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an endless feast i keep choking on

I feel like college applications are like a dinner that never ends. You sit down thinking it’ll be a quick meal, a little intro, some activities, a dash of personality But no. No, it’s not simple. You start eating, and you can’t stop. The plate just refills, over and over, a never-ending buffet of bullshit. Essays, prompts, word counts "Tell us about your leadership experience!" Oh, I’m leading, alright. Leading myself straight into madness.

You chew, chew, chew, hoping for an end, but the plate just laughs at you. You try to swallow your sanity, but it gets stuck in your throat because it never ends. The meal stretches out forever, and the dessert they promised “Just finish this, and you’ll get the reward!” But the dessert? IT DOESN’T EXIST. It’s a death march disguised as an “opportunity.”

I’ve tasted rejection. I’ve tasted burnout. I’ve tasted the soul-crushing realization that nothing I write will ever be good enough. And it tasted good. You know why? Because at least the burnout is real. At least the stress is tangible. Unlike this mythical dessert, this magical acceptance letter they dangle in front of you, saying, "Just one more draft! One more recommendation! One more rewrite!"

I’m chewing on my identity, slicing it up into bite-sized chunks, feeding it to these faceless admissions officers, hoping they’ll like the flavor. But no matter how many pieces I serve, the plate keeps refilling. “Tell us more about you!” What more can I say? I’ve diced my soul into 650 words and I’m still here, gnawing at the edges of my existence like some kind of rabid dog. Oh, they’ll love that, won’t they?

I start to wonder—maybe the dinner is the point. Maybe dessert is a lie. Maybe I’m supposed to sit here forever, drowning in these never-ending prompts, these endless drafts, until I forget what life was like before this endless, torturous feast. Maybe college isn’t even real. Maybe this is all just some elaborate joke, some kind of purgatory where I write my own obituary one essay at a time.

My mind is turning into mashed potatoes, and they want me to keep going. Keep serving up pieces of myself. I’m not even sure what I’m serving anymore, but they keep asking, so I keep giving.

Maybe I’ll never leave this table. Maybe I’ll be here forever, endlessly writing, endlessly editing, endlessly tasting this nightmare of expectations. I’ll never get dessert, because dessert isn’t real. It was never real.

I’m stuck here, in this eternal dinner.

所有跟帖: 

#0 -成功的飛過- 給 成功的飛過 發送悄悄話 (0 bytes) () 09/23/2024 postreply 11:40:55

文筆不錯,寫的很好,就是太負麵,肯定被reject -windyLL- 給 windyLL 發送悄悄話 (0 bytes) () 09/23/2024 postreply 11:44:46

我隻關心麵筋的呢? -Feinbery- 給 Feinbery 發送悄悄話 (0 bytes) () 09/23/2024 postreply 11:47:25

麵筋的啥都沒寫 -jingzhumama- 給 jingzhumama 發送悄悄話 jingzhumama 的博客首頁 (94 bytes) () 09/23/2024 postreply 11:55:26

文筆挺好,看得我都要吐了。哈哈 -seattleWA- 給 seattleWA 發送悄悄話 (0 bytes) () 09/23/2024 postreply 11:49:00

這不是今年的吧? -violinpiano- 給 violinpiano 發送悄悄話 (215 bytes) () 09/23/2024 postreply 11:49:53

很好的文筆,流暢自然,重點突出。不錄沒天理了。 -其樂無窮- 給 其樂無窮 發送悄悄話 (0 bytes) () 09/23/2024 postreply 11:55:45

是今年的, 這個不是升學的essay, 隻是一個學生發帖來吐槽 -jingzhumama- 給 jingzhumama 發送悄悄話 jingzhumama 的博客首頁 (51 bytes) () 09/23/2024 postreply 11:56:35

哈佛AO:佛曰,命由己造,相由心生。P大:P!少年不識愁滋味,愛上層樓。愛上層樓,為賦新詞強說愁。耶魯:耶,哲學係詩歌班 -天青雲淡- 給 天青雲淡 發送悄悄話 (0 bytes) () 09/23/2024 postreply 11:57:12

哈哈哈 -兩女寶媽- 給 兩女寶媽 發送悄悄話 兩女寶媽 的博客首頁 (0 bytes) () 09/23/2024 postreply 12:10:59

AO們不會喜歡吧 -amiyumi- 給 amiyumi 發送悄悄話 (0 bytes) () 09/23/2024 postreply 12:00:18

這槽吐得不錯! -天意悠悠- 給 天意悠悠 發送悄悄話 (384 bytes) () 09/23/2024 postreply 12:24:41

哈哈哈,被逼慘了,這幾個月熬過去就好了,有的專業一輩子都不用再寫本科申請的這類essay -迪源源- 給 迪源源 發送悄悄話 (0 bytes) () 09/23/2024 postreply 12:31:38

任何申請過程的真理都一樣:沒人喜歡的會是真實的你。你隻需要在虛假的故事裏盡量真實一點。 -賈平凸- 給 賈平凸 發送悄悄話 賈平凸 的博客首頁 (0 bytes) () 09/23/2024 postreply 12:48:05

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