I was introduced to the U.S. College admissions in my Grade 10 when I saw an Instagram advert of Stanford. The pandemic was still raging and that was my excuse for not being able to work on my extracurriculars which were practically none. I postponed the activities to next year, the year 2021. 
I look back and think how naive I was. I was waiting for schools to open and blissfully waiting. The next year came and the situation still seemed bleak. It was then I realized that I cannot wait for things to go offline.
My final exams of a grade that was spent online got cancelled and I was free by mid April. 
I was so fickle minded when it came to which college degree I wanted to have. All I knew was I wanted to study abroad. My junior year school admissions were postponed too. For a while I was happy about being cut off from the tethers of board exams. But satisfaction does not stay for long in my mind. When May came I was frantic about my extracurriculars. I was so desperate for any opportunity. This was supposed to be my year. Seeing videos of how American kids had resumes full of achievements did not help. I once saw a video about a girl who got admission in Brown University and she used to be stressed all the time in high school. It was from there I encouraged the idea that I have to be stressed in order to do work. If I am not stressed enough, I do not care about my work and will fail. 
It was just a thought but it's repercussions ripped through the fabric of my life. themodernfable.blogspot.com/2021/08/mistakes-i-have-made-as-high-school.html