my college application essay

[yestoday]

Last year, for a month straight, I found myself neck-deep in Wikipedia pages relating to quantum jumps and electromagnetic forces, along with a watch history full of the science side of YouTube. Now… how did I get here?

 

Backtrack to a cozy July evening, around 9 o’clock. I was in my room doing the usual: bingeing ONF music videos with my cat sitting on me, obviously. And that was it. The first time I realized exactly what my topic of study would be was on my indeterminate rewatch of Moscow Moscow’s official video. I’m not being dramatic when I say I slapped my hand over my mouth and my eyes widened and my cat nearly fell off my lap. Booting up Google Docs immediately, I went straight back to the beginning⁠—made a playlist of every single one of their music videos and started from the top⁠—this time, with a new focus and perspective that spontaneously came to me from that burst of an epiphany. With that, everything that previously never meant anything to me began to unveil itself; from On/Off to Why, details started forming ideas, frames started telling stories. Symbolism was abundant in every scene; I was in disbelief I overlooked it all for so long. There is something deeper, more intricate, and more artistic, hidden under the glamorous visual effects and the mellifluous tunes. There is a story left untold. I decided then: I would siphon it out, no matter the number of years it takes as the band continues to flourish and release more albums. 

 

But, hear me out, we’ve all heard of music video lore and song saga theories, yet this one was special to me. Pure fantasy typically fails to ever intrigue me like this. ONF lore, on the other hand, has salient elements relating to quantum entanglement and spacetime travel. All of which⁠—I soon discovered⁠—are, though esoteric, very much real concepts and very much still enigmas to mankind, continuing to be perfervidly studied to this date. This was a curious notion to me. How much of it could there still be left to uncover? Research ensued.

 

As it turns out: a lot. 

 

Down the hole, I went.

 

To sum it up, I am well aware that the majority of the music video storyline is science-fiction drivel, but with the knowledge that, under the fantastical narration, there is a basis of realism behind it, I took it onto myself to identify where its limits are. Figuring out the mechanics behind the speculative world of ONF lore is ironically easier if assumed the physics of it are parallel to real life. Henceforth, I spent the majority of that summer sifting through various sources with a strong, fixated will to learn as much as I could. I had uncountable Chrome tabs open at that point; my laptop was fighting for its life every single day. From consulting our family friend particle physics professor to looking up reliable YouTube videos (yes, I always made sure they were authentic; that’s how serious I was about getting my ONF theories correct), I truly attempted to gather and make sense of as much information as possible on the topic. By the time my ONF theory Google Doc was nearing one hundred pages, it hit me that all this research and interest could be applied to the real world, that professionally studying this is an option, that this can go beyond my boy band music video ponderings. How about that, I mused, I figure out my little K-Pop boys’ storyline and have the opportunity to contribute to humanity’s sempiternal journey in unraveling the secrets of the universe.

 

Perhaps I’m yearning to achieve too much. More likely, maybe I’m overthinking it all⁠—ONF’s lore was never that deep, to begin with⁠—but, in the end, doesn’t the world need overthinkers to push us into the possibilities beyond what we have now?