平凸雜談
才高五鬥不覺恥，水灌一壇隻作癡。凸情不枉君付意，子誌難琢我化石。
頂級文書の疫情時代
咱先不說話，好好來欣賞一篇最近在Tiktok上瘋傳、一周內感動兩千萬人、好評數百萬的頂級哈佛文書。
2021年：The Letter “S” Essay
Abigail Mack
Harvard/Yale/Princeton...
I hate the letter “S”. Of the 164,777 words with “S,” I only grapple with one. To condemn an entire letter because of its use .0006 percent of the time sounds statistically absurd, but that one case changed 100 percent of my life. I used to have two parents, but now I have one, and the “S” in 'parents' isn't going anywhere.
"S” follows me. I can't get through a day without being reminded that while my friends went out to dinner with their parents, I ate with my parent. As I write this essay, there is a blue line under the word 'parent' telling me to check my grammar; even Grammarly assumes that I should have parents, but cancer doesn't listen to edit suggestions. I won't claim that my situation is as unique as one in 164,777, but it is still an exception to the rule — an outlier. The world isn't meant for this special case.
The world wouldn’t abandon “S” because of me, so I tried to abandon “S.” I could get away from “S” if I stayed busy: you can’t have dinner with your “parent” (thanks again Grammarly) if you are too busy to have family dinner. Any spare time that I had, I filled. I became known as the “busy kid,” the one that everyone always asks “how do you have time?” Morning meetings, classes, afternoon meetings, volleyball practice, dance class, rehearsal in Boston, homework, sleep, repeat.
Though my specific schedule has changed over time, the business has not. I couldn’t fill the loss that the “S” left in my life, but I could at least make sure I didn’t have to think about it. There were so many things in my life. I couldn’t control, so I controlled what I could. My schedule. I never succumbed to the stress of overcommitting. I thrived.
It became a challenge to juggle it all, but I’d soon find a rhythm. But rhythm, wasn’t what I wanted. Rhythm may not have an “S,” but “S” sure liked to come by when I was idle. So, I added another ball, and another, and another. Soon I noticed the same “color” balls kept falling into my hands – theatre, academics, politics. I wanted to come into contact with these more and more, so I further narrowed the scope of my color wheel and increased the range of shades of my primary colors.
Life became easier to juggle, but, for the first time, I didn’t add another ball. I found my rhythm and I embraced it. I stopped running away from a single “S” and began chasing a double “S”—paSSion. Passion has given me purpose. I was shackled to “S” as I tried to escape the confines of the traditional familial structure. No matter how far I ran, “S” stayed behind me because I kept looking back. I’ve finally learnt to move forward instead of away, and it’s liberating.
"S” got me moving, but it hasn't kept me going. I wish I could end here, triumphant and basking in my new inspiration, but life is more convoluted. Motivation is double edged sword: it keeps me moving forward, but it also keeps me from having to look back. I want to claim that I showed courage in being able to turn from “S,” but I can’t.
Motivation is what keeps “S” at bay. I am not perfectly healed, but I am perfect at navigating the best way to heal me. I don’t seek out sadness. So “S” must stay on the sidelines, and until I am completely ready, motivation is more than enough for me.
誰是Abigail Mack
Brockton, MA。波士頓往南三十英裏。這裏曾走出過世界上第一個聖誕老人。Abigail就是麻省Brockton市立高中BHS的2021級畢業生。2020年給所有人帶來Pandemic，也給Abigail帶來失母之痛，讓她從此不再擁有"Parents"的複數形式。為了讓自己從悲傷中走出，Abigail每天早早到校找老師答疑，還給給自己的課餘時間安排了更多歌唱排練、長跑和排球訓練等活動。
當發現自己的時間裏還會不時被悲傷滲透的時候，她開始投入到當地的政治活動中，成了民主黨進步派參議員Ed Markey的選團成員。2020是大選年，這一年不僅白宮易手，另有33席參院席位改選，Abigail支持的Markey，正是其中之一。Markey在2013年接替John Kerry的麻省參議院席位，且是美國國會著名的Green New Deal的Author之一。另一個是AOC。
從此，選戰裏的各種早、晚會充滿了Abigail的日常，讓她不僅淡出失親的悲傷，更漸漸發現到自己的Passion。環境保護、社會公正、良性政治等等當年的流量詞，充滿了Abigail的業餘時間。麻省是左派大本營，Marlkey參議員當然勝出，Abigail的熱情當然也收到應有的回報。
Abigail上傳了這篇文書後，網友們都驚呆了。
-有人說，我毫無懷疑哈佛必須錄取你。
-有人說，你的父母親肯定都在為你驕傲。
-還有人說，這故事我也有啊，可我怎麽沒寫出這樣的文書。
-更多的人會說，現在我懂了，哈佛的要求是真的高啊！
哈佛必錄の文書彡要素
Abigail的哈佛錄取，可不是我們想想的那種模式。她在12月31日投出RD之後和大家一樣在等待。但在3月5日，即Ivy Day之前的三周時（當時Ivy Day尚未宣布推遲），哈佛給她發來一封Likely Letter。任何人在這樣的時間，突然在自己的哈佛申請賬戶裏收到一封信，那她或他就一定是被錄取了。
Abigail很顯然屬於哈佛最想要錄取的一類申請者。我們都知道，他們必然在領導力、利他主義（包括環保）、創造性、社會公平等方麵有著突出表現。但這不是我們的重點。我們今天的重點，是Abigail這篇文書的突出特點，也就是本世紀20年代哈佛必錄文書的三個文字要素。這些可不是 Be Yourself 一類的廢話。
- Trend H values
什麽是哈佛當前的values？我們在三月的文書講座裏主要講過，大家不妨再去看看哈佛招生網站，或者讀讀我們文書講座的有關文字。這篇“S” Essay的價值在Passion一詞。你做什麽，隻要有Passion，就是大H想要的那個版本的你自己。在文書所表達的核心價值上，Passion即道也。
- Punch your lines
Punch lines就是要寫出具有吸引力的文字。這常常是短句子（但並不排除長句子），或高浸潤性的metaphor。比如，"I hate the letter 'S'"和"'S' follows me"。當你的文字在AO麵前具有很強烈、很清晰的求同性，它就會被自動理解為AO想要的Character。此，即道生一。
- Present contrasts
對比是個很好文字表現工具。比如這篇，幾乎每段話都以一句強烈對比色彩的信息開頭。比如， "'S' got me moving, but it hasn't kept me going"。人類的認知係統，對於強烈對比性事物的興趣是與生俱來的。此，即一生二。
當然還有二生三，以及三生萬物。
但這些不是本篇要講的重點。現在，請讀者再仔細研讀前麵那五篇頂級文書吧。
頂級文書の2017匹薩文
讀到這裏，你是不是覺得這個樓可以封頂了。
No。 No。 No。
寫到這裏就封頂的，那隻能算個合格的Essay Counselor而已。而大部分的Essay Counselor連這個水平都不到。
接下來，我還能帶你走進各校招升官的潛意識中，體會他們為各自工作所設計的目標。而他們大多數，都不會很清楚地定義這些潛意識目標。
