The Sexual Tension Between Me And My Pile Of Unread Books.

hi i tried to post these yesterday but it failed 😚✌🏻 anyway, this was the sunrise yesterday! saw The Rise of Skywalker and i absolutely LOVED it !! i finished with A’s in all of my classes which i am very proud of :) happy winter break to all the students out there!

yooo how do u email a prof for a recommendation letter?

Hi Professor!

I am in the process of applying to ____ and they require letters of rec. I sincerely enjoyed your classes, and felt that they gave me a particularly good chance to display my strengths, such as ____ [class participation, writing, etc.] and would love for you to write me a letter, if you’d be willing. The due date is ____, and I can send you further instructions for submission later if you accept.

Attached to this email is ____, the piece of work I did in your class which best showcases my abilities, as well as my current CV [or resume]. If you agree to write me a letter, soon I will also send you drafts of my ____ [statement of purpose, personal statement, application essays, other relevant material] for my application to aid in your writing. I am also happy to meet in person to discuss this with you.

I want to stress that this application is quite competitive, so if you feel you will not be able to write me a strong letter then I completely understand - but please let me know. Thank you so much for your time!

Sincerely, ____

—

a few notes:

- you should have all your relevant materials (app essays, etc.) sent to them *at least* a month in advance to give them ample time to write the letter

- thus, your initial email asking them if they’d be willing to write a letter for you should be sent *over* a month in advance. professors are busy

- if you are applying for a really prestigious position/scholarship/fellowship, or grad school, it’s best to have at least a majority of your letter writers be professors (rather than adjuncts or post docs). ideally you’d want them to be full/tenured professors. in lots of cases, especially academic ones, *who* writes your letter matters - not just *what’s in* your letter

- the reason you send them the piece of work you did in their class that you are most proud of is to remind them of your abilities as a student and the quality of the work you produced for them. they have lots of students. sometimes they need a bit of help jogging their memory of exactly what you did in their class.

- the reason you send them your other application materials (personal statement, statement of purpose, CV) is so that they have information to draw from when writing your letter. they know what you’re passionate about, what you hope to do in the future, other experience you have, and can use this information when writing your letter

- on a similar note, this is also why you’d want to list the strengths you displayed in their class

- basically, you want to give them as much information as you can about your strengths, goals, and intentions - give them prompts they can use to write your letter

- the bit at the end about asking for a “strong letter” is important because some professors can only write you mediocre letters (e.g. “this student was always on time to class and gave their undivided attention during lecture” - what does this tell admission committees? well, it tells them that the professor has nothing positive to say about your *academic* abilities and so they’re resorting to other strengths. it’s a polite way of saying “this student was okay, but not spectacular in any notable way”. big red flag for admissions committees.) if all you’re going to get is a mediocre letter, you might as well not get a letter at all

- if the professor you ask accepts, then be sure to send them polite reminders as the date approaches. (i usually send a reminder at the 1-month-till-due-date mark when i send the other application materials, and then again at the 2 week and 1 week marks, and, if necessary, every day after the final 3 days leading up to the due date

—

i know this was a lot, but i remember being in your shoes and being completely lost when it came to applying for stuff so i know how daunting it can be. i figured i’d just throw all this information at you to be of as much help as possible.

for reference, i’ve applied to graduate programs, fellowships, and scholarships. i have been accepted into several of the top 10 graduate programs in my area, as well as received multiple scholarships and a fellowship, and received honorable mentions for some of the most competitive fellowships in the US. i have also worked with the admissions committee at my graduate program to organize multiple informational events for those interested in applying to graduate school and, in the process, have learned a lot about what makes a strong application.

so while you should absolutely take my advice with a grain of salt (different circumstances call for different standards), i do have quite a bit of experience with applications and what makes a strong letter of rec.

i hope this helped! best of luck with whatever you’re applying for :)

if u see this can u rb with ur ranking of biology, physics, and chemistry please and ty <3

January Study Challenge

day 15 - did you make any / have you kept up with your new years resolutions?

decently! at the beginning of this, i said i wanted to drink more water, eat intuitively, and stop procrastinating. i’ve actually been doing pretty well! i drink more than one water bottle a day, and i’ve been completing everything the day it’s assigned. buuuut i have been having problems with food. i have a horrible relationship with food and don’t know how to change that :/ at least i’ve been eating more fruits and vegetables 🍊

p. s. i took these pics at meow wolf in santa fe!

January Study Challenge

day 25 - what’s your go-to study method? are there cases in which you wouldn’t use it?

my go-to study method is flashcards! i use it for prettyyy much everything, but definitely not math. for math, i watch videos on khanacademy as refreshers, and do their practice problems. for anatomy and geography, i play games i find online. so i def don’t use them for everything, but flashcards are extremely useful to me!

august 28th: tea or coffee?

i’m not a huge fan of either ! 😬 i do enjoy the occasional chamomile tea, but i really like these little chocolates for some caffeine! i also love mtn dew and energy drinks, but i try not to drink them too much, bc they’re obv not the greatest for you

January Study Challenge

day 26 - what’s the hardest decision you’ve ever had to make?

umm one that i am still trying to make! i’m trying to decide between doing a nursing program or going for valedictorian. i would have to put practically ALL my time into either one, and i just don’t know which one to pick :( as for past decisions, i would say having to pick between continuing orchestra or doing ap biology as a freshman (which is rare at my school). i chose ap bio but my heart still breaks every time i hear a violin/viola 🥺 (also OMG i’m listening to music rn, and the second i typed that, a cello started playing 👀)

p.s. that was the sunset yesterday!

January Study Challenge

day 27 - study in groups or study alone?

study alone for sure! i just can’t.... concentrate when around other ppl. it takes a lot of mental energy to just be there, so like i can’t really learn.

January Study Challenge

day 21 - can you play any instruments? how long have you been playing?

i play the viola! i’m not in my school’s orchestra anymore, but i’ve been playing for like 5 years now!

p.s. i skipped days like 18-20 i think? i forgot 😬

p.p.s. i got mildliners recently ! i love them so much already

some notes on anti-asian racism

look. other people have commented on this before, but it seems like it needs to be said again because some of y’all aren’t getting the message. 

asian people are a marginalized minority. what about this do people not understand. asian people are marginalized because we live in a system of white supremacy and in this system, asian people will never be white and will never have the power of white people. just because a lot of asians are relatively well off financially does not mean we are not marginalized; there are other ways to be excluded and treated as unequal besides in terms of money, and this completely ignores the millions of asian people who are poor and working class, including the women who were killed in atlanta. asian people are not basically white- we look different, so we are treated different, just like any minority. it’s that simple. if asian people were not marginalized, why else would hate crimes against asian people rise dramatically in 2020. why else would we be attacked in the streets. why else would people tell us to go back to where we came from. why else would the chinese exclusion act be passed, japanese american citizens be shipped to the midwest during world war 2, vietnamese people massacred by american soldiers in the 70s. asian people are being killed now. if we are not marginalized, why are there targets on our backs for existing. 

black lives matter and stop asian hate are movements for social justice that have the same root cause: destroying white supremacy. black and asian communities have often been pitted against each other by white institutions seeking to take advantage of sowing discord between minority groups, but there is a rich history of black-asian solidarity during the fight for civil rights in the late 20th century. yes, anti-blackness is a real issue in asian communities, especially among older asians. and yes, asians also experience racism from black individuals- see these examples of cardi b using an anti-asian slur, this incident that happened yesterday of a black man pouring unknown liquid on an asian woman. neither is acceptable. supporting one movement does not negate your support for the other. you can do both, in fact, you should do both. realize that we all have a common enemy here, and it’s the system of white supremacy that has oppressed us. we are not free from white supremacy until it is all entirely eradicated, for everyone. 

just because i speak in the collective sense about asian people does not mean that all asian people are the same. even though some of us may look similar, with black hair and “small” eyes, that is only a representative image of some east/southeast asian people. asia is vast and incredibly diverse, and each nation has its own culture, language, and traditions. in addition, the asian diaspora is huge. asian people live all over the world, in varying economic, social, and political situations. different asian people in different areas have very different problems, even within the same country. an asian in a small town in nebraska will have a very different experience than an asian in paris. a korean person will have a different experience in a given place from an indian person. i don’t know how many times in my life i’ve been asked, “are you chinese?” the answer is no, i’m not, and a lot of asians aren’t chinese. tied into this is the mistaken belief of some nonasians in the western world that all asians are still allegiant to the country of their heritage and speak the language of that country, which manifests in comments like “oh your english is so good!” or “are you, like, communist?” first off, it ignores the very real possibility that an asian person could be born outside asian countries, and second, being from a certain country by no means determines whether you’re loyal to it and agree with its policies. i just saw this with an anon claiming all chinese people support the government’s reeducation camps for uyghur muslims. this is absolutely preposterous. 

finally, a word on allyship. i have zero faith in nonasian people- and by that i mean white people- to continue talking about this and spreading awareness about anti-asian racism. part of it is this model minority myth, that asians are basically as well off as white people, at least financially and academically, so they can figure things out by themselves. no. absolutely not. we cannot get out of the hole white supremacy has put us into without white people making a genuine, legitimate effort to confront their own biases. your white tears, your prayers and thoughts, they mean nothing when the blood of our families and friends runs in the streets. they mean nothing if you haven’t bothered to learn a single thing about your own prejudices. i hope to god that i am wrong about this. i hope for my family, my friends, and myself that y’all will continue to be loud about this, because we are tired of screaming for help in a crowd where we are invisible and no one cares. but i’m a skeptic for a reason, and it took a massacre for people to notice what was happening. i don’t know if i’ll ever be proven wrong. 

here are some links and posts below where you can learn about this issue and donate: 

anti-asian violence resources

61 places to donate to help asian americans

donation links 

microaggressions against asian people

twitter thread of resources

asian therapists in the us and canada

asian hate coping resources (in several different languages)