This year, I learned to take life a little less seriously. Outwardly, I think I come off as an unserious person because of my sense of humor, but I do struggle a lot with anxiety and stress, especially when it comes to school. My friends and I have talked a lot about the false sense of security AP Lang gave us because it was so easy compared to AP Lit (big thank you to Mr. Williams for that).
Even when I was writing my college essays, my dad would always grill me because my work read like a college dissertation. My voice, instead of showcasing my own personality, showcased the personality of an aging, tenured physics professor.
Last year, I saw my senior friends in AP Lit writing their blogs and always thought to myself it sounded more like a burden than an assignment. Yet, they became a highlight of the class for me. I started to write casually, inserting humor and my personal writing style into my posts, and it seemed like people enjoyed them! I started off with a theme of architecture, which is what I want to study in college. However, as my blog posts started crossing the 1000 word threshold, I realized I should take a break from the research-oriented stuff and stick to what I know best: making a fool of myself for other people’s entertainment (this is an exaggeration but not really). At that point, we only had two blog posts left, but I decided to explore topics that would have been better off left unexplored: Tom Cruise and Shrek 2. Thankfully, I achieved my goal of making people laugh, and it honestly taught me to take life less seriously. There is always room for little pleasures, and it is better to make something you and other people get joy from rather than making a “perfect” product.
If there was one thing I could tell incoming seniors, it would be do not take multivariable calculus or AP Physics 2. I did not take the former, and unlike most of the other decisions I’ve made in life, I really don’t regret it! I did, however, take the latter, and regretted it every single day. Also, let yourself live a little! People say junior year is the most stressful, but senior year comes with the stress of college applications, holding out till spring break when you can let senioritis take over, and of course the looming demon that is student debt.
If you spend every minute of your life filling out the Common App or tweaking your personal essay, I promise you the results aren’t going to be what you expect – Harvard’s admission rate is 5%. I’m not saying to set your expectations low, because you should always aim high for yourself and try to reach your potential, but don’t let college take over your life. Have a few safety schools that you are guaranteed to get into, because it will give you serious peace of mind to know that you have something you can fall back on. 
I realize that no juniors will be reading this, but I’ll say it for myself and everyone. Don’t let other people dictate the rest of your life. I was at a party earlier this year and after I left the room to get food, the rest of the people there asked my mom if I was going to do engineering or pre-med. When she said “neither”, I swear I heard a collective gasp. It was frustrating in the moment, but funny later when I realized that nothing they say has an impact on me – they are the NPCs of my life.
In general, and especially during college application season, people like to insert every little opinion into your life, whether it is a word you change in a supplemental or what you are going to major in. In the end, it’s your life, so take it into your own hands and hold on tight.
Hi Anjana!
I found your blog to be incredibly interesting and relatable. Senior year has certainly presented me with a significant amount of stressors and expectations from those around me. As you stated, this makes it all the more important for students to prioritize themselves and to focus on the things that make them happy, rather than spending all of their time stressing over things they cannot control. While I agree that college applications are incredibly important, students should know that they are allowed to pursue activities outside of that. The stressors of senior year cannot be avoided entirely, however, they do not have to consume every minute of a student’s day. I enjoyed reading about how you have learned to pursue the activities that make you happy, rather than trying to please others. This year has certainly displayed the expectations that the adults in our lives have on us, however, that makes it all the more important for us to focus on ourselves in spite of the opinions of others. From your post, it is evident that this semester has been a time of growth for you. In your future posts, it would be interesting to read more about your future plans and the passion that you hold for them!
Hi Anjana! Let me start off by saying that your blog was truly inspirational and humorous all at once! I read one of your earlier blogs in this semester (November 1st) and I have also read through some of your later blogs as well. The difference in your writing at the beginning of the semester is completely different than your writing now! Both were incredibly fascinating but I feel as though now you write in a way that captivates all readers no matter their background on the subject, even if that subject may be Shrek 2. Also, I love the advise you leave your readers with at this end of this blog. I feel like it does not matter how old you may be too take this advice. This is something that I also had to learn for myself this year. There are so many decisions to make during your senior year that it is so easy to loose focus of your own personal morals and instead follow the opinions of others. So from now on when I am frustrated by something someone else says or thinks I will remember what you have mentioned. This life is my life and it is something to be proud of.
I really liked the subtle jokes you implanted into your writing such as you coming off as an “aging, tenured physics professor.” Your voice is easily seen throughout the text and I actually read this as if I was hearing you speak it out loud. I completely agree that taking life less seriously this year is for the best. I used to stress over everything as a junior and would just get anxious about upcoming tests. However, I kind of realized that this year is my senior year. I don’t want to spend it obsessing over tests and quizzes when I won’t see most of the people I see in school now. Also, I completely agree about your college take. Having safety schools is a great reassurance that you will get into college even if you don’t get into your top university. It is important also to have safety schools that you do want to go to if you don’t get into your top schools. I also didn’t comment on your last two blogs, but I did read them because I thought they were really interesting and funny. I also really like how you end your final blog of Semester 1 by taking our life into your own hands because in the end, it’s what you want.
Anajana! I wanted to start out this comment by saying that I absolutely loved having you in my lit class. It’s been such a joy to be around you and I loved being able to complain to you about various things. I also thank you for playing a part in my downloading of Merge Mansion even though it’s been raising my screen time by an embarrassing amount. I 100% agree with the false sense of security that AP Lang gave us. Honestly I don’t think I’ve ever had this much to do in an AP english course until this year, so it was definitely a big surprise. I love that you’ve come to enjoy the blogs and I absolutely love reading through them, especially because they’re so entertaining. Unfortunately I am one of those pre-med people, but it’s something I genuinely had a passion for, so I guess I am an exception (but not really). I am not sure if we have any classes together next semester but I hope you enjoy it and I hope that you’ll become a famous architecturist (if you do then I can brag to everyone that I knew you). Anyways, I hope you’re able to have a fun break and refresh for second sem.
Hi Anjana! For starters, I love your title. It totally sums up how I feel about this semester (haha). Plus! I took that photo!! What an amazing photo!! I just want to say how wonderful it is to read your blogs. They read very smoothly, and I love hearing your voice in your writing. I’m so glad I got to read yours multiple weeks in a row, whether or not I responded. You bring up such a beautiful point about the ‘other’ people, the ones that will try to put you down. I’m proud of you for standing up for what you want to do and putting your foot down even when others might look down on a decision you’re making. That takes a lot of courage and strength, and for that, I am amazed and glad for you. Also, I love your point on ‘not letting college take over your life’. That, especially in the culture of Naperville North High School, is something that can be very difficult. That said, I’m happy that you’re rationalizing that you can still set high goals for yourself, but don’t always need to set Harvard level goals. Thank you so much Anjana!! Have a wonderful winter break!
Hi, Anjina
I couldn’t relate with you more when you said that your college essay sounded like some sort of physics professor because my essay did too. I found it very difficult to display my personality through writing, maybe because we do so much analytical writing and not more creative things. Good on you for taking such hard classes like AP Physics 2 I’m also in a couple AP classes this year but a lot of them are very easy compared to that so it’s cool to see you challenged yourself. Your comments about the blogs being less of a burden but rather something you enjoyed doing was definitely something I could relate to as well because I also found them to be very fun to do. My blogs were about movie reviews and it was cool to be able to look back at old movies and shows that I have watched and give them a more outward look after a longer period of time. The common app is definitely a very stressful thing for a lot of people so I can understand why people spend so much time tweaking and such but there definitely is a limit to how much you can do before it gets to be ineffective.
Hey Anjana! For the record, I love both sides of your blog, both the professional research-level architecture posts and the goofy scenarios. I like the advice you gave to future juniors about not spending every minute tweaking college apps and obsessing over small details in personal essays. I didn’t mention this in my blog, but I think it’;s really important because the more you try to “perfect” your essay, the more disappointed you will be. Reading your essays too much isn’t healthy because there is no such thing as a perfect essay or application, which a lot of people forget and this can lead to more disappointment and unwarranted streess. I appreciate that you said “don’t let other people dictate the rest of your life” because, truly, your life should be in your own hands. I’m glad you were able to find personal growth this year with less anxiety, and I think avoiding comparison to others is really important in order to achieve this. I unfortunately relate to your experience at that party where your guests gasped at you not being pre-med or an engineering major, and I think it’s a funny but strong example to reinforce your point. I think your message is really inspiring, and I hope you have a great new year and second semester!
Hello Anjana!
I would like to start off by saying I will greatly miss your blog posts over break. I do not know what I will do without them and I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to fully cope. I really admire the first picture because both of you are also matching with Arthur and boy do I like Arthur! I feel a combination of seen and really called out with this post. I tend to find comfort in joking about myself, which causes me to come off as an unserious person as well but, every so often, I just cry in public and overshare with everyone around me so I think a good amount of people understand my general state of mind. I relate to having my first drafts of my college essays sound like I’m some kind of old, knowledgeable being here to spread wise words about life, which does not accurately reflect my personality at all. At the same time, I believe no one is actually knowledgeable about anything, some people are just better at faking it. I completely agree with your point of letting yourself live a little! There’s no point in taking every minor detail in life so seriously when you can just focus on having a good time and benefiting the lives of the people close to you. I will greatly miss your witty words and very information blog posts, have a great break!
I SWEAR I MEANT ANJANA I SWEAR MY COMPUTER MADE A TYPO ANJANA I <3 YOU
Anjana, I really enjoyed reading your blog. You are one of the funniest people to ever exist in my humble opinion. I really like your matching outfit (s) (emphasis on plural) with Mr. Williams and I feel so very honored to be featured. I remember when we had AP Lang last year together with Mr. Burns and I were genuinely so intimidated by you. However, in getting to know you better this year, I have been able to appreciate the person you are! Sitting next to you in stats was a blast (and I honestly think everything just went down since then) . I like how you talked about how we only live our own lives and we ultimately make our own decisions. When it comes to living a little bit more, I actually made that my New Year’s resolution, but I certainly didn’t achieve it. However, Merge Mansion has been a big help. I just love merging knives and rakes. I sure hope you enjoy the Merge Mansion group chat because I feel like it has finally become a community. From 1 person to 2 to 5! Dreams really do come true. Thank you for sharing your blog, it was nice to read and it made me smile.
Anjana, after reading your blog post, I wish I had seen yours sooner. I never would’ve guessed that you previously had trouble showing your voice in your writing, because I feel like I could’ve heard you reading this out loud to me. I found myself nodding along as I read, and I was also hesitant about starting the blogs at the beginning of the year. However, I started to look towards writing them, and coming up with some ridiculous things to write about for the week. It honestly taught me to loosen up in my writing, something that I’ve never really tried before. I’m glad to have been given a chance to have some of my voice come through. I enjoyed your screenshot of the Harvard admissions rate, because I feel myself coming to a similar philosophy. I’ve been trying to forgive myself for not being 100% dedicated to college apps and not taking harder classes. However, I really don’t regret it either. I’ve honestly just been trying to live my life the way I want to, and not let other people’s impression of me affect me. I’ve been trying to get away from what I’m “supposed” to do, and I’m glad we feel similarly. Anyway Anjana, I really enjoyed the photo of you and Mr. Williams twinning. I smiled a few times while reading this, and post finals and I want to come back and read your Tom Cruise and Shrek 2 posts.