What Kind Of Learner Are You?

First spread for May. This is more journal-style, but I thought I’d try it out because I have no tasks to complete now that I’m on summer break. What do you guys think? 😁 . . . . . #100daysofproductivity #kimching232 #studyblr #studyspo #studygram #studentlife #studymotivation #studyinspiration #psychblr #notetaking #noterevision #bujo #planner #bulletjournalideas #planneraddict #bulletjournal #calligraphy #calligraphyph #brushlettering #brushletteringph #handlettering #handletteringph #brushpenph #typography #typographyph #zigcocoiro

Student Loan Forgiveness

An email I got this morning from the government regarding my student loans:

We recalculated your monthly payment for your Income-Based Repayment (IBR) plan. We used the income documentation […] to determine your monthly payment of $334.66 [….] If you do not recertify or you no longer have a partial financial hardship (PFH), your payment amount will be $641.77.

The power of Income-Based Repayment plans for student loans: I am literally paying half what my monthly payment would be if I didn’t have “income based” forbearance.

The downside of course is that it would take me well over twice the length of time to pay off my loans (given the payment size plus interest), but I am enrolled in Public Service Loan Forgiveness, which means if I am employed with a not-for-profit for another four years, to make ten years total, the balance of my loans, roughly $30K, will be forgiven.

Furthermore, I believe (qualifier: this may no longer be true, I haven’t checked recently) if you are enrolled in IBR and paying based on income, after 25 years your loans will be forgiven regardless of where you work. If you are unemployed, IBR can reduce your loan payments to zero even once you’ve used up your grace period. If you are long-term unemployed, that means in 25 years you will no longer carry student loan debt. 

It’s 25 years of payments instead of 10, but it’s better than no help at all.

If you are in a low-earning job (I make just over $50K per year which in Chicago does not go far), IBR can help you keep your head above water and build savings by not charging you through the nose for your loan repayments. IBR is making it possible for me to afford to buy a home.

If you are employed with a charity, public school, private not-for-profit school, government agency, or other 501( c)(3) organization, you also qualify for Public Service Loan Forgiveness, which means after ten years of payments all of your qualifying loans will be forgiven.

A few years ago I wrote up how to apply for IBR and PSLF here. I just went through and updated all the links; it should be a good primer on the kinds of loans and jobs that the setup involves.

Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma – which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition.

Steve Jobs (via beinchargeofyourlife)

BREAKING: Obama administration will tell schools transgender students can use bathrooms of their choice

The guidance is not legally binding, but it reinforces the administration's position that it will take legal action against violators.

Tomorrow, the Obama administration is expected to issue guidance regarding transgender students in schools. More specifically, the guidelines will tell schools they cannot discriminate against transgender students with regards to bathrooms, housing, sports teams, and many more contexts.

President Obama has been an advocate for trans students for a while, but this will likely be the most direct statement on behalf of trans students yet. 

“When a school provides sex-segregated activities and facilities, transgender students must be allowed to participate in such activities and access such facilities consistent with their gender identity,” says a copy of the letter obtained by BuzzFeed News.

The rules apply to restrooms, locker rooms, sports teams, fraternities, sororities, housing, and more.

According to the guidance, school officials cannot require that a transgender student provide identifying documents, such as a birth certificate, or undergo any form of medical validation to qualify. “There is no medical diagnosis or treatment requirement that students must meet as a prerequisite to being treated consistent with their gender identity,” says the letter to school administrators.

This. Is. Incredible. 

i cannot stress this enough

if you are an eligible voter in the US this coming election and bernie sanders does not have the democratic nomination

you. have. to. vote. for. hillary.

i am not fucking messing around

i am not gonna sit here while you write in names or go on some fucking strike. hillary is not on the same level as donald trump. all of you who act like that’s a hard choice are ridiculous. you vote for hillary clinton if she gets the primary. if you don’t, you give trump the presidency. clear and simple. normally i would not advocate against writing in names, but at this point writing in names would take away from hillary’s vote if she is the nominee–EVEN IF YOU WRITE IN BERNIE SANDERS, YOU GIVE TRUMP A HIGHER CHANCE AT THE PRESIDENCY, AND YOU DON’T WANT THAT.

not even a year ago y’all were laughing about donald trump. don’t fuck this up. in no world is hillary clinton as bad as donald trump.

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9th May, 2016 Almost gave up on matrices, but today’s lecture on determinants really gave me hope again ☺️💪🏻👓 Had the most unproductive weekend since the start of semester, but today has been really productive, so maybe I just needed a reboot 😅👍🏻📖✍🏻 Hope your Monday has been a great start to the week as well~

I’m never over the fact that Juliet, though sunshiney, loving and in many ways naive, is actually a ridiculously morbid and very calculating person.  I love her for it, honestly, and I hate when people cut those lines or play it as though she isn’t these things.

Like, my love for Juliet Capulet knows no bounds as it is–she’s defiant, she’s passionate, she’s nonviolent, she’s loving, and basically  the coolest.  But I feel like the fact that she’s kind of a manipulative genius at times, and a somewhat creepy Gothic romantic at  others is so often overlooked, and I can’t imagine why, because that’s great!

I mean, it’s clear how intelligent she is, and how easily she manages to say what her parents want to hear, without even once letting on what she’s really saying, as the audience knows, most notable in Act III, Scene VL

Indeed, I never shall be satisfied With Romeo, till I behold him—dead— Is my poor heart for a kinsman vexed.

Where she basically knows how to simultaneously say that she’s grieving both for the loss of Tybalt and Romeo, while letting her mother hear that she wants Romeo dead, and then later in the same scene:

I pray you, tell my lord and father, madam ,I will not marry yet. And when I do, I swear It shall be Romeo, whom you know I hate, Rather than Paris. These are news indeed!

Where she manages to basically throw it all out on the table–she’d rather marry Romeo than Paris–and still words it just so they have no idea.  This is an extremely subtle and deft crafting of word and communication and how people hear things.  The girl is basically a genius and could probably have made a terrifyingly good con artist if she wanted.

But then I also love the fact that lots of her other lines are oddly morbid, and that she clearly loves and enjoys darker things, and isn’t quite the wilting, delicate flower people seem to portray her as.  I mean, one need mostly just look at her speech in Act III, Scene II, which I’ll do here, and then it becomes a wonder no one modernizes R&J and makes her an adorable Gothic princess, in a way. 

Gallop apace, you fiery-footed steeds, Towards Phoebus’ lodging: such a wagoner  As Phaethon would whip you to the west, And bring in cloudy night immediately. Spread thy close curtain, love-performing night, That runaway’s eyes may wink and Romeo Leap to these arms, untalk’d of and unseen. 

This part isn’t terribly dark, but it’s got the feeling of a battle  cry, in a way, invoking horses of the gods to go away, commanding the sun to set.  It’s intense stuff.

Lovers can see to do their amorous rites By their own beauties; or, if love be blind, It best agrees with night. Come, civil night, Thou sober-suited matron, all in black, And learn me how to lose a winning match,  Play’d for a pair of stainless maidenhoods:

To me, at least, there’s something witchy about this: it reminds me, in a way, of Lady Macbeth’s “Come, thick night,” speech, where she’s powerful, literally calling evil spirits to do her bidding and change the course of what’s to be done.  Obviously, Juliet isn’t a witch and no spirits come to her aid, but the thought is there, as is her love for darkness, her disdain for light, her romanticization of the night and its cover and the color black.  It makes me want to picture a modern Juliet painting spider-webs on her fingernails and watching the starts for hours in the dark, and listening to The Cure.  

Hood my unmann’d blood, bating in my cheeks, With thy black mantle; till strange love, grown bold, Think true love acted simple modesty. Come, night; come, Romeo; come, thou day in night;  For thou wilt lie upon the wings of night Whiter than new snow on a raven’s back. 

Again, this is something she very clearly loves and thinks is gorgeous, and it’s morbid and dark and rich.  And yet she’s so constantly written off as this silly little girl, foolish and flowery in the way people read her or perform her.

Come, gentle night, come, loving, black-brow’d night, Give me my Romeo; and, when he shall die, Take him and cut him out in little stars, 

Honestly, just to drive the point home, she’s thinking about her lover’s death making him scatter into the stars and literally becoming part of the night.  She wants to be Night’s lover, in an indirect kind of ways, and the fact that she twines darkness with Romeo in this image, indicates that she associates love and things she adores with darkness.  It’s certainly a love for the dark that I’d put into a Gothic Heroine of later literature.

And he will make the face of heaven so fine That all the world will be in love with night And pay no worship to the garish sun.

And finally, she concludes with calling the sun “garish,” which, if anything, makes me think of a line in a song from Phantom of the Opera–”Turn your face away/ from the Garish light of day”–which also associates romance with darkness, and a contempt for light.  But this isn’t meant to make her bad or wrong, simply private and rich and dark.

So basically, this all boils down to two things:  One is that Juliet Capulet should not be written off as stupid because she is literally too clever for anyone else.  The other is that I don’t get why people portray her wearing all white, or bright colors so often in modern adaptations, because there’s literally text-based justification for goth!Juliet if you wanted.

TL;DR Juliet Capulet is my cunning Goth Daughter who I love to hell and back and would kill someone for and I hate that people do not like her or put a lot of thought into her.  Also, if you’re ever thinking on it, consider goth!Juliet who loves spooky things and sneaking out at night. It could go very well with pastel!Romeo.

Matchmaking : Creating the perfect college list

One of the most important parts of the college application process is actually choosing the college you want to go to. This can be especially nerve-wracking if you have absolutely no idea where you want to go (or where you’ll get in!). Your college list may take ages to perfect and lock down, but here are some few tips that will help you get started. College lists are all about matchmaking, and this is how you get it done! 

Get realistic  Growing up, we all have dream colleges that we want to attend. Now, it’s time to get realistic about your chances at that dream college. Compare your scores, GPA, and ECs with the Freshman profile of the college you want to attend. If your stats are similar, you might have a good shot! 

Reach, Match, and Safety  Regardless of how many colleges you have in your college list, segregating them will make your job easier. Reach colleges are the colleges that will be, essentially, a “reach” for you. Match colleges are the colleges that you have a VERY good chance of getting in with your grades and stats. Finally, safety colleges are the ones that will be fairly easy for you to get into. 

Percentiles  When researching colleges, make sure to look at the college’s 25th and 75th percentile on test scores. If your test scores fall between the 25th and 75th percentiles, you have a great shot! Make sure that all your “match colleges’” percentiles are in tune with your scores. Consider eliminating / adding colleges to your list depending on your grades, stats, and scores!

Excel sheets  Excel sheets are life savers! Make an excel sheet with columns that read : Name of college, 25th to 75th percentiles, Tuition fees, Acceptance rates, Rankings for programs, Reach/Match/Safety, etc. Making this excel sheet will have all your data in one place making it easier for you to add or eliminate colleges to make your perfect college list. 

Ask important questions Finally, ask yourself some really important questions. For example, ask questions about your GPA and what the college you’re applying to is looking for. Like I said, college lists are all about matchmaking. And matchmaking is a two-way process! If you’re convinced that the college you’re applying to isn’t what you’re looking for, consider eliminating that college.