An 18-year-old has gone viral on social media after sharing her admissions essay to Harvard college.
Abigail Mack, who was recently accepted into the prestigious college's class of 2025 on an undecided major, took to her TikTok account last week to share footage of herself reading a deeply personal letter about her mother's death and coping with grief.
As you can see in the two videos Mack posted, the letter in question read: "I hate the letter 'S'".
"Of the 164,777 words with 'S,' I only grapple with one. To condemn an entire letter because of its use .0006 percent of the time sounds statistically absurd, but that one case changed 100 percent of my life.
"I used to have two parents, but now I have one, and the 'S' in 'parents' isn't going anywhere."
Mack continued: "'S' follows me. I can't get through a day without being reminded that while my friends went out to dinner with their parents, I ate with my parent.
"As I write this essay, there is a blue line under the word 'parent' telling me to check my grammar; even Grammarly assumes that I should have parents, but cancer doesn't listen to edit suggestions.
"I won't claim that my situation is as unique as one in 164,777, but it is still an exception to the rule - an outlier. The world isn't meant for this special case."
The teen then concluded that, despite all her feelings of loss, she's been able to get over her hangups over plurals, writing:
"'S' got me moving, but it hasn't kept me going. I don't seek out sadness, so 'S' must stay on the sidelines, and until I am completely ready, motivation is more than enough for me."
Suffice it to say that Abigail's letter quickly picked up a lot of attention on the platform, accruing over 16.2 million views, 1.5 million reactions, and a further 45,000 comments from other TikTok users as of the time of writing.
For example, complimenting Mack on her prose style, one person wrote: "so this is what a great writer looks like."
Another person then wrote: "Wowowowowo0wowooww. I'm just so captivated when people can organize words this well and beautifully. [sic]"
A third person then stated: "Pfft you can go ahead and skip college and go straight to getting the job. [sic]"
This commenter then wrote: "Oh my god sometimes people use words as naturally as someone would making music."
Another person then stated: "It's rare to hear one's voice so present in their writing. I could hear yours clearly here. Amazing job."
Then another TikTok user, humbled by the experience of the reading, stated: "Well at least now [I know] how high the bar is."
Finally, another person stated: "This sounds like it should be narrated over a movie. So good."
Three weeks after sending her letter to the admissions department of the Ivy League university, Abigail received an email from them, which she shared in a follow-up video on TikTok.
I have a feeling that, whatever Abigail chooses as her major, with writing skills like her's, she'll excel at whatever she puts her mind to.
