Illustration by Anya Baker.

Illustration by Anya Baker.

Happy August, Rookies! This month’s theme is FILL IN THE BLANK. It’s not about flipping the script, exactly, but making the confines of the Real World work for you. “The Real World” = school, a job, your family, deeply ingrained beliefs that are hard to just unlearn. “Work for” = be made bearable, but, if harnessed in the right way, actually enhance your experience as a person, because rules force us to be creative. “You” = your call! It does not have to be perfectly consistent with who you were in eighth grade or last month or yesterday, nor does it have to be crystallized in amber before the school year starts up again, nor does it have to translate effortlessly to an intimidating social media persona. It doesn’t even need to be articulated at all. I mean, don’t just paste a Prince-esque glyph into the Common App field where they ask you to talk about who you are and why you should get into college. But do what you gotta do to get into that college and then use all their resources to eventually have the freedom to make them refer to you only as ☄ or ✇ or ↬.

On the Submit page, you’ll find a whole list of ideas from our editors on all the things this theme can mean, and the kinds of work we’re hoping you’ll feel inspired to send in!

Thank you, as always, for being here. Have a great month and a great everything after that.

Love,