Undergraduate / Essay for common app: montage structure essay about my planner. [3]

I have not selected a prompt yet, as I have read it is better to select your prompt at the end.

My planner

The cerulean blue fabric cover was a shade darker than its original color as a result of continuously being shaken up inside my school bag. "Make Your Own Stories" was written in bold on the bottom right corner, a mantra that came with the planner. The pages inside the planner were bullets instead of lines to stop any restrictions from what I wanted to unleash on each page. Each section had its own purpose that helped organize the bits and pieces in my life.

The key I had made is drawn on the first page. The different ideas from the internet didn't seem well fit so I had decided to take different features of each idea I saw to make a key of my own. I use a separate shape for each aspect in my planner: a circle for daily tasks, a triangle for events or appointments and a square for school related tasks. It helps me establish borders between my school and personal life.

Then came my spreads. My monthly calendars contained long-term plans and commitments. A foresight into the months in the future guided me with the plans I had to make and the goals I wanted to accomplish. For example, my final exam dates are always written in at the beginning of the year to be a constant motivator to keep working and an indication of how close they are. Or the aims I want to achieve that year were always in sight so I consistently work towards it. My daily spreads are more short-term. Every morning when I wake up, one of the first things I do is plan my day ahead. This allows me to form a clear structure of my day. At the bottom of every page is written "Plans are Made to Be Broken"; it serves a reminder that spontaneity was a natural part of life and I will never shy from it.

My trackers are a customary part of my planner. As part of my New Year's resolution I create habit trackers to keep me accountable and it gets renewed every month. Though often times than not I stray away from my objectives , I sheepishly still draw it every month. My aim to sleep early and wake up early was the one rule I broke the most. After spending most of my day studying and engaging with school work, I still longed to spend time with my family, which left for night time when all of us had respectively finished our work for the day and could relax and relish in each other's presence. Other habits such as exercising and taking my vitamins were easier to follow as I usually did it with a friend, or in the case of taking my vitamins, I was reminded by my mother every afternoon.

One of the pages I cherish the most is my memory pages. These pages purpose to remind me of how lucky I am for the people and things in my life. The plane and train tickets stapled on the pages dedicated to the countries I have traveled to brings me back to a time where we had missed our plane as a result of my father mistaking the landing time for the boarding time, or the trip we took by train from Paris to Switzerland to see the alps; it was the first time me or my brothers had seen snow, leaving us in awe of the place. The Polaroids of my friends and I standing together one last time as half of us traveled across the world away from each other brought me comfort that the time we spent together would forever be imprinted in my mind.

My planner is an item I have with me at all times. It brings the calmness to a rather chaotic day and my mind knowing I have all my ideas and plans in one place to look back on. It came even more useful during the COVID-19 pandemic as we stayed at home everyday and the sense of time was gone. I held myself accountable and had a brain dump to release my feelings of frustration, sadness and joy into my planner. The sight of my planner in the corner of my desk every day let's me know that everything will be alright.