Everything always came in twos: two languages, two suitcases, two weeks’ vacation, two weeks’ shipping time after two moves here and two there, two concrete apartments stuck together under the hot sun of continent number two. Everything that didn’t come in twos came in threes: three passengers visiting three grandparents three plane rides away. Life was made of numbers. My parents always said that living in Japan was like living in Hawaii. For me, it was like living anywhere...

Oh, Emory. How am I supposed to continue playing saxophone in college? I know I can join the Emory Wind Ensemble, but…a “select group of instrumentalists”? Who tour nationally? That’s really scary, to be honest. I’ve played in a band of fewer than fifty people for five years, and our repertoire rarely extends past the middle school level. But I think I will choose to continue music on the collegiate level, even though I’ll have to...

Macalester was the first college I found that had a soul. When I was a naïve sophomore, I thought getting college emails would be the coolest thing, though I quickly found my inbox crushed under hundreds of repetitive spammy messages—take our quiz, we’re #4, go sports team. They were soulless. Then, one cold 70º Georgia day, it came—an e-card of an orange from some obscure college I had never heard of. So I clicked the button that said, �...

But would they sign up for LING 170? Would they, my unknown pupils, find my class, confusingly titled Don’t Telephone Me, while searching through the catalogue for something fun for freshman year or for that one more credit they forgot they needed to graduate? I would give my small class—less than ten students, I would hope—an introduction to world languages through a study of those strange grammatical quirks that make perfect sense until they’re spoken in English....

It seems to me that Carleton and I have something in common—we both love painting creativity across the mundane. I’ve written positive reviews for AP English on the new Pokémon game, given presentations glorifying everything that makes the tundra biome “rad,” and penned long essays in French praising the radical French Revolutionary Marat for dying in his bathtub. I refuse to be bored by school. And though my visit to Carleton solidified my impression that you’re...

I’m not going to lie. I don’t want to write this essay. I don’t want to sit here, having just suffered defeat at the first quiz bowl competition of the season (and my first as team captain), and write an essay about a quote said by a dead man who saved my preferred soft drink company. It’s hard to sit still and stare at a screen when, with just a few clicks, I could be watching...

I like saying words. I enjoy reading words. I love making up words. Words weave themselves into the languages that I love to hear and want to learn and quietly creep across the pages of the stories I grew up reading and now write myself. Words have given me valuable insight into new worlds both real and created and shaped my outlook on life and culture. We often ignore their power to twist reality around them, instead choosing to abbreviate...

I don’t know what I expected. As former editor of the middle school literary magazine, I was full of myself, certain I’d have no competition on the high school staff for a high position. But there I was in the library a few days after the first Scribbles meeting, standing vigil by the copier, killing god-knows-how-many trees, ready to weep from stress and sore feet. Oh, I had gotten my wish, all right. As the only freshman on...

To put it bluntly, UGA is huge. To a liberal arts major who's never been in a grade with more than 120 people, huge is terrifying, a crush of people who will never know me or my name or my major or that I have a tendency to read obscure Wikipedia pages instead of doing homework while humming even more obscure French pop songs. But as a linguistics major and word junkie, huge is, at the same time…enthralling. There’s...

I shouldn't have applied to nine schools. Looking back at my list, I was really only seriously considering five of them. William and Mary was on a whim (I already had the essay), UVa was because of a scholarship interview...

The Corp, the frats/sororities, and other applicaiton-based positions are exclusive, which makes them popular, but obviously...

College decisions came out at a really, really bad time in my life. I was overwhelmed by a combination of schoolwork, friendships, sleepiness, parental anxiety, and college stress (I was torn between four schools, two for their scholarships and two for their wonderfulness). I shut down, and college no longer excited me. I just wanted it all to be over. My parents took it as...

The Georgetown interview was intimidating because it was my very first one, but honestly, it wasn't bad. We just talked about the activities I did in high school and what they meant to me, why I wanted to go to Georgetown, and if I had any questions. It was the same for Macalester and Carleton. Harvard was weird--I went to a children's dental clinic in a rough part of town, and my interviewer looked like a middle-aged version of the Belgian rapper Stromae. His...

I wrote about visiting Georgetown's linguistics department and how it seemed so much larger and well-staffed than the others I visited--I wrote about seeing a...

There are...

UGA was far too large, and I know a lot of people going there. I think I was against it from the beginning, viewing it as a backup, because it was in-state and my parents used to speak scornfully of how easy it was (though they were surprised to move back in-state and realize how good it's actually become). I hate UVa with a passion. Mostly because of my Jefferson Scholars experience, but also because they rejected me from their honors program and I am a bitter and petty person. I only applied to William and Mary on a whim....

Wait, people actually do this? It seems excessive to me, but...

I looked for small- to medium-sized schools with linguistics programs at schools, mostly in the South. I ended...

I joined the pep band because, despite what all the other freshmen seemed to think, I knew it wouldn't be like what I knew in high school, and it certainly hasn't been....

1) Multitalented - Georgetown students have seemingly done everything, and it can be a little intimidating at times. 2) Busy - To go off the previous point, Georgetown students still do everything. It's fine to not have an overwhelmingly busy schedule, but a lot of people somehow don't. They still find time to have fun, though. 3) Privileged - This is Georgetown we're talking about. While I've had extremely positive experiences with my peers, there's certainly a lot of wealth here, and a lot of kids who don't...

I applied too fast, despite my lack of Early Action schools, and...

I'd fight for more green space, more funding for physical and mental health...

I applied too fast, despite my lack of Early Action schools, and...

It's in DC. There's so much to do, both in Georgetown and around the city. Georgetown shops are pretty expensive, but there's some great places to eat, and walking to the Waterfront is a great way to relax for an hour or two. We're unfortunately a bit isolated due to the...