It was that time of year. It was the most nerve-wrecking and stressful time of year every senior in high school dreaded. It was a time of furious writing, mastering the art of selling oneself as well as trying not to get too competitive with each other.

            “So, are you done with your applications?”

            Junhong looked up from where he was secretly typing his common application essay under the guise of working on his biology paper. “Nearly there,” he answered vaguely.

            His friend rolled his eyes. “Alright, Mr. Secretive. It wasn’t like I’m going to ask where you’re applying to anyway. You aren’t applying to Harvard or one of those overseas colleges right?”

            Junhong stuck his tongue out. “If I were, I wouldn’t tell you because the disappointment would kill.” And then he went back to writing his essay. The truth was, he did apply to an overseas school. It was a long shot but he decided it was worth a try. He wanted to test his limits and it would be fun to see if he was able to be as good as he wanted to be. But that wasn’t his concern. First he had to finish the application.

            He typed furiously, his fingers flying across the keyboard. When he finally finished, he took a deep breath. Junhong saved it and carefully uploaded it onto the website. Now he just had his supplements left and then he was one hundred percent finished. Junhong clicked the link to the college’s individual website and stared in horror at the sight of the error page.

            He furiously clicked the mouse. The same error page showed up and he cursed. He knew he should have done this application earlier and not waited until twelve hours before it was due. Of course the website would be down. Everyone was trying to submit. He could see his dreams of going to one of the best schools in the world going down the drain.

            “Nooo,” Junhong moaned as he mentally tried to remember what the supplement questions were. There were two mini essays he recalled. Maybe one of them was asking about one extracurricular, and the other one was asking what cultural experience he enjoyed. That sounded about right. He urgently looked at his application organization page and scrolled down to find nothing on said college.

            “Crap,” he muttered. Why hadn’t he written down the supplement questions for this college? And that was when he remembered. Applying there was something he decided on a whim, and so he didn’t bother adding it to his list.

            Junhong wanted to ask another person who could be applying but that would be giving it away that he was too so he kept quiet and prayed that he had excellent memory and had gotten it right. He opened up a new page and started to type.

            By the time study hall was over, he had half of the first essay finished and was plotting ideas for the second one. He was feeling accomplished until he walked out the door and heard that the valedictorian of the grade was also applying to the same school.

            “Wait,” he stopped short. “Are you really applying?”

            The girl turned to him and stared at Junhong with scornful eyes. “Yes. Why are you concerned? It’s not like your level is up there. And if you really are applying, you aren’t much competition.”

            “Well excuse me,” he muttered and rolled his eyes. He hated haughty girls and he hated this competitive atmosphere. Whatever. He wasn’t going to let her get his confidence down. He had to get to class and continue his essay.

            Junhong spent the next few classes typing like a madman and trying to appear attentive in class so as to not draw attention from his teachers. Sometimes he would answer questions and then he contemplated writing down ‘multitasking’ as a skill he obviously possesses.

            When school was over, he ran home, without waiting for his friends. He had applications to submit. He got home completely out of breath but hopped to the computer. He had an amazing common essay and two beautiful supplements. The only thing that could go wrong was that he had written the wrong essays.

            He logged onto the computer and felt a wave of frustration overwhelm him. Why was the internet so slow? He tapped the enter key incessantly.

            “Junhong-ah, abusing the keyboard won’t make the page load any faster,” his mother reminded him gently.

            Right, but he could at least vent a bit doing that. When the page finally loaded, he held his breath and let out a happy yell. The blue banner on the page started showing and he started doing the happy dance. Finally things were going right.

            When he checked the deadline, an enormous grin spread across his face. The deadline was a week later than he had thought. But considering how he was already done (the supplements were right, he checked), he decided to just upload it, and then application complete.

            It was a wild shot in the dark but he wanted to try. Junhong uploaded the documents, held his breath as he clicked submit, and nearly froze when he saw the confirmation email. He had done it.

            He ran outside, not believing his daring and took a celebratory selca. #CollegeApplication #Finished #ColumbiaUniversity #YouOnlyHaveOneShotYouKnow The rest was now up to fate. He’s taken the first step.

Good luck to everyone who is applying to college now

I had to rep my school somehow LOL sorry sorry XD

I'm glad people liked the Daehyun one kekeke ;)