back to school

College Confidential: Recommendation Letters

9:30 AM

OLO ma beans!! In the spirit of back to school season, I have prepared another College Confidential post for y'all. As you are applying for college, there are many components of your application, recommendation letter being one of the most important parts after your test scores. Having a good recommendation letter means that there is one more person talking about how great you are and how much you qualify for the schools of your choice. I am here to share some tips on getting the perfect recommendation letter or getting one at least...

  1. Start early: I know applications are probably not due until November of your senior year but you need to start asking teachers at the end of Junior year. Teachers need time to write the recs and often times, if you think a teacher is awesome then twenty other students will think so too. 
  2. Participate in class: Honestly, this is one of the hardest things to do. Trust me, I am so socially awkward and I know NO ONE wants to participate in class. The thing is, there is a column that asks about student's participation in class for the Common App, so teachers kind of have to fill this out. For those of y'all who just do not want to do that, I recommend participating in the class in another way to get the teacher to remember you. Take charge and create the class t-shirt, create parties, bring food on days when you are watching movies; all of these options work. Just get the teacher to have something to write about.
  3. DO NOT SLACK OFF: Some teachers might not even tell you that they are going to write about negative behavior on your recommendation letter, so make sure that you pay attention in every class. You never know who is going to write your recommendation letter. 
  4. Be prepared for rejections: Maybe because you asked too late or because this teacher has too many recs to write so you might get rejected. This is why you need backup teachers for when the ones you want does not write your recommendation. This does not mean this teacher hates you, rather it's because they want their students to succeed so they will only write the best recommendation possible. I haven't been rejected by the teachers of my choice but I think if these teachers had rejected me, then my whole college plan would have messed up. 
I hope these tips will help everyone who is going into Junior year and those who are applying for college. Until next time, stay cool ma beans and good luck. 

back to school

Summer Mondays: I'll Miss You

9:00 AM

Dear My Favorite Person,  
It's getting closer to back to school, so I might not see you that often anymore or much at all. I want to say thanks on this blog of mine that I've never told you about. You might never read find it and never know how awesome you've been, but I just wanted to remember you. We met on the second day of my internship. You were a patient, and I was the assistant. I was new and I helped you check in, it turned out that you bought the "package" and that means you'll only be there about seven more times before you don't need the treatments anymore. Dr. W was on his lunch break when you came before your appointment time. You asked me about how I got the internship, which TV shows I liked, and why I wanted to study medicine. You knew more about me than some of my friends does after thirty minutes. I thought that I would never see you again, because each appointment times were different but you came every Saturday after that week at the same time. Not only that but you would buy me lunch. Literally anyone who gives me food is someone that I become fast friends with. I never told you how much my summer has sucked with all the homework and not being able to go anywhere, and because of you I had something to look forward to during the weekend. I wouldn't trade you for all the fluffy chickens in the world. Thanks man for being my food buddy, a good friend, wonderful humorous entertainer, human alarm clock, and so much more just for this summer. You made me live my Saturdays like an adult who has a job and yet she still gets to hang out with her coworker at the same time. I had loads of fun sharing my work space with you and thanks for changing the music whenever I get too sleepy. I hope your back gets better. Until next time, stay cool ma beans and I'll miss you loads.  

agenda

Q & A Thursday: Back to School ALREADY??

9:00 AM

OLO ma beans!! As I've promised, here is the post on back to school stuff. This literally covers everything that I want to talk about, makeovers included. Because every year, I want to change my vibe and I wanted to share with you guys on what I do. Again, I saw all of the DIY stuff that the YouTube people did, and honestly who has time for that in real life?? Like these YouTubers are mostly already out of high school... so they probably already forgot about the stress that we experience. Because we aren't famous or already has the rest of our life secured online... Here is an ACTUAL back to school for cheap post.


Q: I always see these cute things online, and then when I click open the item it's like $5 for a pencil. I'm broke, but I don't like the stuff that they sell at Office Depot and those places. Where do you buy your supplies?
These are the stuff that they sell at Daiso. 
A: Honestly if I knew who you were, I would give you some of my pencil bags. LOL because I collect them for a living. Anyways, this is the classic Asian problem. We would see super cute stuff online but we don't have the money, so where do I go?? Welllllll, in LA, or at least I think this store is only limited to here, is this beautiful place called Daiso. It recently got popular and there are 3 stores near me. Everything that they sell is $1.50 so that is literally the cheapest price you can get for cute stuff. It's like a Japanese 99 cent store. They have literally every cute thing you can imagine, from notebooks, to pencil pouches, to binders, they have it all. If you don't have that store near you, my go to place would be on Amazon. I actually just went on Amazon and ordered 4 pencil pouches for $3 + free shipping. I also saw like 10 gel pens for $5 and it's the same pens from Daiso.
Q: I am seriously in need a new backpack, but all of the backpacks I like are in the $70s. Do you switch your backpack every year? How can you afford it?
A: I SERIOUSLY GOT YOU ON THIS LOL. A lot of people are very reluctant to shop in department stores because they think that the clothes are low quality, but if you look hard enough, you will always find something that is the same brand as they sell in the mall and it's a WHOLE LOT CHEAPER!! I know that Hershel backpacks are really in right now, but honestly I'm too poor to spend my money on that and why spend $50 when I can buy a unique Jansport backpack at Ross for $19?? Yea that's right, Ross has UNIQUE Jansports and I am not joking. I buy all of my Jansport backpacks from there because they are so cheap. I actually only used China backpacks until 9th grade, and the first Jansport backpack that I bought was $35, it was the purple one from the Roadtrip Essentials post, and the second backpack was a purple floral backpack which costs around $40, and while I was shopping for my backpack for this year which is this cute thang here: 
Which costs around $50, I got for only $18.99 + tax. I seriously think that it is totally worth it. And yes, I do switch my backpack every year.
#notime
Q: Do you really follow the YouTube videos to DIY your notebooks and pencil pouches and all that? 
A: Honestly I don't, I just like to watch these videos so I can leech off some positivity since all of my stuff are more one colored and less neon and floral than what they have. I don't ever use #2 pencils unless it's for a official test, so I've tried out the pencils thing, and I got wrinkles everywhere on the pencil so it looked gross. Plus who brings sharpeners anymore to class?? Normally for pencils I use stuff that I get from my friends because I feel bad if I don't use them. Currently I'm using an orange ox-gel. As for notebooks, I like small things, so I usually use something small and portable if the teacher is not collecting notes, the small notebooks are usually for like English and Science. For math, I just use a normal 70 page notebook, and it lasts me for the whole year. If you want, you can try cutting out pictures and then positioning them on the notebooks then taking clear packaging tape and then taping the pictures on because that looks waaayyyy cuter than sticking scrapbooking paper on there.

Q: My school stopped passing out agendas, do you use one? Where can I go buy one for less than $5?
A: My school's agenda was super bad this year also since they started printing their own, so I bought my own from Big Lots for this year. I definitely find the agenda super useful because it helps me remember things that I cannot remember (it's like my child, in the beginning of the year, I thought that I lost it and I had a mental breakdown... so yea I do use it). The one that I bought is super thin, and it has a map of Paris as the cover, and the inside is basically an agenda. I got mine for $3 and it's super thin, so it's awesome to take around in your backpack. Plus this one came with a plastic protective film, so that's a plus!!

Q: There is this girl in my school who matches her outfit everyday with her pencils and stuff. I think that it looks super cute but I can't find groups of cute things that match well. Any suggestions?
A: I don't usually match my OUTFITS with my PENCILS because NO BODY GOT TIME FOR DAT. I applaud your classmate for having the time to do that. I usually try to get a feel of the vibe that I'm going for for that year. For example, last summer I thought that I had to work hard for that year, so everything that I bought was had a school vibe, like I didn't really care if the stuff were cute or not, as long as I had something to use. BUT this year, I am changing everything to the more classy side, my pencil pouch is solid colored leather (blue & yellow), my binder is from Daiso and it's black and white, you already saw my backpack, so that's that. My pencils are going to be skinnier and less chunky. Try to find what vibe are you trying to accomplish, then go from there. 
That's it for the back to school for cheap post. If you guys want, I could do another post with the additional stuff that I bought?? We'll see it's only half way through the summer. Thanks for sending in questions!! I'd love to hear from you!! Until next time, stay cool ma beans!! 

B&W

Summer Mondays: Shoppings Disease

12:16 PM

I diagnosed myself with shoppings disease. Symptoms include: excessively shopping, the urge to add many things to cart, wanting to buy anything you see, and hosting yard sales to get rid of old clothes.

I'm talking about this kinda shirt...
I don't know when this disease got a hold of me, but let me tell you how I got infected. One of my friends was actually infected first, she started changing her wardrobe into a more black and white vibe + Tumblr + Pinterest vibe. To me that's what many of us wear everyday, like black shirts, shorts, and flip flops but she used to be the super feminine type. All she wore was those Korea manufactured clothing consisting of lace, dirty pinks, and poka dots, so when she changed her style, it totally caught me off guard. And since shes's so skinny and tall, I thought that what she was wearing was totally my style.
This is basically her...
I didn't change my clothing, but I started buying things that are a lot more mature (in my opinion). Before I used to wear bright colors like neons, hot pinks, sapphire blues, oranges, and greens, but nowwwwww my closet consists of greys, blacks, jean type fannels, and whites. Ever since then, I had the urge to buy something every single time that I go out and almost every week, I have the urge to go online shopping and add stuff to my Amazon cart. You would think that this disease only affect clothes shopping, this weekend I bought: 24 pack pens, 1 sticker sheet of tattoos, 1 white shirt from Target, 1 new student planner, 1 shirt, sandals, crew neck from Hollister. I AM SHOPPING TO MUCH!! Last week I bought 4 cell phone cases, and 4 pencil pouches ALL AT ONCE!! To make up for the money that I spent (also I want to clean my room) I am going to be hosting a yard sale the same weekend where I'm getting my ears pierced. My desk is over flowing with pens, pencils, and papers, maybe I can sell all of that. I suggest all you beans should host your own yard sales, I might go... Until next time, stay cool ma beans. 

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