thinking about?” jisung whispers. his eyes are swirling with curiosity, his head tilted in genuine interest. it would be so easy for you to lie and say something stupid, like aliens or ramen, but tonight you find yourself unable to ruin the mood. aliens and ramen are uncalled for, so you go with the next best worst option:

“you.”

it’s out, it’s out, and you’d rather move to another planet than deal with the embarrassment you’re experiencing right now. heat creeps up the back of your neck and you struggle to hold your gaze.

jisung’s lips part in surprise. “o-oh.”

“never mind,” you say hurriedly. this is awkward enough as it is. what time must it be? past ten, for sure. it’s late and getting colder, so maybe you should suggest heading home. yet you’re so caught up in your own thoughts that you almost don’t catch his response:

“me too.”

you look up, not sure you heard correctly. “what?”

“i—i just... i guess—i was thinking about you... too.” he fumbles with his words, never meeting your eyes. “because i, um.” he swallows. “i like you.”

“huh?” it’s ridiculous, your immediate reply. it’s stupid, laughable. but here you are, a little dumbstruck yet impressed at his confession.

“i—don’t make me repeat it, please.” he hangs his head in shame, an apology ready on the tip of his tongue, when you speak up.

“no—no, i heard you the first time. i... like you too.” your words trail off, but he hears them all the same. “um—what were you thinking about?” you ask, trying to break the tension.

“me? just—just that, you know... you came out here with me. to look at stars. which is boring. and you listened to me, too, and you’re just so... so...” he tries to find the right word to describe you, but all that keeps coming to his mind is perfect, and he definitely doesn’t want to say that one out loud. not after he just admitted to his long-time best friend about his long-time crush on her. “... understanding?” it comes out as a question, but it makes you laugh, and he can’t help but smile.

you lean back, swinging your legs above the ground. “nothing’s boring with you, jisung.” and you don’t feel bad about how cheesy it makes you sound, because that’s the truth.

“oh, um, thanks... and what were you thinking about?” he asks tentatively.

“i’m not telling you.”

“what!”

“well, it gives me an excuse to tell you another time.”

another time. those words play over and over in jisung’s head. there’s going to be another time. “tomorrow?” he says without thinking. “can we do the same thing tomorrow?” there’s hope in his voice. he’s still so curious about your thoughts, always wanting to learn answers to everything.

“yeah,” you say, smiling softly. “let’s do it.”

jisung is naturally curious about a lot of things. he’s eager to know more about the stars, and why they change, and about the world around him.

and you. you, who is beaming up at him, making warmth bloom from his chest to the tips of his fingers. what about you?

i guess i’ll find out.

[11:25 pm]

you know, you know. you should have thought about this sooner. you’re on a last-minute search for apple cider, an errand that has you dragging boyfriend!jaemin along with you to an outdoor mall. the two of you ended up getting somewhat distracted by some shiny things in the shop windows, and you’re slowly but surely running out of time before midnight.

still, you’re with jaemin, and even if you both get too sidetracked to remember the time, at least you’ll be spending new year’s with him.

“can you feel my heart beating for you?” he asks, pulling you to his chest.

there’s a sound as the fabric of your jacket comes in contact with his, and you scrunch up your nose. “nope. not underneath your two hundred layers.”

“hey!” jaemin pouts and lets go of you. “i’m not wearing two hundred layers!”

“sure looks like it, though.” you glance over his red windbreaker, which is even more puffed out from the scarf around his neck. “i can’t believe i have a giant red marshmallow for a boyfriend.”

“shut up, i was just trying to be romantic.”

Keep reading

[1:04 am]

mark can’t stop telling you he loves you.

the first time he says it, it surprises you both. you’re standing on your tiptoes at midnight, stretching your arms to reach the chamomile tea on the top shelf. and mark watches in amusement as you struggle, fingertips brushing the bottom corner of the box to push it towards the edge. and when teabags rain down onto the countertop, the words tumble from his mouth as easily as he might have laughed.

“i love you.”

then it begins slipping out more often—the time when you surprise him with chinese takeout for dinner; when you decide to cram as many goldfish crackers as you can in your mouth at once; when the two of you choose to dye your hair blue and silver in the bathroom. even when you have your first fight, when a brief silence passes—through his tears, he says, “i love you.”

he will shout it from the pier into the waiting ocean waves, he will whisper it in the lull of an argument, he will murmur it against your lips while tracing patterns on the back of your hand. and, as many times as he says it, the phrase never loses its meaning.

because it’s true.

TAEYONG ‘BEAUTIFUL’ NCT 2021