Oh nature is just beautiful, isn't it...

Location: Florida

Location: Miami Beach

Location: Miami Beach

Location: Mahabaleshwar, India

Location: Mahabaleshwar, India

Location: Mahabaleshwar, India

Location: Mahabaleshwar, India

Location: Miami Beach

Location: Miami Beach

Location: Mahabaleshwar, India

Location: Florida

This is post is for those who don't have a clear idea of how to prepare for applying to USA Universities. It could be because your school isn't very supportive in this matter/you don't have a good academic counselor/you are an international student and haven't found a counselor yet.

1 | Extracurricular Activities

You should do whatever extracurriculars you can while in high school. If you're on the team of any sport since grade 9, that's the best case. However, it is not too late to begin while you're in 10th grade. Doing very last minute extracurriculars (e.g. just a month or two before applying) can look bad. The people reviewing your application will know you did the activities just for the application. So start early. Click here to see a list of extracurricular activities you can do in high school (it's just an overview of the things you can do, if you want a way more detailed list, I suggest you just Google it.

Quantify your work! If you have done volunteering, then you should be able to state how many hours. If you have a hobby, try entering competitions related to that hobby and earning some sort of prize/certificate to give that hobby value. Colleges are looking for students who can provide something to the college while enrolled, so stating certificates, extracurriculars, numbers, etc. can help a lot.

Extracurricular activities also help your application by showing that you have leadership capabilities and passion. Firstly, extracurriculars (apart from sports) should be relevant and should have an impact on others. It should create a difference. Secondly, you should learn something from it (and you can say what you have learned from it in your essay which will be discussed below).

You can still do extracurriculars in 11th or 12th grade, it will definitely not affect your application negatively (they may just ignore it but they won't reject you because you did an extracurricular few months before applying!).  Considering that you apply before you are done with your 12th grade, the extracurriculars you do in your last year can be more freely chosen (because you don't necessarily have to focus on looking "passionate", "responsible", "mature", etc).

2 | Your actual ticket

I'm talking about the SAT/ACT. Most people give either one of these tests in 11th grade (junior year of high school). If you read this while you are in 10th grade, you can start now and have a lot of time to study if you aren't great at English and Math and know that you won't be able to give your level best with just a few months of preparation. If you are in 11th or 12th grade, START NOW! If you are applying for Fall 2018 and you haven't given your SAT/ACT test yet, you should give it soon. It depends on when your university deadline is, but if you think you are ready then the earlier the better. You don't want a test score report to be the reason for a delay in your admission decision.

You can register for the tests online (you only have to give one) and once score reports are available online, you will see an option to electronically send them to the college(s) you select.

3 | Academic scores

Academics. It is very important just like the other 2 factors I have mentioned. The admission team will look at your entire graph - what your scores have been like in 9th grade, 10th, and 11th (and 12th midterms if you provide that too). You should try to keep your scores as high as you can. The American system is pretty flexible, however, and you can still get in with bad scores (not at Harvard, but there are a lot of colleges) if the rest of your application blows their mind. So you have two options: Either try to blow their mind with 1 or 2 out of these (so far) 3 pointers or balance these three factors and do them all at least decently well. There's no way anyone can definitely tell you if you will get accepted or not (unless maybe if you literally have 95%+ academic grades, have a lot of 1st place prizes, a lot of community service hours, etc - you get the point). So the best option is to up your game for everything as much as you can.

4 | Resume

6 | Other documents you need

You will need some more documents like sealed transcripts, recommendation letters from 3 teachers (sealed), and maybe even a scan of your passport. 

International students: Along with the above you will have to provide an official affidavit that says your parent (this is assuming you are applying for a bachelor degree and are a dependent child) gives consent for you to study in the USA. You will also need a bank statement that shows you have enough funds (the University will tell you, either on their website or if you contact them, how much funds you need to show. Your counselor may also know). 

The formats of all the above documents are supposed to be very strict, so I strongly recommend hiring a counselor if you don't have for not only the above application process mentioned but also the documents part of it. You don't want to lose a chance because the format wasn't considered official by the University/college.

Though your counselor will make everything clear to you if you want any more clarification on a specific topic comment below and I will be sure to help you if I have the answer! 

Good luck with your application process!

If you are anything like me, you have a dozen of notebooks sitting at home. Empty. They look so pretty and you don't want to use them at school. What are you ever going to do with them? If you are even more like me, a lot of these notebooks have been collected when you were younger because you loved stationary since as long as you can remember and never wanted to use those notebooks/notepads. 
I have come up with 20 different ways you can fill your notebooks! 

Don't want to sit and read this entire blog post? Watch my video covering this entire blog post in just a few minutes below!



1 | Travel Journal

You can write about every trip you have been on and add pictures, your flight tickets, anything that's related to that trip and can be inserted in your journal. However, you don't have to go across the globe to be able to make a travel journal. Your journal can have memories and writings of local places you have been to with your family, friends, or loved one. Adding a picture of the map, or drawing the map of the place can also add a nice artistic element to your travel journal. If you don't mind your journal not being completely flat, you can currency of the place (if the place has slightly different currency e.g. quarters of different states, or if your trip was international) like coins and/or bills. You can even add packing lists before you go on the trip to one page and then write about the journey and the trip on the next pages.

2 | Collections

Nail Polish Collection

This is inspired from the famous YouTuber, Ann Le (Anneorshine). You can make a book of collections of different items you own in different colors/types. For example; nail polishes, eye shadow shades, eye makeup, different pens and highlighters you own (if you love stationery), and so on. All you have to do is basically make small swatches on the page and you can write the shade, company, etc below or beside the swatches (as shown in the picture). If you own plants you can even draw the different plants you own, the nutrients they need, how often you need to water them, etc (especially if you are a new "Plant Mother"). If you want to up it a bit, you can even take pictures and add them to the pages instead (e.g shoes you own, etc). If you buy a lot of stuff from shops like Etsy that you need to keep buying every now and then (e.g. planner stickers), you can make a collection of that too and write down the shop name so it's easier to find when you need to order the item again. It's your own collections journal so you can add as many collections you want, no one is judging, darling! 

3 | Assignments Tracker

If you are in high school or college (or simply want to track any important assignments) dedicate your empty notebook to writing down your assignments so you don't forget to complete and submit them before the deadline. It's a great idea to also write down what chapters/modules were covered in class so it's easy for you to know what to revise that day and/or what to go through next for the next day's lecture. A great way to remain organized and on-time for everything! You don't have to have a table like shown in the above picture, you can have a simple layout with headers like a planner too.

4 | New Language

If you are learning a new language, whether on your own or in class, it's a good idea to dedicate a notebook to it so you can write down the basics (especially stuff you are likely to forget) like regular and irregular verbs and their conjugations, pronouns/possessives, etc. (Also, if you are learning a new language, it's a good idea to learn beginner phrases and phrases like "could you please talk slower, I don't know much [language name]"). You can even make a list of common nouns and adjectives. Create a page for the contents at the beginning. Dedicate 2-4 pages (depending on how big your notebook is) for the index at least so you know where everything is in your notebook and you have enough space for your contents page.

5 | Lists

This is a very broad topic, so you can literally make any kind of lists. Lists of what items you want to save up for, where you want to travel, a bucket list, grocery shopping list, whatever list you need to make! I suggest using a notepad for this one so you can easily tear off lists you don't need anymore (like when you are done buying the groceries, for example) and also to save space since the lists won't normally be very detailed, but at the end, it all depends on what you need. 
(The notepad in the picture above is a random notepad, this post isn't sponsored)

6 | Bullet Journal

If you have been to my blog before or seen any of my YouTube videos, you know I love Bullet Journals. If you love to plan and add various elements to your book to make it more than just a "planner" then you should definitely try making a Bullet Journal. You can visit the official Bullet Journal page and find out the basics and you can also click here to see my bullet journal setup or watch my June and July monthly set up videos below to get an idea of what a Bullet Journal can look like:



7 | Dream Journal


If you like keeping track of your dreams, or like the idea of doing so, you should consider having a Dream Journal. You can write down your dreams as soon as you wake up. You can do this if you just dislike the feeling of forgetting a good dream after a few minutes of waking up or want to decipher your dreams in a way if you believe the have some hidden meaning(s). You could also just do it for fun. You can record your dreams every day or when you want to, it's up to you.

8 | Brainstorming



I love brainstorming. It really helps me come up with a lot of ideas and helps me evaluate those ideas or add ideas to those ideas if that makes any sense. If your job or hobby (or whatever it is that you do) requires a lot of creativity and coming up with ideas, then a Brainstorming Notebook should be your buddy. 
You can make spider diagrams, flow charts, anything you like. I recommend you use a dotted or grid notebook for this one but if you have an empty lined notebook it won't stop you from brainstorming, I promise.

9 | Gratitude Journal



If you don't know, a gratitude journal is basically a journal full of things you are grateful for. Thanking God/the universe/any force you believe in (if you believe in one) for the privileges you receive every day. If you have read or watched "The Secret", you know exactly what this is. It's simple to do. You can choose a number of things you want to write down that you are grateful for every day (e.g. 5 things per day) and write why you are grateful for each of those things/people/events/etc. Writing regularly about what you are grateful for will make you happier...I guess because you are saying out loud that you are happy with everything you have.

10 | Doodling & Sketching

I find doodling/sketching very therapeutic. I'm not that good at drawing but I like to believe I can draw decently (kinda) but that doesn't stop messy doodling from helping me de-stress. You don't have to be good at art to have a doodling/sketching/drawing journal. Just try to create new stuff, designs, cartoons, whatever you want to and let your creativity take over. If it helps you become relaxed and enjoy your "me-time", then who cares if you can draw or not? 

11 | Study Notes


If you are serious about studying and create your own notes, then use that empty notebook lying around to make a notes-book. Since it isn't being use at school, you can take your time, make it neat and add extra information if needed. Make it proper in one go so you can always rely on the notes for upcoming exams and don't have to sit in between 2 textbooks and a study guide and your school notes to study for one test.

12 | Year Overview

You can write about how the previous year was, you can write about the month and your feelings and what happened in that month, like a monthly overviews. You can then sum up the entire year in the end and add any thoughts, reflections, etc. You can pictures, news articles, etc. depending on what you are writing about and what you want to capture and remember from the year. It could be kind of like a rarely written in diary.

13 | Memories





I love the idea of adding Polaroid pictures and text together. To me it seems kind of like the perfect combination for a journal. What's better is when you can write about memories and have pictures that can be associated with them - so you never forget it. Polaroids are back in trend and I ain't mad at it. In fact, I absolutely love it. You can make a cute, vintage looking (or not, you can add normal printed pictures cut to size) journal with loads of memories and pictures to go with them. You can write about events, trips, people, etc. There are so many good events that happen in your life even when you are going through a rough time. You should find those even if they are hard to find. Write them down so you can feel how lucky you are and look back on those memories, know exactly when they happened, and re-live them.

14 | Recipes

Love cooking/baking? Make your own homemade recipe book out of your notebook. Make sure to have a table of contents in the beginning and rate all the recipes as you write them down on each page. You can also add other elements like a sign for whether the meal is non-vegetarian, vegetarian, or vegan or if the meal is healthy or not. You can dedicate a section of each page for these indicators so you can quickly spot the "meal type" and decide on what to make. You can even divide the notebook into sections for example; Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner or Meals and Desserts, etc.

15 | Personal Diary

I don't really need to explain this, it's pretty self-explanatory. Pour your emotions onto the empty pages!

16 | Vision Board/Inspiration Board

You can create a vision board and/or inspiration board notebook! You may have different goals every month and different inspirations depending on your life. You can keep adding stuff to your notebook as and when you finish reading a magazine and want to add images from there or when you develop a new interest/passion.

17 | Statistics/Budgeting

If you want to be more budget-conscious but spreadsheets are just not your thing, use your blank notebook for it! You can start out with a page of your monthly budget goals followed by pages for your expenses and earnings. Make sure to create a table if you want all your numbers to be organized. An alternative idea would be to use it for statistics. If you are on social media and trying to make or have a business on it, you can use a notebook to record your weekly or monthly statistics, whether it is the increase in your followers/subscribers or any other insight. You can have a regular log made in your notebook. You can even plan what your goals for the month are in terms of growth and compare that to the end of the month statistics.

18 | Quick Notes/Ideas


If you have a small notepad/notebook, this is probably the perfect use for it. Take it with you on the go for any sudden bursts of brilliant ideas or if you need something quick to write on if you are meeting an adviser, for example. I always have random ideas at the most random times and I usually forget about them even if I write them in my phones' memos. So if you are like me, a small notepad would be great for this.

19 | Cathartic Writing

Everyone has their tough times and everyone has something they want to express/say but you can't always say everything to someone or sometimes you don't have someone to say the things too. Cathartic writing really helped me through some of my toughest times and if you are going through something you should definitely consider writing it down. I always heard people say that you should write down your feelings when you are sad or going through something but I never considered it till a teacher I'm close to suggested it to me when I sort of opened up about something I was going through. I gave it a try and it helped me so much. Ever since, whenever I'm upset about anything, I write down, very quickly every thing I'm feeling, in the messiest handwriting ever and get it all out. That's just how I do it. So if you have any suppressed or built up emotions, try cathartic writing (or maybe even painting/drawing). Find what makes you calm and peaceful and if this is what it is, then do it.

20 | Secret Compartment





If you honestly cannot think of anything to do with your notebook either because you've already tried the above 19 methods (or for that matter any other ideas from other websites), then my fellow reader, get your X-acto knife/cutter out and make a secret compartment out of your book (You can even use an old reading book you don't care about, actually). Even if you don't have anything important (but not too important) to keep in that compartment, it's still sort of fun to pretend like you have something to hide.

Kind of like a sequel to "Ctrl + Z" and "A Million"

[By relationship, I mean it's definition - the way in which two or more people or things are connected, or the state of being connected. Not necessarily (i.e. not in the context of my personal point of view) but also possibly including a romantic relationship.]

There comes a point where everything changes between you and a person. You feel different - not in a good way. You feel alone. It feels like the loss of a person.

The intuition

Somewhere in the back of your head, you have this feeling but you suppress it into the very back because you are in denial. You don't want it to be true - no wait, the thought doesn't exist, right? It was just one of those weird moments. It means nothing. It's all okay. Just brush it off and be happy. "Feel on the surface, don't question things or it'll get complicated," you tell yourself. If you doubt it, forget it. You're still best friends and you will still shower him/her with love because that's what you both do. Wait. He/she hasn't done that really. Bad thought. Forget. Best friends forever.

Mixed feelings

The inner thoughts become controlling but only of your subconscious. Denial still persists. You begin to do things and say things but you don't know why. You don't want to know why. You avoid the person one day and but then want to talk all day the next. You don't know what you want. You decide to distance yourself so that you can maybe find out what you want because you don't want to be so moody and indecisive. So many feelings overpower your mind that you stop feeling; you become numb to emotions. Going along with life trying to avoid that person because you can't tell what's right or what's wrong and you can't deal with all these thoughts that have flooded your mind because you pushed them back so far as if mimicking natures' tides.

Over thinking

You remind yourself of all the times you were not happy with the person. All the thoughts you neglected now mean so much. You feel the emptiness in the relationship and you think "Was I a fool to believe we were on the same page? Did he/she ever care or was it actually genuine in the beginning but faded with time?"
They say time heals but it doesn't seem like that to you. Every day you are emotionally drained by thinking about why he/she doesn't care or why/she doesn't have the same feelings as you have for them. You are exhausted from all the thinking and all the energy you have put into it. You almost want to surrender and just pretend like everything is okay and go back to him/her and "forgive and forget" but somewhere inside you, you know that isn't what you should do. That'll never work in the long run.

The blow-up

Fighting and arguing and now it's actually real and not in your head. Now it's you fighting against him/her and fighting your own mind. It's two against one. You want apologies from the other end and you want a meaningful message to end this once and for all but things don't happen in reality like the way they do in your mind. It's actually the complete opposite. A few weeks of not talking and a few days of crying, but nothing changes. Everything is brought up in conversations like lava brought out from Earth's core. Actions - regrettable. Words - irreversible. The events are engraved into your mind. The relationship's structure changes and you can do nothing about it.

The storm calms

You both decide to be the bigger person and move on from the events. There are two main thoughts. "This is a relief and I am so happy" & "Can I ever move on?". It's you being indecisive again but as if at a lower intensity. There are neutral conversations to try to bring back up your relationship to where it was again; like setting the second foundation.

The temporary bounce back

You are ecstatic and filled with hope...so glad this could work out. You fall in love, again, with the idea of being close to him/her. But that's the problem. It's only the idea. You actually are torn between reality and your imagination once again - but you don't realize it just yet.

Back to reality

Once the initial feelings fade you realize that it isn't the same. You just made yourself feel that way because that's what you wanted. The idealism of your relationship is not the reality of your relationship. You have now become the Pip of Charles Dickens you called a "fool". Estella was never meant to be yours. You feel different about him/her and your relationship.

Acceptance

It definitely is different than before. You haven't talked about it, but you know. There are no sparks. You do have fun when you're together and you still may have some kind of relationship but there's no depth in it anymore - it all washed away with that tide.

It isn't over but neither is it solid anymore. It's that in-between area that you never knew existed. It makes you feel like you're hanging. Good news is that you understand the reality now and accept it. You don't waste time thinking about it or spending energy on ways to fix it. You let it be, because it was never meant to happen. You occasionally think about it, but you've come to terms with it.

Background image from Unsplash.com

I am not someone who absolutely loves color. My wardrobe is 75% black and neutrals (the rest just being colorful items I bought years ago). I do use color while planning in my planner but if you saw my Bullet Journal Setup for this year (click here to see that), you'll see that it's minimalist and black and grey (except the book which is a blue - not a big fan, but I'm about to buy a new one). Anyways steering back to the topic...
Summer is represented by color and florals and beaches, etc. I don't mind the florals and the beaches, kinda mind the bright colors. I've thought of some Floral DIYs that you could make with any color palette of your choice - whether you want it in gray-scale or filled with neon hues, it's up to you.

An idea of how your frame-calendar could look like!

• Select a photo frame of your choice.
• Print out or draw (your choice) the layout of the month or months you intend to use on paper sized appropriately according to the frame size. (FYI, It doesn't only have to be for summer months, keep reading for more ideas). 
• Collect flowers, leaves, etc. of your choice and decide on a general arrangement that won't completely cover your calendar but overlays a little bit.
• Add a very small piece of double-sided tape (or loop a single-sided tape) to the back of your flowers/leaves but make sure it's barely visible if it is. Stick it to the calendar.
• Insert the calendar page with the stuck on florals into the frame and smush it between the glass of the frame and backing board. 

And there you go! Now all you need is a dry erase marker to add notes/events/reminders/etc to your calendar. If you have some important events you already know of you can write it on the paper before putting it inside the frame.

This one is again very flexible to your aesthetic!
You can add polaroids, quotes, flowers/leaves (fake or real, though real flowers will probably not last long), reminders, and so on.
Here's how I would make it:

• Take a clipboard of your preferred size. You can get one with your color choice, or if you don't find one that's the right color, spray paint it whatever color you desire! Remember to tape the clip if you want it to remain the way it is.
• Take some good pictures, either aesthetically pleasing or great memories. It doesn't have to be a Polaroid it could be a simple printed picture as well (though using photo paper will make it look way better if you decide to print)
• Print out a quote or two and cut it out. You can add anything to it, you can even make it a vision board/inspiration board.
• Add the elements to your board. You can do this in two ways as shown in the picture above:                   1) If you want to make it have a clean look, add double-sided tape or any tape to the back of your elements                                                                                           2) Stick them to the board using washi tape/a thin duct tape or use bulletin pins (you may have to hammer them a bit so they don't fall out. This will work if you have a wooden board, but you'll probably crack it if you are using an acrylic/plastic one).

You can put this up on your wall using a nail. If you live in a dorm or if you are not allowed to drill holes into your wall wherever you live, you can place it on your desk at a slight angle or on a shelf and it'll look just as great!

3 different preferences! From minimal to all-in (and a lot more variations in between!)

This next one is very common but there are endless possibilities on how you can customize it. The selection of glass, flowers & leaves, etc.
Personally, I prefer the glass type shown above (simple and sleek looking) and the first arrangement (left). 
Here are a few additions you can make to this DIY (I recommend using fake flowers/leaves if you do any of the below):

• Add resin or clear candle wax to the vase after arranging your flowers to give the effect of water (you can add stones before adding the resin/wax too).
• use masking tape to make a shape/stripe across your vase/glass and paint or spray paint the exposed part
• spray paint the flowers  a color of your choice. White and/or black is what I would do (minimalist and my aesthetic).
• add pebbles or sand (or both) to the bottom of the vase/glass

I decided I wanted to try something new but the problem was that I didn't have the right laptop for this kind of editing and I didn't have the right software nor the right skills/experience. I wanted to do stop motion. I'd never done it before but I thought I would give it a go, and I did. With my laptop constantly hanging and my software too, it was a bit of a struggle, but I really wanted to get it done since I had already started and spent so much time taking so many pictures. I completed it. It took longer than it should've because I used a basic software, but that's okay because even if you have the most basic video editing software, you can still do it. I've never used the right kind of software for anything, I just make with what I got and I've done that for as long as I can remember. I hope you like this video (below) and please feel free to leave any feedback in the comments below as I did this for the first time and don't know if it was good for a first try. The video is called "Little things that make me happy"

Here's a quick list on last minute and easy Father's Day gifts you can give to your Dad!

1. Etched stuff 

This is my style. I like casual, minimalist and neutral tones. In this particular video, I show you what is majorly part of my wardrobe - black and white and grays. I tried to link some of the places where you can get what I am wearing but I couldn't find places for the majority of what I show you in this lookbook. I hope you liked this video and please subscribe to my blog and youtube channel if you wish to!

Welcome to my blog, Black & White & Wise!

I hope you find my posts useful and entertaining! This is basically a Lifestyle Blog and here's an overview of the series I have on here:

Photography Album

Planning

College Talk

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Life

DIY

Social

Miscellaneous

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