hello,, im a grade 11 student. we have an ongoing study entitled "Uncovering the World of Game-Based Learning through Teachers' Perspective: A Qualitative Study", exploring the experiences of teachers in using gamification techniques in classes, as well as their insights about gamification itself (like, is it a recommended strategy?) and their perceived pros and cons.
i know the basics of conceptual framework (ID, DV, etc) but somehow, we're having a rlly hard time in constructing one for this study.
here's our SOP: 1. What are the lived experiences of teachers in utilizing gamification techniques? 2. What are the insights of teachers regarding the use of gamification? 3. What are the advantages and disadvantages of using game-based learning, whether traditional or online?
please don't judge our work, this has been approved by our adviser and again, this is only our 2nd research study ever. thank you! 🥲🥹

My 6 year old daughter (going into 2nd grade) was diagnosed with dyslexia and performance anxiety (from an outside evaluation but our school district accepted.the diagnosis) we will have our iep meeting soon. From talking to the psychologist at her school, they do not do a specific dyslexia curriculum rather just use a multi sensory approach to teach it in the learning support classroom. (But do not use wilson, etc or have anyone certified to teach it) Side note,I do a OG reading program (all about reading) with her at home and it's the first time she has made some progress all year and her benchmark testing went up the highest we have seen all year since we started this program. How do I ask her school for a specific reading program (like wilson, etc) and stress that she needs it?

Hi, This is more of a cry for help rather than a rant. I am Indian (its imp for the lore), just completed my senior year and got accepted into ASU on the basis of my 2nd choice of degree - B.A in Global Logs. My first choice was Finance, so when i got my acceptance offer. Not being admitted for Finance was a bit of a shock, upon inspecting ASU told me that i don't meet the requirements. What requirements you ask? even i had no clue back then. After more digging, I found out that they have a criteria that I should have completed 4 years of maths and 3 years of lab science ( lab science for finance, nice...) . From where I come from, u have the option to not opt for maths in the last 2 years of your senior years which is what i did. I took the subjects -: Economics - Accountancy - Marketing - Business Studies. And for some reason people at ASU don't want to understand that INDIA isn't the same as the U.S when it comes to education system. I tried telling them that i completed these requirements back when I was in 7th grade but unfortunately they only consider transcripts starting from 9th grade. So basically I'm f'ed and cant study either finance or accountancy cz I completed the requirements long before I was supposed to.
What i wanna know at the end of the day from you fellow Sundevils is whether i can talk my way into finance or accountancy, AFTER I reach uni and meet with an admission officer irl. Cz emailing isn't cutting it. It might not sound like it in this rant, But I've been at this little game for close to 2 months now.
CHEERS

For background: I feel like I am risking too much here at UST because I set high expectations for myself. I didn't pass the UPCA back in 2023, yet passed the USTET with my priority program, AB in Political Science. Kaso, my family wasn't financially well-off but I still persevered, promising them that I would take any scholarship opportunity.
Luckily, I passed the San Lorenzo Ruiz (Working Scholar) scholarship. It was manageable at first during our 1st semester and survived. Yet, 2nd semester came and it was hard to cope with, especially bumigat yung readings and schoolwork. I was constantly getting low scores on quizzes kahit na wala ako tulog from studying. Tapos, it was hard to manage my time, being a working scholar, required to render 24 hours a week. I was super drained and lost my motivation, all together.
I feel like I over-estimated my capabilities, and risking too much nga sa UST. But, I am uncertain if makakapasa pa ba 'ko sa major subject ko, so I want to shift sa UPD para at least kahit bumagsak, libre.
I just have some questions, if anyone can answer, it would be a big help. 1. If I get a singko in my grade, but still pass the required GWA (which is 2.00), can I still shift? 2. If I manage to shift, would I be disqualified for Latin honors?

For background: I feel like I am risking too much here at UST because I set high expectations for myself. I didn't pass the UPCA back in 2023, yet passed the USTET with my priority program, AB in Political Science. Kaso, my family wasn't financially well-off but I still persevered, promising them that I would take any scholarship opportunity.
Luckily, I passed the San Lorenzo Ruiz (Working Scholar) scholarship. It was manageable at first during our 1st semester and survived. Yet, 2nd semester came and it was hard to cope with, especially bumigat yung readings and schoolwork. I was constantly getting low scores on quizzes kahit na wala ako tulog from studying. Tapos, it was hard to manage my time, being a working scholar, required to render 24 hours a week. I was super drained and lost my motivation, all together.
I feel like I over-estimated my capabilities, and risking too much nga sa UST. But, I am uncertain if makakapasa pa ba 'ko sa major subject ko, so I want to shift sa UPD para at least kahit bumagsak, libre.
I just have some questions, if anyone can answer, it would be a big help. 1. If I get a singko in my grade, but still pass the required GWA (which is 2.00), can I still shift? 2. If I manage to shift, would I be disqualified for Latin honors?

Ask ko lang po pra sa requirements sa college admission. Ano pong ilalagay sa GWA? Yung pinakamataas po ba? General average ko kasi sa grade 12 sa 1st sem is 87- 2nd Sem is 88 oops ang baba

Demographics

• Gender: Male
• Race/Ethnicity: Indian
• Residence: Massachusetts
• Income Bracket: Upper Middle Class
• Type of School: Mediocre Public school
• Hooks: Immigrant but US Citizen
• Intended Majors & Minors: Applied Math, AI, Entrepreneurship, Engineering & Computer Science

Academics

• GPA (UW/W): 4.0/4.6
• Rank (or percentile): 8/300
• Classes: 12 APs, 3 Dual-Enrolments
• Senior Year Course Load: 3 APs (Computer Science, Chemistry, Psychology) 3 Dual-Enrolments (MIT OCW Linear Algebra, MIT OCW Multivariable Calc, English), Teacher Assistant for Calculus and Teacher Assistant for AP Physics C

Standardized Testing

• SAT: 1570 (770RW, 800M)
• AP Exams: Calculus AB (5), Physics 1 (5), Statistics (5), World History (5), Physics C: Mechanics (5), Calculus BC (5), AP CSP (4), US History (4), Lang (3)
• AMC 12: 136.5 (Top 200)

Awards/Honors

• Coca-Cola Scholar (150 Selected from 100K+)
• Harvard Guest Speaker on AI & ChatGPT in Education (6K+ Listeners). The Harvard Gazette wrote an article on me.
• MIT Hackathon 3rd place winner 2x (AI Recipe Generator & AI Therapist)
• Presented at International Education & Social Justice Conference (Peer-reviewed) at University of Hawaii
• MIT LLCipher Summer Program (3% Acceptance Rate). Invited back as Guest Speaker the following year.
• Wrote Boston Globe Article on AI & ChatGPT in Education
• AMC 12 Distinction (2x) and AIME Qual (2x)
• President's Volunteer Service Gold Award
• AP Scholar with Distinction & AP Scholar with Honor
• Multiple other Math Competition, Model UN, and Marching Band Awards

Extracurriculars/Activities

• MIT Lincoln Laboratory Summer Intern: Advanced Research in AI & Networking (1% Acceptance Rate). Internship primarily for Grad and Undergrad students. Received a return offer for summer before college.
• Writer: 110+ articles on Medium with 200K+ reads. Published by the Boston Globe and other publications.
• Antarctic Research: Climate Research and Data Analysis at UW-Madison.
• MA State House Internship: Worked for State Rep. Wrote a policy brief on AI. Promoted to Campaign Manager in 2024.
• Math Team Coach & Captain: Coach students and top scorer. 4x Regional Champions (First time in history). 2x AIME qual and 2x AMC Distinction (AMC Score: 136.5).
• Students of Color Affinity Group President: Mentor students and lead professional development workshops; presented at International Education & Social Justice Conference at University of Hawaii.
• AP Physics C & Calculus Teacher Assistant: Help teach 70+ seniors at my school (ran out of classes hence TA lol).
• Model UN President: Perfect record and multiple awards at regional conferences.
• Karate Black Belt: 10+ years and help teach classes.
• Marching Band: 2nd in USBands Nationals (3x).
• Coding Instructor: Taught kids how to code in Python and JavaScript.
• Sales Head & Data Analyst at National STEM Honor Society: Promoted STEM education to underrepresented populations.
• JV Tennis: Doubles Player

Letters of Recommendation

• AP Calculus Teacher
• Math Department Head and Physics TeacheMath Team Coach
• MIT Lincoln Lab Research Mentor (MIT Alum)
• Diversity, Inclusion, and Equity Director of my school (Harvard Alum)
• Massachusetts State Representative

Essay Summaries

• Common App: During the pandemic, I found personal growth and a deeper understanding of myself and society through writing, which led me to explore artificial intelligence and its applications, culminating in an internship at MIT and advocacy work, and inspiring my entrepreneurial ambitions.
• Community Disruption: When the pandemic disrupted my activities, I leveraged online platforms to continue learning and leading, discovering new interests in AI and entrepreneurship, and demonstrating resilience by revitalizing my school’s clubs and engaging in new ventures, setting the stage for my future in innovation.
• Additional Information: Links to various articles and videos, and other activities and awards.
• Supplementals: Some were very reflective about my identity, activities, and goals in life. Others were light-hearted and quirky. They were very personalized to the school and emphasized how I fit in, what I would bring to the school, and how I would use the school as a catalyst for my entrepreneurial ventures.
• Additional Uploads: Uploaded my Resume, portfolio of Articles, and a summary of my Research at MIT Lincoln Lab.

Interviews

• Harvard (REA): Great Conversation and said Harvard would have to fight MIT for me. 9/10
• MIT: My Interviewer was very disinterested and didn't care. It was 15 minutes and he said if I don't get in then who would. 6/10
• Princeton: It was a great conversation and said he would fight for me. 8/10
• Yale: It was also a good conversation and she said she would fight for me. 8/10
• UPenn M&T: Guy kept asking technical questions and I was lost. But in the end, he said I did good and he would fight for me, even though interviews don’t matter too much. 7/10
• Dartmouth: Lady was super impressed and said if I don’t get in then she is quitting doing interviews for Dartmouth. 9/10

College Results
Accepted

• WPI (with Max Scholarship, Half off)
• UW-Madison
• Northeastern (with Max Scholarship, Half off)
• Georgia Tech for CS (Early Action)
• Cornell (Meinig Family Cornell National Scholar)
• Dartmouth
• Duke
• UPenn (Waitlisted M&T)
• Harvard (Waitlisted → Accepted)
• Princeton (Committed)

Waitlisted

• UMich (Early Action)
• Vanderbilt

Rejected

• USC (lol)
• Yale
• Stanford
• MIT (This one hurt)

Reflections:
I'm super grateful and happy with my decisions. I have committed to Princeton, and it definitely is the best fit for me. College results this year were very random, but I couldn’t be more thankful to get into the #1 undergraduate university. I was worried that since most of my application was MIT-related (Research, classes, Letters of Rec, Awards, Activities), other universities would think I was going there and reject me. College results were super random and stressful, but it worked out better than I could have ever imagined. It's funny how I got waitlisted and rejected from all my target schools (Vandy, UMich, USC) but then got into most of my reach schools.
Advice for Future Applicants:
Be authentic. There is no formula that gets you in. Sure, you have to do a couple of things like getting good grades and SAT scores and having some unique activities and awards, but especially for Top 10 schools, you just have to be unique and authentic. I didn't have any connections or background (like private school and college counselor) that provided me with opportunities. I was literally the first kid ever from my school to get into Princeton. I was authentic and hardworking, did stuff I enjoyed, and one thing led to another. I also spent a lot of time on essays and my application. 50% of the work is actually doing stuff, and the other 50% is showcasing it in your college application. Also, have balance in life. I had a lot of fun in high school and enjoyed the stuff I did. Live life with no regrets. Feel free to DM me.

What’s in the closet, Kirsty?
He knew I hid a secret.
I smiled, tried to look confused.
He waited, crossing his arms.
I worried that he'd already seen. He had.
What else could he think about the pile?
His wife’s a cheater. She has another life. Another husband. Children.
He’d never believe the truth: I’m not a cheater; there’s no other life; no other man; I don’t know who the children are who visit me at night.
But I did have a secret. And maybe it’s fair to say another life, even if was smaller and against my will.
I should have destroyed those frames, burned the photos within. Now it looked like I saved them, cherished them. The truth couldn’t be farther. I feared to touch anything to do with… whatever they are…with one exception.
“It started last Halloween,” I said to George, my husband, my real husband.
He stopped packing for a moment, working out the impossibility of this statement. “I’m taking the girls to my parents.” He resumed the tossing of shirts, pants, etc. into our big suitcase.
“It’s true,” I said, but weakly. The children in the picture are at least six and four respectively. They were born six months ago.
“They’re not… my kids,” I said of the boys in the photos. They’re not kids is what I almost said.
George stopped and squeezed the bridge of his nose between thumb and forefinger. “Kirsty,” he said slowly, “there are baby pictures. I saw them.”
“That’s-”
He quickly raised his finger, exasperated, angry, done.
“The first picture is you holding a newborn, and…” He swallowed painfully, his throat gone dry. It always does when he’s upset. “And the father in that picture, with his arm around you, isn’t me.”
When I couldn't deny it, he nodded like he knew all along our marriage would end.
We were happy. We really were. George and I had managed to overcome the typical breakdown that often comes with raising children. Only since last Halloween had distance been made by me.
I should have told him as soon as it started.
“Girls!” he called as I followed him down the stairs to the front hall of our lovely home. We’d scrimped and sacrificed to buy and keep this place, our dream by the lake. He’d been so proud. I couldn’t tell him I wanted to leave the first night sleeping there.
Cara and Ella protested through play, ignoring the adults, continuing to jump on an old box they’d long since flattened. Rays from the western sun placed my daughters into an inspired, hallowed light, and I started to cry. He was going to take my babies away.
George opened the door, intending, I’m sure, to drop the suitcase in the car before returning to physically carry the girls out.
But he hesitated in the doorway.
“George?”
The suitcase fell with a solid thud on the floor. “There’s no way,” he said.
“What?”
“There’s no way,” he said, with emphasis on the last word, “you would have had time for…this…”
Not defining "this" as cheating was progress. “Yes!”
He glared, quieting my desperate enthusiasm. I wasn’t off the hook. “Tell me. The truth.”
“I can’t.”
He reached for the suitcase.
“No, not because I don’t want to,” I protested. “I don’t know what’s happening!” I sat on the carpeted steps and stared through blurred vision at my trembling hands. The shriek I’d filled the house with - “happening!” - had put a halt to the box's obliteration. Cara and Ella hesitated for a few seconds before leaping into action.
Cara, the oldest, six, punched her dad in the buttocks. “You have to be nice!”
Ella, four, sat beside me and patted my trembling hands. “It’s okay, mummy.”
Such lovely daughters. Nothing like the boys in those photos when they were this age.
George grasped Cara's wrists and gently walked her back into the house, using his foot to kick the suitcase from the swing of the front door.
"It's alright, girls," he said with weak resolve. "Go and play."
"No!" Cara shouted. She kicked at her father and he pulled her close into a bearhug. Gradually, the girls calmed and were convinced to return to the box in the front room.
"Kirsty," George said, "you have to tell me." He sat down on the step beside me. "Please." I would do anything to take away the hurt in his eyes. "Please."
"I can't. But… I can write it down. Maybe." I took out my phone. We shared Google Drive. When I made a new document, he reluctantly started his phone. The man was a dream. He watched his screen, and waited patiently for my words to appear.
Without preamble, I returned to the awful moment when it all began: a strange and disturbing dream. Words came like an infection from beneath a torn scab. The wound had been opened. Nothing could stop this now.
Sex with another man has never been a desire of mine. I love George. He loves me.
Plus, the man in my dream was a stranger, and not particularly handsome. He has a plain face set to unwavering boredom and unkempt male pattern baldness. Our dream sex felt obligatory, just something we had to do.
I awoke on the wrong side of midnight. November 1st and I was craving ice cream instead of the girls' gathered candy. The freezer left by the previous homeowners came with unopened ice cream. Freezer burned or not, I wanted some.
After retrieving a spoon from the kitchen, I intended to destroy a brick of neopolitan. He waited in his flannel pajamas, barefoot on the concrete floor. His arms were crossed.
"Cravings?" he said.
I dropped the spoon. It clattered down the basement steps. Before I could run away, he disappeared like someone had erased him from head to foot in one clean sweep.
Had to be a dream. That's what I told myself. The spoon stayed in the basement until daylight. Ghost or nightmare, there was laundry to do the next day.
I crossed the concrete floor fast and only felt safer when I'd closed the door to the more modern laundry room. Never thought builder's grade tiles and track lights would make me feel anything but sad.
His voice caught me sorting.
"Kirsty!"
I dropped the cup of detergent all over the floor.
"Shit."
I came out of the laundry room, figuring George had been looking for me in uncharacteristically rude fashion. He hated speaking between rooms. Shouting throughout the house was highly impolite. It must have been important, I figured.
As soon as I stepped onto the bare concrete, however, deep sadness, the kind that seems to physically leech the strength from your body, dominated the room.
"Hello?" I don't know why I said that. The basement is a low ceilinged rectangle. There are no hiding spots except for the laundry room I'd come from. After a deep breath, I walked briskly to the stairs.
"Any day now," a raspy voice breathed into my ear. I jolted and slipped forward, falling and clipping my chin off a step. It made my teeth click painfully. Nobody there, of course. I ran upstairs and George had gone outside with the girls to play hide and seek.
I wanted to tell him. He looked so happy. It's hard to convey in words the kind of smile he showed me through the window. Imagine contentment mixed with unreserved joy and hope. Yes, it's difficult to picture. So few of us can ever have such a moment. Sort of like finding a natural view completely untouched by humanity. Beyond rare and precious.
I’m rambling now to avoid writing about what followed. The point is I couldn’t tell him. I hoped it’d go away and stop.
But, of course, it didn’t, and things got much worse.
I awoke in a great deal of pain. Having already given birth to children, the feeling was familiar. Despite getting up and gasping, George continued to snore in our bed. He’s a deep sleeper, but a quick and early riser. I’ve never heard him complain about getting out of bed either, especially when there’s an emergency.
I might have woken him up but I was disoriented and confused. Part of me believed I was still pregnant with Ella. It wasn’t until I’d gone all the way to the kitchen to avoid waking up the girls, that my brain caught up: Girls. Plural. Ella was asleep in her bed upstairs.
“Ohhhhhhhh shiiiiiiiiiiit.” I knew the signs of labour. This couldn’t be happening. “Ohhhhhhhhh.”
I was definitely going to wake everyone up if this continued.
My phone was upstairs by my bedside table. We don’t have a landline. I should have called 911. I should have woken up George.
Instead, I went downstairs where I could vocalize pain without disturbing anyone. Such a pathetically passive response. But that’s how I was raised. Keep it down, don't you frown.
His hands seized mine as soon as I descended the last step. Serious and bald without dignity is how to best describe his physical appearance. Cold and cruel is what he is. The lights turned off and, in the perfect darkness of the basement, he was all that I could see.
He produces a red light from his body somehow but his touch is literally frosty.
"Kristy, it's time," he said. No joy there. Just straight facts. Something was coming. I was going to give birth to it. In the dull red glow of his being, the first boy came.
"His name is Hadad," the man said, placing a large, infant boy with a lot of hair and, I swear, a hint of beard, on the bare concrete. Hadad looked like a three month old they use as newborns on TV. He didn't cry. He hardly seemed to breathe as his dark eyes roamed the darkness. His light resembled the man's, a less intense red.
I felt another contraction, and winced.
"She comes next," the man said.
I felt so weak. "Who are you?" I asked him.
At last, he smiled and I wished he hadn't. It made me feel small, insignificant, and beneath his concern. "You know who I am," he said. "I'm your husband."
Pain wracked my entire body. Something didn't feel right. The birth of Cara and Ella had been without difficulty.
"Push," my "husband" ordered. "She is upset with you, and will kill you if you don't get her out now."
"It has to be a nightmare," I told him. Sweat poured in streams down my face. The unborn "she" in question writhed and damaged my insides. I screamed. I couldn't help it.
"Push!"
I obeyed and the second boy spilled onto the bare concrete, coated in blood and dust.
"It's a boy," I said.
The man looked displeased. "The body is male. She is Hebat. No wonder she is angry." Like the other infant, Hebat appeared aware of her surroundings and had far too much motor control for a newborn. The light pouring from her body was dull silver. Her eye sockets were two pits of concentrated despair. I had to look away.
The babies were pressed into my arms.
The man stretched out beside me. "Open your eyes and smile." I resisted. "Do it. Now." What choice did I have? The flash from his cell blinded me. They were all gone by the time my sight recovered. Only the sweat remained as evidence of the ordeal.
It had to have been a hallucination. Some very bad food poisoning maybe. The source could be as simple as an undigested bit of beef, a blot of mustard, a crumb of cheese, a fragment of underdone potato. I had been stress eating since we'd moved in. I stood up and took some comfort in a Charles Dickens' reference.
"More of gravy than of grave about you," I said. My words seemed consumed by the dreadful weight of the air. "Whatever you are."
Whatever you are: something bad in any case. At best, I'd hallucinated prolonged and traumatic labour and needed medical attention. Yet, when I limped up the basement stairs, all thoughts of waking George vanished. There on the kitchen island sat a propped frame containing the photograph taken only moments ago.
The man looked happy. Only Hadad appeared in this picture, which meant another one was somewhere. I didn't panic. I worried more about what George would think if he saw the photos. I had to find them all.
Hebat and his father and I were mounted in a dark wood frame by the master bedroom. It'd be the first thing anyone saw if they woke up. I plucked it off the wall and, together with the first photo, tucked it under some blankets in the dresser we'd shoved in the small walk-in closet.
You might not believe this, but I went straight to sleep after. I climbed under the blanket in my sweaty pajamas, shut my eyes, and didn't have enough time to deny what had happened. I was unconscious until morning.
George placed a coffee on my nightstand. That's what I remember. He rubbed my feet while I slowly awoke. The girls were watching TV downstairs, munching on apple slices. There was forty minutes still before we had to seriously consider getting ready to take Cara to school.
George would drop her off on his way to work downtown. He chose his hours and always chose convenience for his wife and kids. Ella and I planned to spend the morning gardening. Then we would nap much of the afternoon away until George and Cara returned. A life so perfect is so very rare.
I didn't want to spoil things with a very convincing nightmare. Besides, I felt fine. Not so good that I wanted to look in the dresser to see if those photos really were there, but not ill. So I remained silent again.
November started fine. Idyllic days and nights filled with laughter and joy and television. Just as I started to believe in the dream we'd made, they came again.
The wail of a child's hunger is a powerful call for a parent. When it's a chorus, even of two, it cannot be ignored. Only I awoke to Hadad and Hebat's cries for their "mother" from the basement.
Half asleep, I drifted into the kitchen and searched for their milk bottles. When no bottles could be found, I remembered they were newborns. Milk swelled in my breasts and made my nipples ache. Just like when Cara or Ella would awaken in the night. It was a relief to feed them.
But what the fuck was I doing?
I was acting like the man in the basement and the devil babies were mine. It'd been less than a week since Halloween and that horrible nightmare illusion. I had already taken on the beleaguered newborn mother role without question.
Their cries intensified and flayed the weak resistance of exhausted reasoning.
Don't wake George. Don't wake my babies, my real babies.
"What took you so long?" the man critized, his voice monotone, the question unrhetorical.
"I… was sleeping. I went to the fridge first." Under his severe gaze, I stopped in the midst of the dark room. Hadad had quieted. Hebat cooed as if laughing at her own joke. I couldn't see them because the lights were off. They liked the dark better. Somehow I knew that about them and him.
"You should sleep down here," he said. "A mother should always be close to her babies."
The statement was nonsense but not altogether wrong. I wanted to be close to my babies, the daughters sleeping in bliss upstairs, away from the evil fermentation in the basement.
"Kirsty," he said. "Are you listening?" His hand touched the small of my back. The gentleness surprised me. I squawked and flinched away. "What’s wrong with you? They're hungry." He pressed on my shoulders until I sat on the cold floor.
They came from the shadows, already walking. I wanted to go, but I knew he wouldn't allow it. He pulled my cat t-shirt off over my head and their fierce mouths suckled, relieving the pressure of excess breast milk quickly. It felt physically good and psychologically alien.
I looked down at them once and immediately regretted it. Their emanated light had intensified to a point where perception of them hurt.
Each time I blinked my eyes were drawn to some isolated part of their bodies. The vision got closer to the point of disgust. Everything is gross if you're close enough. There is no beauty under a microscope. If you think there is then you're not using the right magnification.
Hebat's eye drew me in. At first, I saw the dark sphere, and then the strands of her eyelashes. Her gravity kept pulling until the creatures that live in eyelashes were revealed: Demodex folliculorum. I looked the microscopic horrors up.
The babies had more parasites than any child should. They wanted to show me and could somehow do so.
I asked him about it. "Why are they showing me these worms?"
He smiled, contemptuously as usual. "Trying to impress mother. Neither of them understand your horror and insignificance. You are the ant who knows they're an ant. Lucky you. They think you will be proud of the life their corporeal forms produce and host. Give them a few hours. It will pass."
"Why are you doing this to me?"
"I'm not sure what you mean. We're married. Now, prepare to smile." His cell reappeared and I noted the lack of features; it might have been a singed rectangle of spent firewood. He frowned when I failed to smile. "Smile, Kirsty. These are your children."
I managed to stave off the tears and hold the babies close. The smile was more difficult. In the inevitable aftermath of their sudden disappearance, the frames depicted an exhausted, wrinkly woman smiling painfully. It took a second to recognize myself.
The things in the basement sapped my strength. I looked dehydrated, beleaguered. The scale in the bathroom said I'd dropped six pounds. I'd weighed myself the morning before.
"Whoa, you've lost weight," George noted, thinking I'd be pleased. "This place has been so good for us, eh?'
To produce another smile proved as draining as the previous night. "Y-yes," I stuttered too late for him to ignore.
"Hey," he said, touching my forearm.
I flinched.
"Whoa, you okay? What's wrong?"
I should have told him. "Nothing. Bad sleep. A nightmare. I'll be fine."
A lie is an agreement. George wanted to agree, I think. He wanted life to be fine because he was happy for once. We struggled so hard before we came to Bridal Veil Lake. It was supposed to be our dream.
Guilty if I told him the truth. Guilty because I didn't. I began to resent his happiness, though he had done nothing but be the wonderful man he'd always been.
To Cara and Ella I became a body in motion, No brain left to guide them away from harm or answer their questions about nature and the universe.
"I don't know." That's what I told them often.
So they began to treat me like a kind of butler.
"Can I have some juice, please?"
"Sure, sweetheart."
"Mommy, can I have a snack?"
"Of course." And I'd run off to fetch it.
"Cookies."
"Yes, dear."
When Christmas came, I had two and they induced the same level of joy. Visiting the basement to feed and nurture Hebat and Hadad became a nightly occurrence. I'd learned to awaken, if I could get to sleep at all, and go quietly.
He berated me severely if I missed a night, and there were subtle threats made casually.
"I may have to squash you yet," he said, his tone as deep and cold as always.
"It won't happen again," I promised. "They’re getting big." In fact, they were no longer infants. Both had grown to the approximate age of six or seven in a few months. Still, they never spoke. Their dark eyes watched me as they ate food from the kitchen upstairs, food I'd hidden from my family.
"More meat," the man demanded.
"Of course." And I ran to the freezer and gave them frozen sausages in the package. They never complained or demanded the food be prepared a different way. No objections from my "husband" either.
Hebat tore the styrofoam and plastic wrap away and flattened the row of sausages stuck together between powerful molars. Hadad contented itself with licking them like a popsicle.
I'd stay until the photo. Then they'd release me by vanishing. Always with an exhausted breath, I'd trudge up the stairs and search for the frames and hide them in the same place.
They only smiled in the pictures. At no other time did they express any kind of emotion unless indifference counts.
My own children and husband weren't doing much better. Their concerns about my fatigue and ruminating slowly ceased as I repeated the excuse: I’m just tired. It'll pass.
Of course, I did not know when the nightmare would stop.
"When will it end?" I asked him one night, while Hebat and Hadad exercised like they had a mission.
"What do you mean?" he said.
I was surprised he answered. He usually didn't. "This. This. When can I go back to normal and not come down every night? I'm so very tired."
He frowned and I thought some punishment must be coming. Instead, he looked more confused. "I don't understand. You aren't happy? Your children grow into power and strength and will take their place in the world. They will be great and you - you, of all the tiny things, made that happen. Ask yourself what you want out of life, and see if Hebat and Haddad aren't your answer."
Too many words, all at once, for an exhausted mother. I didn't speak for the rest of the night. The infernal trio vanished, and the latter moments of the ritual I carried out with his challenge in mind.
I want my children to be strong, happy, and safe.
"Juice," Cara demanded the next morning, a Saturday, while she watched cartoons.
"Get it yourself!" I hissed, from tired to angry in a second.
"But I can't," Cara accurately pointed out. She didn't look away from the TV. Looking at me wasn't safe, and she knew it. Her and Ella held hands and sat a little straighter. It broke my heart. What had I done?
George came downstairs, attracted by my shouting. "What’s going on?"
Empathy became sadness, and the constant burden rekindled to anger swiftly. "Just children treating me like a servant."
He smiled. "Ah, yes, and how are the royal princesses this morning?"
His levity irked me. "You would know if you didn't sleep in so much."
The smile vanished from his face, and instead of the fight I seemed to want, he mumbled a quiet apology and joined the girls. They climbed onto him as he wrapped them into a cuddle.
"What are we watching?" George restarted his smile, his calm, for the girls. I hated myself. It had to end. Tonight.
After another dreary day of going through the motions, and the girls and George had fallen asleep, I went to the kitchen and chose the knife I thought sharpest.
"Kirsty," he said, his voice a whisper rising from the depths of the house.
"Coming," I whispered back.
"Mom," said another voice, a girl's, and I knew that Hebat had, at last, found herself and the wholeness of her being had been corrected.
I started to cry. I went downstairs and there she was with her brother and her father. He looked tired but some of the grimness had cracked to allow the first real contentment I've ever seen him express.
"Is that for the cake?" he asked. "We already have one."
I remembered the sharp knife. "Meat," I said. "There’s ham in the freezer."
He nodded, seeming to accept the answer.
"Mom," Hebat said, "Do you think I'm…" She gestured to herself, her face, and her body, and I understood the question, born from doubt and a desire to be validated.
I pulled her close. "You are the most beautiful girl in the whole world." We cried together. Hadad cut into a poorly made, asymmetrical cake by the light of his aura. No one cared that he did so on the floor. I brought out the ham from the fridge and we ate slices with our hands.
"It's almost done," he said. "They’re nearly grown. They are strong, and they are happy. You've done a good job, Kirsty." He watched our children fight to smear icing on each other's faces. "I'm sorry if I was mean. Or cold. I've never done this before." And he meant raising children. "It was the hardest, scariest thing anyone can try. I shouldn't have blamed you for… Hebat… It wasn't your fault."
Before I could pat his hand, he and the kids vanished. Darkness so familiar couldn't extinguish a new fear. I went upstairs and found the last frame. I held my daughter in the photo, my beautiful Hebat. He must have taken the photo without my notice.
I took it upstairs but couldn't bring myself to hide it.
I didn't see that one, George wrote into the document.
I forgot he was watching.
He typed again: Are you saying there is something in the basement?
Yes, I replied.
He stirred in the living room. I hadn't moved from the stairs, but I could tell by his stomping how angry he'd become. All of his negative, violent traits he saved for those in the world who would harm his family. George the Protector was fearsome to behold.
But he had no chance against my other husband.
"Come out! Come out you coward!" George bellowed. At first, nothing happened. The moment before calamity, even when the specific consequences aren't known, is still in slow motion. He carried on shouting. The girls rushed into the hall and didn’t hesitate to investigate.
"No!" I shouted. "Cara! Ella!"
Their feet padded down the steps. A violent commotion followed, screams and raging voices, both deep and childishly shrill.
The most unsettling quiet followed.
I chewed through the fear and the horror tearing me apart and finally moved.
No evidence of violence could be seen from the top of the stairs. The concrete looked bare and dusty and the light revealed nothing more. They were gone, all of them.
"Hebat," I whispered. "Cara? George?"
Him, I thought of, the nameless husband and felt no hint of his presence. He'd always been there. I know that now. It had nothing to do with the house. His absence was felt more than his insidious presence. Yet, I felt no relief. George and the girls were gone. I sat on the floor and cried for all my missing children.
When I finally emerged from the basement, the whole house had been filled with night. Their photos were everywhere. The others were upstairs. I gathered them on the kitchen island. How could I explain any of this to the police?
I needed help. I called my parents. It took twenty minutes before my father picked up.
"Kirsty? What's wrong?"
"Dad," I whimpered. "George is gone. Cara. Ella."
"What? What did you say?"
"They’re gone, dad. George. The girls are gone."
I heard his bed springs protest as he rolled out of bed. My mom said something I couldn't hear, and he shushed her.
"Kirsty," he said, "are you alright? Are you hurt? Are you in danger?"
Why was it so hard to understand? "Dad. George is gone."
"Kirsty, who the hell is George?"
It was my turn to be confused. "He's my- you know him. My husband…"
"Kirsty," he said very slowly, "are you on drugs? Did you take something?"
"No. Are you?"
"Excuse me?"
I hung up.
I have their photos. I have all of their photos. That's what I brought to George's parents before the sun rose. They wouldn't open the door and spoke to me through an intercom.
"George is gone," I said.
"We'll call the police."
"This is your son. These are your granddaughters."
I heard my mother-in-law say, "Who is she?"
"We don't have a son," my father-in-law said. "Go away."
I left.
Back to the house. Our dream sat empty and I live there, but none of the people in my family photos are my family.
I remember but the world never does. My parents think I'm ill and that I used AI to create the family I apparently never had.
How did I buy the house without a job or income? With deep concern for my mental health, they showed me a news story. I had won the lottery the day I turned eighteen.
His influence there, payment for services rendered.
A lie is an agreement.
What had I agreed to? I'm afraid I know the answer: I never wanted a family.
God help me. God help them.
I don't know what to do with these pictures.

Does anyone know of any 2 to 3 year nursing programs in the GTA, other than York? I don't know if I'll get into the 2nd Entry Nursing Program. I applied on the February 01st deadline and people in a groupchat are telling me that this deadline is for the 4-year program only. I'm so stressed out at this point. It doesn't help that psychology courses have been kicking me in the teeth. I dropped a 3000-level psyc course before last Friday because I was not doing well in it. I didn't want it to impact my grades.
Some people were recommending that I apply for a program change but I am a non-degree student. They do not allow for changing of program. I'm not in a specific program. Is it difficult to set up an appointment with Advising? Do I go through my home faculty of LA&PS or do I go to the Nursing faculty for help?
To top it all off, I was trying to get into a Summer psych course and was denied because some profs thought I was too late. I contacted them before the last day to add with permission of instructor. What is the point off having that date if you don't give students access and you have space?????? A professor also lied to me about "waiting lists". I was so embarrassed when I found out from the department that this isn't a thing.
Does anyone know any other Nursing programs in GTA? Aside from York and UofT?
Thanks

My background: Finished my 3rd year of undergrad in CSE at one of the mid-IIITs (estd. 2013). Managed to earn around 3L+ last year through internships and hackathons. This might not be a lot for you, but this has been my entire year's hard work. And I am pretty sure there might be people who are earning a lot during their B.Tech, very happy to interact with them and share their findings and experience as well on this post! Let's get started.
Saw a lot of questions in this community, like how to earn during B.Tech, etc. Thought I could share my story and it could be helpful to some of the people. I have been very mediocre throughout my life, found CS and coding really interesting while I was in 9th Grade and started coding, thanks to my school for introducing it. Used to code in Java, solve really basic problems like Armstrong Number, etc till my 10th Grade. 11th started and gave up coding altogether for JEE.
I hardly coded for the next 2 years, barely. Just enough to pass my school exams. Gave JEE, got a 97%ile-ish percentile (26-27Kish Rank), had no options but lower branches at NITs and CS and ECE and newer or mid IIITs. Went for CS at IIIT (they are pretty expensive). Always had that feeling that I am wasting so much of my parent's money and wanted to pay back my tuition fees. So actually I started coding again as soon as I could.
I'll break it down for you in a few pointers -
Explore what you find interesting
Explore as much as you can during your first and partly second-year. By the end of your second year, you should be sure about what you want to do. Be it AI, ML, CP, Web3, etc. Anything that interests you.
I found open-source interesting and tried to contribute to a few projects, but couldn't. It was overwhelming, and was able to make some meaningless contributions, not proper features. Disappointed, tried to do CP. As you can imagine, more disappointment. Spent 3-4 months and realized this was not for me. During my 2nd semester, started exploring web development towards the end. Hated it a lot, it was really boring at the start. I am pretty sure you all felt that way when started. The turning point for me was Smart India Hackathon (SIH), which brings me to my next point.
Participate in as many hackathons/events/conferences you can
Nobody is going to judge you if you don't win a hackathon. We participated in SIH, just for fun in our first year (2nd semester). Funny enough, our idea got selected and we were in the finals. We went to the finale (3rd semester) and we won that too. That experience taught me a bunch of stuff. One of those things is:
You need a good team
You need to surround yourself with people who don't give up, who are ready to give all they have got, be it in any hackathon, any class project or anything else. I hadn't touched React before SIH, started with it a week before the finale, and learnt most of it in those 36 hours. I was writing something that I had no prior experience in, and that feeling was amazing, which brings me to another point.
Practice as much as you can. Get as much real-world experience as you can.
One of the best advices that I had ever gotten from a senior was, "Expose yourself to as much technologies as you can and get familiar with them." That worked like a charm. I am still hungry for learning something new. We won SIH, btw. We were super elated. We got selected in our first year and won by the time we reached our second year.
From there on, I started looking for internships because I was familiar with React now. I did everything I could. Tried to keep my LinkedIn active, made a Wellfound account (back then, it was called AngelList), Internshala, did everything I could. A lot of my internship search was off at times. I never did it consistently during my 3rd semester. Plus I think, it's very hard for companies to take a 2nd year student seriously, everyone wants an internship and money but do you really have the skills? I found a teaching assistant intern for Java through Internshala (even Idk how), they paid me around 8K for 20 days. That was my first ever earning after the SIH's prize money. I was pretty happy, but that just motivated me to get more internships, this time, actual development internships.
Soon after, found one through Linkedin in my 4th semester itself and after that, there was pretty much no stopping which brings me to my next point.
Be consistent in your internship/job search
I started being more active on professional platforms. I used to apply at at least 15-20 openings daily through different platforms like LinkedIn and Wellfound. Mostly on Wellfound. For a month or so, no callbacks. It was a drought. And it is really disheartening to watch that, but that's when you just gotta keep going. I kept applying and soon enough, I was giving 2-3 interviews a day for weeks. Interviews helped me. My 2023 summer vacations went in improving my resume, making a good project, adding it to the resume, getting my resume reviewed multiple times by my seniors and implementing their feedback.
During summer vacations, I started exploring web3 and it was interesting. Started applying for web3 companies for fun. Interesting enough, got some callbacks. I still remember a company, a web3 one. Their process went on for a month, 4 rounds, 2 take-back assignments, I did everything and yet I was rejected xD with no feedback. That hurt. But just a week after, I had gotten myself another interview at an Indian web3 company. I was really excited because they had raised around 20 M USD 2 years back so really wanted to work for that company.
It's a long story, but I officially joined that company for 6 months starting in October 2023. I loved the culture, the people, and everything was great. Except, I had too much free time. So started looking for more work. Long story, interned at an AI startup as a Product Engineering Intern for 2.5 months during October to December. In February, another web3 startup, worked for 2 months and the pay was great, but left it because it was getting really hectic. I switched departments in my original web3 company and got another intern for 6 months in the new department, hoping for a full-time role in this department xD
So that's pretty much it. That's my story, or at least the gist of it. Participated in several hackathons along the way, lost most, won some, but at the end of the day, it's the experience for me. Definitely, my most interesting year.
I'd love your guys's questions on this post. If anyone else wants to post their experience in the comments, they are free to! Also any suggestions to the post are appreciated. This is my first time writing such a long post here on Reddit.
EDIT: Getting a lot of queries, might take me some time to reply but you can DM me. I want to answer all the queries here so rest assured, I'll reply to you, sooner or later.

I posted our 1st semen analysis results here about 3 months ago with 1% morphology, feeling defeated and confused. I immediately started doing research and Coq10 was recommended. We went out and bought a bottle that same day in hopes that it would maybe increase my husband's morphology in 8 weeks for our next analysis. Everything I read said it would take 3 months for anything to happen so we were skeptical.
But we got our results back: 1st analysis results are in ( ) for comparison. Blank means it was the same result.
Characteristics: Volume (ml): 4.5 (5.0) Color: Gray pH: 7.0 (7.2) Round cells (mil/ml): 1 (2) Viscosity: 3 (2) Debris: Low Agglutination: 0 Liquefaction: yes
Sperm Evaluation: Sperm Density (mil/ml): 22 (37) Total sperm count (mil): 99 (185) % Progressive Motility: 48 (46) Total Active Count (mil): 48 (85) Total Motility: 59 (progressive + non-progressive) (65) Motility Grading: %Type 3 (progressive): 48 (46) %Type 2 (non-progressive): 11 (21) %Type 1 (Immotile): 41 (33)
Strict Criteria: Sperm Morphology: 5% Normal (1% Normal) Comments: "Improvement in morphology since last analysis. Results are normal. IUIs may help if having difficulty conceiving." (Low % normal morphology. Recommend repeating analysis in 8 weeks to confirm results.)
I cried when I got the phone call. He changed nothing about his diet or activity so maybe it was just a coincidence? The only things we changed was jeans to cargo pants (thinner and more breathable) and we both started taking 100mg (dosage on the bottle) of Coq10 a day (although I hear a higher dose is recommended). I read it was good for PCOS and egg quality.
I'll be going to the doctor next week for my 2nd Letrozole cycle, which I believe will be monitored this time around. I did ovulate my 1st Letrozole cycle (unmonitored) but I felt like it may have not been a good quality egg because I didn't get pregnant. I'm not sure what to expect, My doctor mumbled about maybe putting me on progesterone, something about trigger shots, coming in around day 20 to confirm ovulation, and some other things I can't remember. Please share your Letrozole stories if you have any.

Hello! Like many others i too am having a dilemma on which uni offer to accept. In NTU, i got offered psychology with the NTU-USP (university scholars programme) scholarship while in NUS, i got offered a psych with management double major (with psych as my primary major under CHS) with the NUS merit scholarship. For context, i'm hoping to have a more vibrant uni life than jc so overseas exposure, student life and the culture of the schools r important to me too!!
For the NUS merit scholarship, my benefits include: - Paid tuition fees - S$6,000 annual living allowance - S$2,000 one-time computer allowance - Guaranteed Student Exchange Programme (SEP) placement with one of NUS overseas partner universities for one semester (no priority given so may not be one of my top choices i'm assuming??)
For the NTU-USP scholarship, my benefits include: - Paid tuition fees - S$6,500 annual living allowance - S$1,750 one-time computer allowance - Annual accommodation allowance of up to S$2,000 - Travel Grant of up to $5000 for an overseas study/attachment programme -Overseas benefits: - Heavily subsidized Travel Overseas Programme for Scholars (TOPS) in the freshman year (1 week overseas fieldwork and research trip) - NTU-USP Study Abroad Programme, or - Priority placement in overseas universities through NTU's international student semester exchange
☆
Some of my concerns right now are: - i'm not yet sure if i fully wanna commit to a career in psych even though its something i'm passionate abt (will have to do master's at least, if not phd) so the double major in NUS might give me more opportunities to pursue smth else if i decide that psych is not for me + NUS CHS gives me the flexibility to change my major within the first 2 years

• i intend to do my master's (if i pursue psych) overseas so the prestige and brand name of NUS would prob give me some leverage to get into overseas unis i'm assuming
  
• i've been seeing a lot of ppl complain abt the CHS common curriculum which takes up 1/3 of the curriculum in my degree :") NTU has a common curriculum too but its much less than that of NUS so i get to study more mods related to my major, also heard from some seniors that a few unis dont recognise the NUS psych bachelors degree bcs the no. of AUs we study doesnt meet the min. requirement (although i'm not sure how true this is)
  
• the NTU-USP modules (which replace some of the common curriculum's core + electives) r taught in seminar style and not graded on a bellcurve so it might be better for me to learn in that type of environment esp bcs of the seminar style teaching method... and the core curriculum both in NUS and NTU doesnt rly interest me anw so maybe a seminar style would make it easier to learn these mods?
  
• overseas experiences r q important to me and it feels like i'll have more overseas opportunities in NTU-USP compared to NUS even though NUS has the guaranteed SEP... i also heard that its q competitive to get into exchange programmes in NUS bcs i'll be competing with all of FASS so if anyone has any insight into this, please do share!
  
• i'll have to stay in hall if i go to NTU which i have to pay for (abt $4000-$5000 annually so after the accommodation allowance, abt $2000-$3000 out of my own pocket every year) while i can travel to NUS from home... also i just moved in to a new house last month and it's newly renovated and rly comfy so i kinda also wanna enjoy the comforts of my own house😭
  
• i prefer the S/U and bidding systems in NUS more! In NUS, we can S/U the mod after seeing our grades while in NTU, we have to S/U the mod before seeing our grades for the final exam (which holds the highest weightage i assume) + in NUS, we bid for mods by ranking them according to our preference while in NTU, its on a fcfs basis! for more details on these systems, https://www.reddit.com/SGExams/s/awq4ocGYUr (note: NUS bidding system has changed to ranking by preference - factors like seniority, primary major and popularity of the mods affects the likelihood of getting them!)
  
• any seniors from NTU psych or NUS CHS pls share more abt the culture there!! like is it v competitive? are ppl generally willing to share notes and resources? is there a mugger culture? and r the ppl there v academically focused? aka do i have to grind like jc again :") i dont wanna sell my soul to the education system pls💀
  

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I've heard from seniors and profs that the psych mods have a steep bellcurve too and that its generally a competitive course in either uni so i guess i'll have to grind either way😭 it feels like i might have a more vibrant student life in NTU(?) while the culture in NUS seems more academically-driven, but FASS/CHS seniors, feel free to correct me! Also how r the campuses for the FASS block in NUS and the SSS block in NTU HAHAH i didnt get a chance to see them up close! Just hoping anyone can share any insights abt the respective unis and programmes and shed some light into my dilemma ^{^}
if u've made it this far, thank u for taking the time to read this post!! i'll just list some of the pros and cons of each uni below for easier reference but its basically just a summary of everything i've said above :D
☆
NUS:
Pros✅️ - flexibility to change my 1st and 2nd major within the first 2 years - psychology + management double major - guaranteed semester exchange programme (SEP) - no need to stay in hall, can travel from the comfort of my new house - i prefer its S/U system and bidding system - brand name and prestige could give me more overseas opportunities to pursue my master's
Cons❌️ - CHS common curriculum takes up 1/3 of my degree, less time to study my majors - fewer overseas opportunities compared to NTU-USP, guaranteed exchange programme may not be one of my top choices bcs its more competitive - have to study CHS common curriculum (which i'm not super interested in compared to my major) in lecture-tutorial style, which takes more effort for me from past jc experience
NTU:
Pros✅️ - more overseas experiences and opportunities (TOPS, priority for exchange programmes, USP study abroad, electives with overseas fieldwork components, etc) - small class sizes for USP modules which facilitates better learning for me personally! + provides a sense of community too - fewer modules for the common curriculum so more time to focus on my major - the hall experience could add to my uni experience esp in terms of student life + i have 4 years guaranteed hall + $2000 annual accommodation allowance
Cons❌️ - i dont really like the S/U system and dont prefer its bidding system (but have learnt some ways to work around the bidding system from seniors) - have to stay in hall away from the comforts of my own home + have to pay for hall - little flexibility to change my major once i enter uni + no double major with business (career backup if i give up on psych) - less prestige compared to NUS(?) not as much of a brand name
Okay thats about it!! Pls share your advice and opinions guys i have 5 days left to make a decision and i'm starting to panic a little😭😭 anyway thank you for reading my post and for any pieces of advice/comments yall leave!!

Can't believe I'm posting this here pero whatevs.
So, I'm currently a JHS completer (+with high honor) ngayon. I know, napaka-young. Anyway, as the title says, don't let bad decisions ruin your life as a teenager like I did.
Last year, before moving up from 9th grade (academic achiever pa rin), I broke up with my boyfriend of almost 2 years. He was physically abusive, would always rely on me to pay for almost everything (food pang-araw-araw, parcels, etc.), and has even cheated on me once.
When we broke up, I felt like my life went downhill from then. I cried halos every night. It all became worse pagdating ng summer vacay. Nadala ako sa mga friends ko na todo inom tsaka disco. We went to halos lahat ng baranggay sa municipal namin basta't may fiesta or whatnot 'yong may disco. We'd have drinks with kahit sino. And dahil doon, I hooked up with kahit sino na rin. 'Yong iba nga, di ko kilala. If I were to count, siguro mga 30+ na ata body count ko. There were a mix of consensual, nonconsensual, g@ngb@ng, drunk, and sober. Minsan nasa bahay ng lalaki, minsan nasa gedli lang.
Hanggang sa dumating na first few months ng school. Nalaman ng parents ko and they talked to me about it. They made me go to an obygyne and I tested positive for STI, which was cured after 2 weeks ata of prescribed medicine. Pinapa-psychiatrist nga ako eh, the doctor diagnosed me as bipolar, and told me that my actions were caused by my manic episodes wherein I get super hyper chuchuchu and prescribed me medicine. They filed TONS of blotter reports and cases, halos 30 (hindi one person each kundi one event where I was used for each). They hired a private attorney which costed them ₱100,000 kasi raw napakarami ng kaso ko. My dad also bought a gun (legally) nga kasi noong nalaman ng ibang assaultants ko na ipapakaso sila is 'yong iba naghire ng hitman na patayin ako (srs). We also moved out of town during Christmas break. Same province pero different municipality. Nag-online class/modular nalang ako kasi 2nd quarter pa naman 'yon and parang alanganin magtransfer.
Doon na ako pina-transfer sa 2nd sem (3rd quarter) and nagstart magface-to-face sa bagong school. Natakot ako kasi mas high class 'tong school na 'to kesa sa previous kong school. Also, no strings attached sa previous namin na tinirahan since 3 years lang kami doon tumira (pa-iba-iba kami ng residence depende sa income ni mama sa negosyo niya). Anyway, yun nga, I was afraid na baka I won't excell as much as I did previously kasi mas maraming students sa current ko na school. Pero tadaaa, nakuha ako for journalism (TV broad), RSPC pa nga 😭. Academic achiever pa rin, with high honor. Only one in my class. Pero hanggang now, ongoing pa rin 'yong ibang cases ko, 'yong iba settled na.
It may sound like I'm doing good despite sa nangyari sa'kin, but no. Dumating na rito 'yong issue ko as in kumanat na (I was also well known sa previous namin na tinirahan dahil sa negosyo ng parents ko). Kaso hindi nga lang lahat may alam. Halos from STE sections and SHS nakakaalam, 'yong classmates ko is some of them lang. Pero still, sobrang nakaka-bother. Isa pa nga sa kasama ko sa journa ay siyang nagkanat eh. Kaso nga lang, sa rumors nila is di pa raw na-treat 'yong sakit ko and "HIV" na raw 😭. Bopleks.
I'm just trying to stay unbothered dahil alam kong nothing will go well if papatol ako sa mga rumors na 'yan. I've been having sucdal thoughts nga since nalaman kong umabot na pala rito 'yong issue ko. Sobrang I don't wanna bring my parents any more trouble than I already have talaga. Sana people will learn to shut up nalang especially if they know nothing sa full story. I feel so embarrassed na ngayon pumasok ng school kasi I always feel like everyone's judging me. Lahat ng gazes nila, parang ni-stare buong existence ko.
Anyway, yun na nga, lesson learned: 'wag magpadala sa mga bad decisions just because of one minor inconvenience. ☺️

Im 2nd yr college student na mas naka focus sa skills over acads (pero hindi ako bumabagsak) never ako naging grade conscious kahit nung elem or hs days palang. So eto na nga, marami akong pinagkakaabalahan, sinusulit ang time na habang bata pa and marami pang time mag explore pero finals week na namin sa school and syempre may mga final projects ganorn and exams. Tinatapos ko naman on time (minsan nga mas maaga pa) yung part ko sa mga group projects and never ako nalate ng pasa but someone told me na may galit pala saakin yung college friends/ classmates ko na acad achiever and grade conscious kasi madalas ako nasa labas based sa nakikita nila sa ig stories ko.
Sinasabihan ba naman akong puro gala habang sila daw stressed sa projects na parang wala akong ambag doon. Nasasabihan din pala nila akong malandi kasi nag ddating apps ako (never ako nakipag meet up) its just for connections. Parang kasalanan ko pa na i have life outside ng school at happy kahit 2.75😭 basta kasi hindi ako bagsak and hindi mag repeat okay na ako don HAHAHAHAHA
Ayun lang naman, nasad lang ako nung nalaman ko na ganon tingin nila saakin akala ko kaibigan ko sila.

It was a beautiful story in which a couple with their cat moves into an old house. The animals in this book are sentient, they talk to each other and are cautious about these new hosts but eventually grow to love them and cooperate with them.
I cannot remember much about this book, but I believe I was in 2nd or 3rd grade, so the book was 1998 or earlier, in Oklahoma. I don't remember if it was a Sequoyah book or not. It was a chapter book i believe, without pictures - but I could be wrong about that!
The scenes I remember are 1) The couple and their cat have recently moved into this old house. They are sitting in the library or some family room and one of the younger mice is snooping around on a bookshelf, trying to learn more about these new hosts. The mouse gets discovered and so finds herself paralyzed with fear. The couple and their cat just go back to sitting down and letting the mouse be. After a long time the mouse, still terrified, moves and to her surprise there is no reaction from the hosts. Eventually the mouse makes it back to her family and tells them about this.
2) There are moles in the yard. A gardener or a neighbor starts talking to the couple about his "pest control" solution to deal with the moles, but the couple politely says they are not interested, that they have found that the moles don't bother them if they don't bother the moles. Hearing this, the moles have a talk and decide they are going to treat their hosts' garden with respect. Then, later in the book, we the audience, get to see the beautiful garden that all of the animals have helped make. The gardeneneighbor is dumbfounded.
I might remember some more snippets that I'll add below. Thinking about this book on a nice night in my backyard. I've been feeling a sense of nostalgia for this story. Please help if you can!

I'm 2nd grade material science student, and I have a homework about, a car's brake system is broken, I have to use characterization techniques to figure out why it broke.
I'm thinking TGA, light microscopy analysis, TEM (or SEM) analysis to see microstructure, I don't think EDS, XRD or XRF needed for this example, should I include them too?
And for sample preparation for TGA, how can I analyse broken brake system, I know how to prepare sample for light microscopy, SEM and TEM but for TGA, the broken part is large and I need just 5-20 mg of sample, so I don't know how to prepare a bulk metal sample from a broken system.

I’m not usually one to care a lot about papers that have already passed and I can’t do anything about, but for some reason anxiety has picked this time to be a bitch and now I’m paralyzed from focusing on tomorrow’s exam. So here are my thoughts on the physics, chemistry, biology and math AS papers (1 and 2) so far, in hopes that some people will respond with their opinions on the difficulty and what the grade boundaries will be around.
Physics : Paper 1 was alright, I think I did well enough. But normally physics papers that even I think are alright means that it's easy for others which does seem to be the consensus amongst my classmates. Paper 2 was shitty, though it does seem to be just hard in general so I’m expecting lower grade boundaries which might mean I’m slightly less fucked.
Chemistry : Paper 1 was easy, which is horrible because I was really careless and lost a couple of marks I really shouldn’t have. I’m expecting high grade boundaries which means I’m fucked. Paper 2 was my worst performance so far, I am already pretty much guaranteed to have lost at least 6-ish marks. It was apparently also somewhat hard, but opinions on this paper seem mixed so I’m praying that grade boundaries are lower.
Biology : Paper 1 was very hmmge. 6 marks questions screwed me over a good bit, no idea how I did on these which can make or break how I do on this paper. Overall low confidence for some reason though. Consensus seems to be that the difficulty is normal. Paper 2 was good for me. Difficulty seems to be easy to normal, which means that me performing well doesn’t mean too much.
Math : Paper 1 was okayge. I think it was alright aside from a careless fuck up that is typical of me atp. Difficulty seems somewhere between normal and hard? Paper 2 was not great. I already lost a couple marks on the last 3rd and 2nd to last questions but considering that people seem to have found it difficult in general I might just be alright.
Keep in mind that I’m someone who is *largely* careless and always have to expect at least 10 - 30 extra marks deducted from careless mistakes depending on the subject. I might seem to be doing just fine to some of you but trust me when I say I can’t even be certain I can reach my already not great predicted grades.
To the people who also took these subjects, what are your thoughts so far? And also to my fellow physics peeps, good luck on paper 3 tomorrow~

Relevant ba or malaki nahehelp ang extracurricular activities at highschool when it comes to applying for college? transferee ako sa shs so g11 and 12 halos wala akong najoin na competitions or activities other than writing ones (sa campus lang). I'm not in any clubs cause I was too anxious and scared to join. I tried reaching out pero wala akong natanggap na response from them haha ghosted. And I also quit the choir due to the same reason (I didn't have any close friends there and I felt so alone). I'm not a class officer either due to my introverted nature (usually mga extroverted and popular kids yung hinahype for officers). I'm part of the school paper pero hindi napublish yung school paper namin. I don't participate in any extracurricular activities bc I'm very shy and need talaga ng push from multiple ppl. Ito Yung mga regrets ko sa shs sana hindi ako nagpatalo sa hiya huhu.
Anyways, nakakuha ako ng slot for interview for 1 of my top 3 colleges for my chosen courses (1st and 2nd) but I have no idea how to sell myself. I'd say i'm a responsible and hardworking student. But I sadly don't have anything to prove or strengthen that claim other than my grades. Consistent honor student ako since forever and I can speak English fluently (I'd say 8.5 ish at least). Pero yun lang. I also do traditional and digital art but those skills are not related sa course ko. What do I do? How do I sell myself to them?
Ps. My 1st choice is BSA btw and the slots for the course are very limited.
tldr: I'm an average honor student who barely partook in any extracurricular activities in shs. I'm wondering if it matters. If it does then i need help on how to sell myself to the uni I'm applying for.

I think I am doing whats best for my kids and the right thing to set them up for school and succeed.
My kids go to bed a 9pm, for a few years now, as they need their sleep. They have ADHD and sleep is extremely important for them, to make sure they are rested, to help them focus, and be able to regulate themselves. They need their rest, as they are a little behind with writing, reading and spelling due to delayed brain development, in relation to ADHD.
In winter 9pm is no issue as its dark at that time, but every summer the kids go to bed when it is still light at 9pm. And when they go to bed, often their friends are still outside playing. When they are in their bedroom and look out the window at their playing friends, my heart breaks. I would love for them to play with their friends, but I think rest and school is more important. They are only in 2nd grade of primary school. But the bases of succeeding and making life easier down the line, starts in primary school imo.
I love my kids more than life itself, and when they ask me why they have to go to bed when its still light outside, I explain why they need their rest. Which for a kid is just blah blah of course. It is not causing big fights or anything, just disappointment on their end. Which is probably why my heart is hurting.
Am I doing the wrong thing here? I think I am not, but like to hear your opinion.