Class of 2013: Freshman Blog

I promised myself I would start this entry before the first of August.  Sadly, it’s 2:30 am on the first of August.  Oh well, my intentions were honest.  Why awake at 2:30 am?  Well, my lovely job in retail has these exciting events called floorsets.  It’s one of those retail jargons that you don’t really understand until you work it.  Basically, all of the stuff in the store gets moved around, and new stuff gets put out, etc, etc.  Really it just means a lot of folding for me.  They usually occur after the store closes, which usually means from 9pm to some odd hour in the morning.  The last floorset ran until 6 am for two consecutive nights, which was followed by an Organic Chemistry exam the next morning at 8 am.  You can’t really say you’ve pulled a double all-nighter until you’ve spent it sweating in a non-air-conditioned clothing store doing heavy lifting and running around for nine hours.  Studying did not really happen.  Oh well.

Speaking of chemistry, my final is this Thursday morning.  A part of me really doesn’t want to study.  I have an A in the class, and since I am transferring the credit the grade actually doesn’t follow.  So, in reality, I could pretty much fail or not even take the final, still pass and get the credit.  It is as if nature has offered me a test to decided if I really am a self-slaughtering masochist.  I feel like I would be more upset if I kept my A, and it didn’t follow versus if I got a B or C and it didn’t follow.  However, I am also really considering taking Organic 2 at Hopkins second semester, even though I am not premed, and it is not required by my major.  I am really enjoying the class, and I think I am actually pretty good at it.  It’s so crazy how nature made all of these god-awful crazy rules for how things are going to work.  So much to remember!  But it is completely and utterly ingenious, and more importantly kind of beautiful.  I guess I am lucky to have a pretty good memory, sometimes I wonder if it is semi-photographic.  Is there a test I can take for this?  Either way, I am not going to give my memory all the credit because I did read that textbook, all 600 pages of it.  Other than that, I haven’t put tons of effort into it.  It’s summer after all!  In fact, I haven’t cracked my book open since the last exam!!!  I am dreading it so much, since it seems I have wasted so much sleep to wake up every morning for class.  As much as I enjoy it, I will be happy when it is over.

Organic has really has me considering if I have chosen the right major.  I do love ChemBE.  The faculty is great, and there is a lot of opportunity within the department.  However, ChemBE seems less about chemistry and more about applications and production of different chemicals.  When I compare a class like Process Analysis to Organic, Organic takes the cake hands down.  Currently, we are learning about NMR, IR, and Mass Spectroscopy (which I don’t believe is covered in Hopkins’ Organic), and I love it.  I know there even exists a whole course is Spectroscopy, and I really want to take it. It’s subjects like Quantum Chemistry and Organic Lab have me really considering changing my major to Chemistry.  I think coming into Hopkins I thought ChemBE would be more chemistry based than it actually is.  The only pure chemistry courses that are required are general chemistry, O-Chem 1, Physical Chemistry (the one semester version taught in the engineering department), and a chemistry elective.  It just goes to show sometimes you know what you want when you step foot on campus, but so much can change in only a semester.

In the end, I think the engineering degree may open more doors and lead to more job opportunities.  I hate saying that because I hate students who choose engineering for the money or the prospects of a shoe-in job.  I also must admit that I don’t want people to think I dropped ChemBE because I couldn’t handle the heat.  I know I shouldn’t care what other people think, but I want people to know if it’s hot in the kitchen I’ll go as far as to put my hand on the stovetop.  I also know that my mom would prefer if I stayed an engineering major.  I’ve worked so hard within my major, from my involvement with the Chemical Engineering Car Team, to my involvement with the mentorship program and AICHE, where I was elected as sophomore representative.  In the end I have to stop thinking about what others think and want and really try to discover what I want.  I wish a magic genie could just appear and tell me what the right choice is, but I know that will never happen.

A funny thing happened a couple weeks ago.  I was browsing through my bookshelf looking for something interesting to read, when I ran across some old textbooks I brought home after my grandma died, which included a Schaum’s Outline of Differential Equations.  As I was browsing through the archaic study guide, a small folded piece of paper fell out.  On the back was some scratch work from a problem (most likely from the book.)  When I opened the paper, I ran across a page from a lab report titled Lindlar’s Catalyst, which included detailed instructions on how to synthesize this special catalyst that is used to hydrogenate alkynes to alkenes with cis-isomerism.  At the top of page was the date December 16, 1966.  The lavender-blue ink indicated that the page was printed from a mimeograph, a hand-cranked printer that dated before the late 1960’s.  It was like finding a hidden treasure, a piece of Watkins history.  The careful scripted math on the back was signature of my dad, and the date indicated that the page dated back to his time spent at Caltech.

My dad is a pure genius, and I am extremely critically of other’s intellect.  He is on my list of the most intelligent human beings I have ever met, which is very short.  As a high school student, he handcrafted a particle accelerator in the height of the atomic age including an ultra-high vacuum created from refrigerator heat pumps.  He even built a hovercraft.  In college he was first a chemistry major, then he switched to physics.  However, his senior year he dropped out to pursue an invention, which we now know as modern microwave popcorn, with his brother, under the brand name Act II.  Now he is a small business owner, who makes outdoor lighting fixtures.  It wasn’t until a phone conversation that occurred last semester that I learned that he might have truly regretted leaving the university scene.  As a gifted machinist and physicist, he said the times he spent in the physics labs where some of the best in his life.  Looking back now, he wishes that he had continued to study physics, even at the graduate level, and someday have his own lab.

He used to tell me I would never be as smart as him, which is probably true.  But it’s moments like after one of my organic midterms when I can show him a paper with a big red 95 on the front, that I can see him smile with a gap between his two front teeth large enough to drive a bus through.  These moments makes it all worth it, even if the grade doesn’t follow.  Maybe it’s true, and I will never be as smart as him, nor can I understand what kinds of crazy ideas pass through his mind when he stares into space with his gap-toothed smile.  Then again, maybe I am inching closer to something.  Maybe I was put here on this earth to finish something he never could.  It’s seems illogical and maybe a bit superstitious, but that paper may have fallen out for a reason.  Who knows why I felt such a sentimental connection to a piece of 44-year old paper, but all I do know is that my biggest fear is realize at 64-years old, that I have made a lifelong mistake.

So for now I am going to stay and engineer.  It’s so hard to make a decision after only two semesters; however, if I need to change it should be something I should anticipate sooner rather than later.

I’m sure most of the followers of this blog are high school students. I’m sure they’re pretty driven high school students, who are extremely focused on academics. That’s only natural – they’re looking at a school known for academic excellence, and they want to make sure that their transcripts reflect the fact that they’re striving for academic excellence too. Don’t get me wrong – doing well in school and grades can be important. But at the same time, those same focuses can easily overwhelm students.

Over the past year, I’ve seen a lot of students affected by this. Practically all of here at Hopkins are very academically focused, and as incoming freshmen, we were used to aiming for (and getting) top grades. So we came here, and we kept trying for those grades, and some of us got way too caught up in that struggle. I admit, I’m definitely not perfect. I’d like to say that I’ve always been focused on learning for the sake of learning and on enjoying life. While I’ve certainly never taken grades to the extremes, I know that I have gotten caught up in the grade rat race.

But this year, something changed. I’m not sure what it was. Maybe it was first semester covered grades, and knowing that I could focus on learning, and not just cramming for tests. Maybe it was knowing that I was surrounded by hundreds of other equally (or moreso-ly) intelligent people. Maybe it was subconsciously realizing that in 10 years, I won’t care about any of these grades. Maybe it was realizing that the memories I’ll have of college should be more than grades and late nights in the library. Memories aren’t made of letters and test scores. They’re made of experiences. They’re made of laughter and tears. They’re made of struggles and triumphs. They’re made of spontaneity and planning. They’re made of late night walks around the campus. They’re made of mud fights on the freshman quad. They’re made of 4 am conversations with friends. They’re made of explorations to Hampden and Fell’s Point. They’re made of pillow fights. They’re made of late nights watching movies and stuffing your face. They’re made of first experiences. They’re what we want to remember.

This probably all sounds very cliche. It probably is very cliche, but more importantly, it’s also very true.

I was wandering in AMR II today, and I saw this quote: “Our memories of the ocean will linger on, long after our footprints in the sand are gone.”  Moving beyond the beach and into the college arena, the footprints are the grades. They’re something tangible, something physical we can fixate on when measuring our time spent in college. But ten, twenty, thirty years from now, we won’t remember the grade on the first micro midterm. We won’t remember our score on the orgo final. We won’t remember the strange way anthro participation grades were calculated. But we’ll have memories of experiences and friends. And making the memories is what really matters.

So this week I’m going to talk about my 2 top favorite things from this past week/month: Online Courses and the TV Show How I Met Your Mother. One of the perks I get for being part of the Orientation Executive Staff is a free course, and since my Academic Advisor suggested that I check out the online course Positive Psychology it was my top choice. What’s really awesome is that it also doubles as an upper-level psychology course and will contribute to my B.S. in Psychology. While I’ve been working on orientation stuff for the past few weeks, my roommate and I have watched all 5 seasons of How I Met Your Mother. As a result of that and the fact that I have at least 2 Positive Psychology assignments every week, they’ve become a major part of my life.

Positive Psychology is mostly based on what is known as Maslow's Hierarchy of needs, which is a theory that states in order for us to be truly happy, we much start at the bottom of this pyramid and work our way to the top.

As I said, I was told by my Academic Advisor that Positive Psychology was one of the best Psychology courses I could take since the field is relatively new and the professor isn’t a harsh grader. Positive Psychology was first coined by Martin Seligman when he was the President of the American Psychological Association. For years the psychological community had been focusing on mental illness and depression, and everything that can go wrong with the human mind. Seligman among other psychologists decided that it was time they start deciding what people could do to be happier. When Positive Psychology was first taught by Tal Ben-Shahar (one of the authors of the books required for the course) at Harvard, only about 8 students took the course and a few ended up dropping out. However, the next year it was the largest class taught at Harvard, and its continued to be so to this very day. Ben-Shahar was actually a guest on the Daily Show in 2007, and if you’re interesting in seeing what he said check out the video of his appearance: http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/thu-august-9-2007/tal-ben-shahar.

Learned Optimism by Martin Seligman is one of the required readings for my Positive Psychology class. This book is really well written as Seligman was President of the APA and responsible for the surge of interest in Positive Psychology.

Happier by Tal Ben-Shahar is the other required reading for my Positive Psychology class. It's also extremely well written and tells you what you can do in your everyday life to be happier, and gives you a much better idea of what happiness is. I would definitely suggest both these books to anyone who is looking for a good read.

Positive Psychology is interesting enough as it is, but the fact that I’m taking the course online over the summer makes things infinitely better. Most people love taking the course at Hopkins for reasons similar to those why Harvard students take the class; because it ends up being a self-help class and you walk out of the class knowing how to make yourself happier. The fact that I don’t have to wake up at any specific time to go to class, and that I can do the readings whenever I have time helps me out a lot because then I don’t have to worry about finishing the readings on time. It’s also great because I’m used to taking classes where the assignments you’re given have right answers, but this class is completely writing based. Not only is it writing based, but most of our assignments are opinion based, and we’re free to write in whatever style or person we feel. This works out very well since I’m going to be taking real writing classes at Hopkins soon, so I can get in the creative mindset that will be necessary for me to do well in those classes.

The cast of How I Met Your Mother. Barney Stinson (played by Neil Patrick Harris) is possibly my all-time favorite TV character (aside from Jack and Desmond from LOST of course) and shows how great an actor NPH can be.

So aside from Positive Psychology, Orientation work, and admissions work this past week the other thing that’s been occupying my time is How I Met Your Mother. Normally I can’t get that into comedy shows because they aren’t that funny (there are some good episodes, but mostly mediocre ones) since I’m used to shows with really confusing and cryptic plots, but this show is really well written and I can watch almost any episode and be laughing the entire time (even after watching all 5 seasons). My roommate and I have gotten so in the zone that most of the conversations we have now a full of references from the show. The only issue is now that we’ve gone through all of the episodes we have nothing to watch while we’re working, so we’ve resorted to watching whatever looks interesting on TV. Well that’s all I’ve got for this week, thanks for reading and I’ll see you next time!

Last June, I thought I had my plans for the next year or so figured out. Freshman year worked out more or less according to plan, but Summer 2010 didn’t seem to fall in place as easily. At this point, my summer in Baltimore is exactly halfway though, and although it was nothing like what I planned, I’m definitely enjoying it!

This summer, I’m an RA for the JHU Pre-College program, I’m giving tours/doing other awesome things for Admissions, and I was taking a class during first session. For the most part, my summer was broken up very nicely into First Term Class and Second Term RA, but last week was the one overlap of all three commitments. To top it off, it was the last week of class, so I was working on my paper and presentation for class, as well as doing about 5 hours of RA training a day. Tonight marks the end of the craziness, and I’m certainly glad to have life returning to a slightly slower pace!

As part of my compensation for being an RA, I had a credit for a three credit class. When I’d been looking at summer classes much earlier in the semester (as a wonderful way of procrastinating), one of the classes had caught my eye – Applied Forensic Psychology. To be honest, I didn’t really know anything about psychology – I hadn’t taken any psych classes, and it was the forensic (law) aspect of it all that appealed to me.

Contrary to popular belief, “forensic” doesn’t actually refer to CSI and dead bodies. It originally referred to the “forum,” and public speaking. In high school, I was part of the NFL. Although it’s probably quite easy to imagine me as a linesman or a quarterback, it was actually the National FORENSICS League, and it was for speech and debate. Similarly, forensics actually refers to the law aspects of these cases. In this case, forensic psychology actually refers the confluence between law and psychology.

To sum it up, this class was AMAZING. It was practically everything I’d ever want in a class – an interesting topic, a great professor, readings that actually focused on the course material, quality over quality, great class discussions, and a grading system that was based around our talents. At this point, I think it’s narrowly edged out Expository Writing for the spot of “Miranda’s favorite class.” Class was close to three hours, but they were always interesting, and people never ran out of things to say. There were definitely varying opinions, and people came to this class with varying backgrounds, but it ended up creating a great class!

To illustrate just how much I enjoyed this class (and Keith has mocked me endlessly for this), I actually ended up doing about two or three times as much research for the final paper as we had to (just because I wanted to), and writing a 16 page paper (although the suggested length was about half as much). We all got to choose our topics for this, and my final paper focused on the role religion plays in forensic psychology. Sometimes, as part of insanity defenses, there will be a religious component to the argument. Many insanity defenses focus on delusions, but the definition of delusion (as definied by DSM-IV) excludes religious beliefs. However, there’s a debate about whether these religious beliefs can be pathological, and what specifically defines a religion/religious belief.

Class ended last week, just as RA training started. This week marked the end of training, and move-in for Summer University residents. It’s definitely been hectic, but Summer University is also looking to be a fun (albeit entirely different) experience than summer classes!

See all the fun we have in store at Pre-College?

It always seems like these types of blogs are the most difficult to write.  I first off want to say that college is a very personal experience, so they opinions I express here are not always universally shared among the Hopkins student body.  Nonetheless, this is my blog where I get to express my thoughts, and I hope that these will resonate with some of the people who will read this entry.

It always seems to come up in conversation, whether it’s with prospective, admitted, or fellow Hopkins students.  That one question always trips me up because there isn’t a single, easy, short answer.  The question being: Is Hopkins cutthroat?  Variations also include: Is Hopkins grueling?  Does Hopkins grade deflate?  The list goes on.

I guess I could bumble on about my personal experience with courses, exams, curves, and standard deviations.  But if you couldn’t tell from my earlier entries, I am not much of a statistics person.  However, I do posses an answer to previous stated question.

These are all images I took using light microscopes at a lab at JHU.

Looking back on my first year of Hopkins seems a bit surreal.  Only nine months ago I was an incoming freshmen, and two weeks ago I was kicked out my dorm and back into a world where Hopkins is a distant place 1,500 miles away.  In short, my first year wasn’t easy.  At moments it was extremely difficult, sometimes excruciating.  Would I ever call it grueling?  No.  Would I ever call it cutthroat?  No. Even though there were moments of exhaustion and feelings of hopelessness, it honestly was worth every moment of what some call “grueling” work.

In high school, things came pretty easy to me.  I never remember having to study for an exam, spend countless hours on problems sets, or even having to pay attention in class.  However, halfway through my junior year I became very frustrated with high school.  So frustrated in fact, I did everything possible to avoid going to classes.  High school was such a simple game.  If you knew the tricks you could win every time.  It’s like playing tic-tac-toe over an over, once you figure out the algorithm it gets extremely boring.  Eventually, you just stop caring about winning.

I was offered a really cool opportunity as a senior in high school.  I was able to attend my local state university for all my classes, while simultaneously earning college and high school credits.  While I really enjoyed my time at this university, I knew I didn’t want to continue my studies there the following year.  In many ways this school still felt like high school, where I felt lost among my classmates.    Many of my courses were not particularly edifying or challenging.

In the late summer before my senior year my sister gave me a book on America’s elite colleges.  After perusing through a number of the universities listed in the back, I ran across the pages dedicated to JHU.  The first line contained a warning: “A JHU education is not for the faint of heart.”  That is exactly what I wanted to hear.  There existed a place that would undoubtedly challenge me.  It’s a little funny to think that something that drew me to the school would also lead me to doubt my decision nearly a year later.

I was completely correct when I thought JHU would undoubtedly challenge me.  It just seems at moments I seem to forget that.   About halfway through my first semester, I began to wonder how my life would be different if I would have stayed at that large state university.  I think this a thought many Hopkins students share at moments in the careers.  The thing is, sure, it probably would be easier.  You’re GPA might be a couple decimals higher.  You might have more free time, or study less on weekends.

However, I didn’t come to Hopkins to find an easy out, and no one does.  In fact, I was drawn in by the reputation of academic rigor.  While, I found exactly what that book told me I would, I also found a lot more.

While I have moments where I feel I am completely out of control, sitting at the top of a rollercoaster about to drop, it sure beats knowing how to always win the game.  This past semester I have never felt so defeated by courses, which I at moments I grappled to understand (see my experience with number theory.)  I have never felt so unintelligent.  Well at least I thought I hadn’t, until I read back on one of my college essays, which reads:

“I know I am young, naïve and know practically nothing on the scale of what knowledge is possible. …All that I have learned these past years has filled me with curiosity and wonder, but more importantly an insatiable hunger to understand why. “

I also have never learned so much.  I have never had a more intellectually fulfilling experience.  At Hopkins you’ll learn what it means to work hard, and of course you’ll reap the benefits.  I think these concepts of “cutthroat” and “grueling” arise from students who struggle to grasp the meaning of a college experience.  Sometimes, the transcript isn’t a column of A’s, sometimes you feel less intelligent than before, sometimes you feel that the costs outweigh the benefits.  But if you can get past a damaged ego, you’ll realize what you’ve learned from your experience at Hopkins is more than just subjects you studies.  Hopkins is far from high school.  Success isn’t garnered through pattern recognition, and sometimes no matter how hard you work the outcomes are not always what you hoped.  In my year here, I have learned worlds more about myself.  Sometimes the most important lessons are not learned in a lecture hall, but rather through personal hardship.  It is for this reason I know I made the right decision when I decided to come to JHU.

I may never know how to win the game of Hopkins, and I am not sure anyone does, but at least I know it will never be boring.

Hey prospees, this is Greco.

It’s been a while since I posted my last entry. I was really busy with finals and right after the finals I went to Korea for my two-week break before the summer school and all those fun shenanigans. So in this entry, I would like to give u a quick list of shenanigans that’s happening during my summer at Hopkins.

1) Summer School

I decided to ease my workload for my sophomore fall semester by taking Organic Chemistry I during the summer. The course is taught by Professor Klein who is one of our senior lecturers in the chemistry department. I heard he’s pretty famous for his organic chemistry workbook, Organic Chemistry as a Second Language, which is used widely for a class supplemental material. Some people told me he’s easy, some told me otherwise, so I guess I’m going to have to find out myself… I’m just really glad a lot of my friends are taking this with me during summer so I won’t be suffering alone. I’m only taking Organic Chemistry I.

2) Lab

I got a lab position for the summer over at the medical campus (read about it here) and it starts on the same day as my summer school. Since I am taking organic chemistry I over the first session, I’m only working in the afternoon. But after the first session, I will be working full time. I’m not getting paid, but I will be getting college credit and the number of credits will be determined at the end of the summer by my faculty advisor and personal investigator (head of the lab). I’m kinda new at this, so I won’t be doing actual independent research, but I will be assisting grad students and upperclassmen undergrads currently working in the lab. There’s going to be a lab meetings every week as well. I don’t know what this is going to be about.

3) A Cappella Arrangement

I’m currently working on an arrangement for my a cappella group. At the end and beginning of the summer we select new songs for the next semester and people volunteer to arrange the songs. I’m currently working on a cappella arrangement of The Wonderer by Marc Broussard. This is my first time arranging so it’s gonna take a long time, but I’m sure at the end it will be rewarding.

4)  Photography

I’ve been very lazy with taking photos after taking Intro to Digital Photography I in first semester. I’m afraid my photo skill’s got a bit rusty and I hope I’ll have chance to take more photos over the summer.

I just came back yesterday and it’s been very frustrating.. I got a summer housing in Bradford, and I’m currently in the process of cleaning and unpacking. Maybe later when I’m all done, I’ll show you guys my awesome apartment!

Later!

On the next, Greco’s blog…

The past three weeks seem like a blur…I’ve taken two in-class finals, a take-home final, written multiple papers, and spent more hours than I want to think about in the library. Finals week can be a stressful point for anyone, but it was especially crazy this semester with our condensed reading period. Generally, we have a three day reading period with a weekend somewhere in there. This time, we had a reading weekend, followed by a seven day final period. I expected to be a worn-out mess by the end of it all, but I actually ended up happy and feeling moderately successful. Here are some lessons from finals week!

1)   Take breaks. As tempting as it is to spend all day in the library, productivity starts to decrease without a break. Whether this break involves getting something to eat, grabbing coffee with friends, going for a run, or just sunbathing on the beach, it’ll leave you more energized to study.

2)   Get sleep. This goes along the same basic lines. I found I got more sleep during finals week than the rest of the semester. I could be much more productive after 9-10 hours of sleep, and that increased productity made up for not being awake quite as much. Also – go home and sleep in your bed. It’s much better to nap/sleep somewhere comfortable. Extra-long twin beds are definitely better than anywhere at the library.

3)   Spend time with friends. It’s a good rule to follow in general, but especially when you won’t see these people for all of summer/winter break. Friends can also distract you from all the craziness associated with packing and studying, and should make you feel better!

4)   Don’t save your packing until the end. It may seem manageable, but it can/will take over your life. I know of at least one person who pulled an allnighter packing, and I know that everyone underestimated the amount of time it’d take to pack.

5)   Finals playlist! This isn’t exactly a lesson, but some excerpts from my music. I have a general “Studying” station on Pandora, which I interspersed with my “Stronger playlist.” Highlights include…

1. Stronger by Kanye West
2. Stronger by Britney Spears
3. Superman (It’s not easy) by Five for Fighting
4. Don’t Stop by Fleetwood Mac
5. I Will Survive by Gloria Gaynor
6. St Elmos Fire (Man in Motion) by John Parr
7. Build Me Up Buttercup by The Foundations
8. Stand Up (For the Champions)
9. Crazy Dreams by Carrie Underwood
10. Miracle by Cascada
11. Bad Day by Daniel Powter
12. Come So Far (Got So Far To Go) from the Hairspray soundtrack
13. Don’t Stop Believin’ by Journey
14. Learn to Fly by The Foo Fighters

The general studying music is basically a mix of Cascada, Sean Kingston, Matt Nathanson, Kesha, Carrie Underwood, and any general upbeat music.

6) Remember that life will soon return to normal! The night finals ended, a friend and I went for a walk around campus around 12:30. We discovered that the library had closed, certainly signifying the end of finals!

Discovering a locked library the night finals finish!

At this point, I’m back in LA for two weeks enjoying spending time with family and friends before heading back to Baltimore. It feels so weird to be done with freshman year…a year ago I wasn’t even done with high school, and now I’m a rising college sophomore. What a year!

PS. Check back soon for a end of semester/year recap!

My first week at home has been full of extravagances. I have indulged in all things I hold dear to my heart: the Real Housewives franchise, Wawa’s Hoagiefest, and Dear Abby archives. Now that I have made it through the detox of all knowledge that I had to learn during finals, my brain is decidedly mush.  Just the way I like it.  I feel like I now have enough perspective to reflect on what was my freshman year.

Heaven knows that I am too shallow to have deep reflections.  Therefore, I decided to go through all the music that has made up a soundtrack to this year (yes, even the embarrassing dollar sign girl), to show just what kind of a year I had. I’ll try not to be too hipster, but I’m not making any promises.

1. Sleepyhead, by Passion Pit. Okay, so this was number one on my iTunes most played. I’m not really sure what that means, but I’ll go with it.  I first heard this song at the Rec Center in January when I was keeping true to New Years resolutions and attending spinning classes.  Later in the spring semester and long after my workout regimen took a little hiatus , I listened to this song while in D.C. at a climate rally where John Legend, Sting, and the Roots also played.  So, H-O-L-L-A exercise and political activism!

2. Dancing in the Moonlight, by King Harvest. This is my all time favorite, hands down.  I have danced to this song in my dorm, on the freshman quad, in Char Mar, down N. Charles street, and I’m sure quite a few other places on campus.  I dare you not to dance to this smooth classic.  This song reminds me of summer, fun, and just how awesome it is not to have a curfew.

3. Party in the U.S.A., by Miley Cyrus. Do I really have to explain?  I know you are all judging me hardcore, but think back to last September, when we didn’t care about Miley and her stripper pole and we weren’t all jealous about her Aussie boyfriend.  This song welcomed me to Hopkins, served as a nice little upper during intense study seshes, and was with me as I got past the whole, “I’m sorry, I’m a freshman.  It’s so embarrassingggggg!” phase.

4. Slide, by the Goo Goo Dolls. This one is courtesy of Pandora, the internet radio site.  I’m not gonna lie, I would probably ditch school to compete with the middle aged groupies of the Goo Goo Dolls.  You gotta do what you gotta do, and this is my jam when I embracing my nineties heritage as middle class white girl.

5. Let’s Stay Together, by Al Green. That’s right, now we’re getting sultry.  This baby will break through anybody’s hard exterior and make them mush.  Honestly, I hardly listen to the words- just Al Green’s voice. One day President Daniels and I will share a slow dance to this song and mull over our love.

6. Wonderwall, by Oasis. There are few other songs that will get everyone singing along like this puppy.  Bring out your token friend with a guitar, and pretend it’s Berkeley in 1969.  That’s right- do the sing a long!

7. Any song on any of the millions of records, by Dave Matthews Band. Davvvvvvvvvvveeeeeee! I have a love hate relationship with this man.  The hate comes from my lifelong hate of DMB and the cult like frat-broeyness that it represents.  The like comes from me actually listening and secretly liking.This is a big guilty pleasure, but Davvvvvveee really is the perfect compliment to the chill, hanging out with friends mood college can evoke.

8. Don’t be Shy, by Shwayze. To me, this song evokes summertime.  So during our snow week around my birthday, when everyone was getting on each other’s nerves in such close quarters, I would put this on just to remember when the ground was not covered with foot upon foot of snow and cars could actually drive down N. Charles Street.  Also, it has a good message: life it too short to be shy.

9. I’m a Lady, by Santogold. I am a Santogold lush, let’s be real here.  Anyway, at a few points this year, when I was sloppily eating in the FFC or wearing sweatpants (my antichrist), I needed a little reminder that in fact, I am a lady.

10. Home, by Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeroes. This is the hipster pinnacle of my musical tastes. But the song is really about how your home can be anywhere.  Hopkins has come to be my home this past year and that is because of the great friends I have made here. I am so excited and grateful that I have three more years in Charles Village, and hopefully I will be allowed back despite my outrageous hipster tendencies.

Honorable Mention: “The Best” by Tina Turner (a given), Radiohead (who doesn’t have a phase?), ke$ha (that fool was everywhere), and State Radio (just because they played at Spring Fair).

HAVE  A GREAT SUMMER!

TyTy

P.S. I’m sorry I didn’t fall into real college alternative rock yet. I’ll save my Fiona Apple for another day!

Action Shot!

The title of this post may seem very cryptic and confusing at first but if you know what I’ve been doing for the past 8 days you’d understand. As I’m sure most of you know finals week started for Hopkins students on Monday with the reading period only being Saturday and Sunday last weekend. It was a bit annoying but at the same time all the students were happy that they’d be getting out at the same time. I want to apologize in advance because this is going to be a fairly short post, but I’ve had about 12 total hours of sleep in the past week so I’m probably not entirely coherent.

I had 3 finals this past week and the worst part of everything was having my hardest final on the last possible day of the finals period, not to mention it was a Sunday. Yup you read correctly, my last exam began almost exactly 12 hours ago and the subjects covered on it were: Electricity, Magnetism, Electromagnetic Radiation, Optics, Relativity, Quantum Mechanics and Atomic/Nuclear Physics. Surprisingly enough it wasn’t as ridiculous as it seems, the questions were mostly simple and about conceptual topics because in this class the math involved is ridiculous so the professors just want to make sure you understand the conceptual topics.

Maxwell's equations - the four equations that govern the entire section of physics known as quantum mechanics aka the hardest/most annoying section of physics 2.

I’m not even going to try to say that all my finals were extremely easy and I got through them without any issues. The whole 12 hours of sleep this week contributed to my frustration during the week, and it was mostly because of my roommate who basically has no consideration for others even when they’re trying to sleep because they have an exam the next day. Once I finish writing this post I’m going to bed and I’m going to sleep for at least 15 straight hours so I can catch up on all my sleep. This week was definitely one of the hardest things that I’ve had to go through. Aside from the no sleep factor some of the physics concepts are really counter-intuitive and take a lot of mental gymnastics (as my psych professor calls it) to understand what’s happening in the world around us. It was also the fact that my exam was literally in the last possible slot and my summer vacation didn’t start until the last possible moment. Furthermore I missed a couple of crucial physics classes because of a family emergency. But somehow even though all of the circumstances seemed to hinder me, I studied as much as I possibly could, I stayed sane, and I think I’m going to end up doing very well in the class.

I don’t think that this is a typical situation that most Hopkins freshmen would find themselves in, but at the same time it’s not too uncommon for Hopkins students. Sometimes things happen that you can’t control, but you have to deal with what the world throws at you and make the best out of the situation. The thing that constantly drives me is my long-term goal (to become a Neurosurgeon for those of you who don’t know). I’ve known I wanted to be a doctor since 3rd grade and I’m constantly aware that you need to do as best you can with everything if you want to be a good doctor. Since I know that’s what I want to do I know what grades I need for all of that, so I make sure that I don’t mess up and regret not studying as much as I could.

If I could give one piece of advice to all the incoming Hopkins class, or anyone really its find the one thing that motivates you to do well, and never forget what that is. Always have some sort of higher-level goal that you can look forward to. Once you’ve made it through all of the tough parts of your life and you’re looking back on your education you won’t regret it. Studying may be boring but there’s two things you can do about that: 1.) don’t study at all and do poorly and regret it once you can’t get a good job or 2.) study even though it may not be what you want, do well, get a good job, and look back and be happy that you studied even though it drove you insane. I guess there could be a third option: develop a completely idetic (photographic) memory so all you have to do is look at books for a while and you’ll remember everything but that doesn’t seem as possible.

Well that’s all I’ve got for this week. What’s weird now is this is my last post as a Freshmen (well not even cause I’m done with my 2nd semester) which means that I’m now a Sophomore. Aside from that I’m on summer break. I haven’t fully understood any of these things yet but when I do I’m going to be ecstatic. I also just realized that I haven’t left you with a YouTube video in a while, and I just came across a good one that my friend from high school made. It’s really awesome and I have no idea how they did all the things they did. Enjoy, I’m about to try to sleep for 15 straight hours. See you in two weeks!

My IFP (Intro to Fiction and Poetry) journey is about to end. On one hand, I feel like I could have pushed myself further and get more out of the course, but on the other hand, I’m happy with where I am right now. I definitely feel more mature, and although I still have some problems, at least I learned what kind of fictions and poems I like and dislike—after all, college is all about self-exploration, right?

I’m really glad I took IFP II and didn’t stop at IFP I, despite it not being a requirement for my chemical engineering major. I also feel very lucky to have instructors of two very different perspectives, and although at first I struggled adjusting, it only helped me later broaden my perspective both as a writer and as a human being.

So what did I learn in IFP? First, you can never be a selfish writer and defeat the whole purpose of writing. I also learned I need to be more empathetic to create more believable scenes, settings, and most importantly, characters. In addition, I learned I like short stories better than poems—I thought the opposite when taking IFP I. I feel more comfortable taking time developing scenes and characters in short stories than trying to convey as much in short poems (well, I can try writing lengthy poems, but I just don’t do long poems…). I’m also proud of myself for taking risks and experiment with stuff especially vulgarity. What I like to do in my work is to take absurd, vulgar scenes and characters, make them believable and find unexpected beauty in them. Although some people in my class might think I’m weird, to say the least, after reading my fictions and poems, but I really don’t care because I believe my work is separate from who I really am as a person. Plus, the instructor really likes my objective, so that’s good. Honestly, it’s been a pretty cathartic experience since my high school teachers would have never approved of a lot of elements in my work of creative writing. I felt free.

I’m an international student whose first language is not English. Before taking IFP, English for me was just a tool for me to communicate with Americans. Now I know by heart that English is a beautiful language, which I now learned how to use with an aesthetic sense. Again, I still make a lot of mechanical mistakes in my work, but I’m very satisfied with what I have achieved in a short amount of time.

I do not know as of know if I’m going to continue this journey. I did sign up for a short fiction class for next year, but I’m still not sure if I’m good enough or even will be motivated enough to be in that class. Maybe I’m pushing myself unnecessarily hard. I don’t know. I guess I have some more self-exploration to do over the summer. But certainly, I enjoyed my IFP experience this year and it has surely put some sparks in my Hopkins life.