re: the US uni admissions essay. it really strikes me on how at every single level of US academia you’re expected to curate a “narrative”. it’s not enough u want to research this strain of fungi. you need to have some weird community connection to it.
Training to be a trivia god:
1. Read complete works of Shakespeare
2. Watch every movie starting with the first one
3. 3 sets of Connections per day
4. List animals until failure