Shreya's NonFic Blog!

  “Do you have helicopter parents?” A helicopter parent is someone who hovers over every part of their kid’s life: school, friendships, decisions. They try to control everything to protect them from failure. Going with that definition, I don’t think my parents are helicopter parents, but my parents do have really high standards that end up controlling aspects of my life. My parents are sometimes confusing to my friends because they are super chill about some things, and then randomly extremely intense about others. There’s really no in-between. They will let me hang out with my friends almost whenever but they will also take away my phone or not let me hang out at all if I have a test coming up.  For academics, no matter what, they are never chill. They have very high standards, and are the type to say, “why didn’t you get a 100 instead of a 97.” Getting all A’s is never an accomplishment, it is always the bare minimum. My mom will also send me reminders for opportunities outs...

  What does the American Dream mean to you? The American Dream is the idea that through hard work and determination, anyone can achieve success, regardless of where they come from. When I was younger, my dad used to talk about the American Dream and how it came true for our family. My dad was born in Sri Lanka and moved to Nigeria as a refugee because of the civil war in his country. He told me stories of how when he was a boy he used to write in a diary everyday “I will go to America.” To him it was a land of opportunity that felt very far away. My mom was also from a small town in India. Both of them were able to come to the U.S. for better opportunities and education, and now live a better life because of years of hard work and sacrifice. My dad loved America and was the example of a true patriot, saying he was America’s “biggest fan.” I took after this, and whenever people would dispute the American Dream or criticize America, I would defend my country. I was shocked when my En...

Have you ever felt embarrassed by the things that you used to like? I was in fifth grade when I discovered the book series that would take over my life at the time. I am already cringing just writing this, but it felt like an experience worth sharing. The series was Keeper of the Lost Cities, and I didn’t find it myself. My sister and her best friend were obsessed with it and would talk about it all the time. They would discuss characters, plot twists, and things that made no sense to me at the time. I wasn’t a huge reader back then. I read Harry Potter and Percy Jackson , but other than that, I mostly stuck to graphic novels or easy books like Dork Diaries . So when they handed me a book that was over 600 pages long, I couldn’t believe it. No way was I ever reading that huge book. Eventually I gave in and read the first page, and suddenly I was on chapter five and couldn’t put it down. I started reading everywhere, before school, after school, and even during dinner, which my parents...

Do you have perfectionist tendencies, or would you call yourself a perfectionist? Why or why not?  What behaviors and/or actions would support your self-assessment?  For the longest time, I never considered myself a perfectionist. That label belonged to my sister. I would watch her obsess over every little detail, pouring all her energy into what she did, and it always reflected in the quality of her work. I, on the other hand, was nothing like that. I would finish my work to be done with it, without caring too much about the details. However, as I grow older, I am realizing that I am becoming more and more like my sister, and maybe I am not as far from that perfectionist label then I always thought I was. I didn't realize how much perfectionism affected me until it pushed me to a breaking point. This moment was when I had a breakdown over completing an application to a competitive summer program. I had been working on the essays for a month and still felt they weren’t right. ...