Verbal Snippets & Snapshots

I. A “LITTLE UPDATE”

After a busy week and weekend, I’m simply catching up on schoolwork and dancing ballet and salsa on the side. I have quite a few photos and videos from Relay For Life and Filipino Cultural Night, both of which were this past weekend (as I’ve mentioned in my previous blog entry). As I’ve said, this was a fairly busy weekend , although I still managed to take time to sleep and hang out with my suitemates. Huzzah. However, it’s now time to focus on schoolwork. There’s homework to be done and quizzes for which to study. Plus, since it’s already the second-to-last week of the spring semester, reading period and finals week will be here before I know it! Ergo, I don’t know if I’ll be able to upload all those photos and videos and type descriptions about them until next weekend — but stay tuned for that! Well, that’s all for the update. Normally, I’d end this blog entry here — however, part of me feels like being somewhat contemplative in my writing, so this entry shall continue for a bit.

II. SOME MUSINGS

Looking back at April 2006, I decided to come to Hopkins primarily for academics. The academics here have proven to be challenging over the past two years, but I’ve reminded myself time and again that tackling academics is the reason I’m at this institution in the first place. So far, I’ve been doing my best to keep academics my priority, even though it’s hard sometimes.

Despite my focus on academics, I’ve been surprised time and again to realize that I’ve also learned a lot of non-academic lessons here. By living, studying, eating, working, and interacting with my peers 24/7, I’ve learned many more social lessons in college than I ever thought I would. I’ve learned how to handle myself better in meeting new people. I’ve learned the distinctions among acquaintances, casual friends, and close friends. I’ve learned how often people can prove to be different from what they seem. I’ve learned how being happy relies primarily on your will to be happy, not on the presence or absence of people in your life. I’ve learned that it can be fun to be acquainted with a lot of people, but what’s even more valuable is having a small, solid group of close friends and maintaining your friendships with them. I’ve learned that being true to yourself and your values is the most important thing to remember when deciding what to do with your time.

These lessons — and more — aren’t necessarily unique to the Hopkins experience. They’re lessons everyone should learn eventually in his or her life. For me, I’ve just happened to learn them all at Hopkins, and for that reason, this place has a high sentimental value to me. While I’ve had my ups and downs at this institution over the past two years, because it’s been the setting for my intellectual and so much of my personal growth, I can’t help but have a soft spot for Hopkins. As a student here, I’ve found over the past few years that this institution has flaws of its own that I hope would be rectified one day. However, because I’ve been able to get so much out of my experience here in the long run both academically and socially, and because I’ve been blessed to find a small, solid group of friends here, I can’t imagine myself not having come here.

So, as the half-way point of my undergraduate college experience draws near, and as I roll up my sleeves and replace my contacts with glasses for long nights of studying for finals, I want to say that looking back over the past two years, they’ve been chock-full of so much happiness, laughter, anger, frustration, blood (because of my clumsiness in lab and other scenarios), sweat, and tears. All of that has taught me many things — and so I wouldn’t change anything about the past two years at Hopkins, and I’m willing to accept whatever comes in the next two years, imperfections and all.

Wherever you decide to go to college — it would be nice if it were Hopkins, but even if it’s not, please keep this in mind — I hope you also find that you’re learning a lot and growing a lot both intellectually and personally. Good luck in finalizing your college decisions, and I hope that wherever you’ll end up going for college, you’ll be able to get much out of your experience there.

N.B. I got these images of magnets with motivational quotes from AllPosters.com.

First of all, congratulations to everyone who has been accepted ED into Hopkins! Anyway, I just finished taking my last final this morning, and I’ve never had such an exhausting final three weeks of a semester! I’m surprised that I’m still intact after number of hours I’ve spent at the library–and, if the experiences of older Hopkins students are to be my guide, I know final exams/papers/projects season will only get more intense in upcoming semesters. However, for some reason, I’m itching to start the next semester and try even harder to do well in everything I do here.

This semester has definitely been much more difficult than previous semesters for me in terms of juggling academics, extracurricular activities, and work. Now that I’m finally done with the semester, I’m literally sitting and thinking about the past four months. By the way, I’m currently by myself in my suite, since one of my suitemates went home for winter break two days ago, a second suitemate went home for winter break two hours ago, and the third suitemate just left to meet a friend two minutes ago. I, in turn, am typing this blog entry at my desk, as I’m waiting for mi padre to pick me up so that I could go home for the winter break.

Looking back at this semester, I’m surprised to realize how many things I’ve learned, both inside the classroom and outside it. What I’ve learned inside the classroom isn’t very surprising to me; I started this semester expecting that I would learn certain concepts in my courses, and I have learned them. However, I’m definitely surprised over how much I’ve learned outside the classroom this semester. At the beginning of the semester, I didn’t think I would learn many non-academic lessons, since I thought I had already found my niche at Hopkins. I was wrong. Indeed, now that I think of it, I’ve learned a lot of non-academic lessons outside the classroom over not just the past semester, but the past three semesters–and, as I’ve already said about this semester, even if you’re no longer a wide-eyed freshman, you still learn a lot of things outside the classroom in college. While I’m only a 19-year-old youth and not a 90-year-old sage, I’ll try to impart what my paltry wisdom has gleaned from my short life:

1. As busy as you may be and as good as your college friends may be, you’ll still find yourself missing home and your family and friends there.

2. A half gallon of milk and a box of cereal can go a long way in saving time–and money–for meals. In addition, leftovers of a meal sometimes taste more delicious than the meal did at first, simply because you know you’re eating two meals for the price of one.

3. Your health is definitely your wealth. Don’t underestimate sleep, healthy eating, or daily exercise.

4. “Thinking outside the box” is not a saying. It’s a way of life.

5. The more time passes by, numerical age starts to matter less, while maturity starts to matter even more.

6. Music is a fabulous stress reliever, whether you’re listening to it, creating it, or discussing it. I’d known about its therapeutic qualities well before coming to Hopkins, but I’ve come to appreciate it even more here.

7. Nonetheless, laughter is the best medicine.

8. In an environment in which you live with, work with, study with, eat with, and socialize with mostly your peers, you really start to notice the difference between your peers who are your friends and your peers who aren’t.

9. Giving up on something or someone isn’t always a sign of failure on your part. It can be a sign of accepting reality and learning how to move on.

10. Don’t be afraid to speak up!

11. Hard work does pay off, even if there are times when it doesn’t seem that way.

12. There’s always more to a person than what you think about him or her at first–and yes, this applies even to a professor whose class you dislike.

13. Life isn’t always a fairy tale with a happy ending. It also isn’t always the script of a film noir.

14. Misunderstandings such as friendships gone wrong and relationships gone sour do not mean you should view yourself as a bad person.

15. No matter how many mistakes you’ve made, there’s always the future in which you can remedy your mistakes. Likewise, no matter how many achievements you’ve done, there’s always a future in which you can make mistakes that would nullify the benefits of your hard work. The point is: don’t dwell on the past.

N.B. The first image used in this blog entry is a photo of an art print that I found on Art.com; it says the word “wisdom” in Chinese calligraphy. I found the other images via Google Image Search.

By the end of this month, I’ll already be back at Hopkins! Two of my soon-to-be suitemates and I will return to Hopkins on Tuesday, August 28, to start training as Orientation Assistants. We’ll be among the upperclassmen helping freshmen move into their dorms on Friday, August 31, and Saturday, September 1! It’ll be fun to join in this Hopkins tradition as someone on the helping end.

In addition to being the first day of my sophomore year at Hopkins, August 28 will be the last day of my summer vacation at home in Connecticut. This summer, I commuted to and from Fordham University to take biology classes there, resumed studying the piano under a local piano teacher (I took piano lessons from second grade until my senior year of high school, but a series of unfortunate circumstances prevented me from taking piano lessons in my freshman year at Hopkins), spent much time with my family, and got together with a few of my high school friends occasionally. Two previous blog entries give more details about how I’ve spent my summer vacation: Differences and Similarities and Some Summer Snapshots.

I have several mixed feelings about moving back to Hopkins. On a jocular note, I’m not in a rush to be packing a massive amount of my belongings once again, since I brought home all my possessions when I moved out of Hopkins in May. I’m also gritting my teeth over the car ride from Connecticut to Maryland, because when I moved into Hopkins last year, there was a lot of traffic, with many families traveling to and from several colleges along that 225+ mile strip of the East Coast.

On a sentimental note, as my return to Hopkins draws nearer, I feel emotionally torn. Part of me is reluctant to leave my hometown in Connecticut, where all my childhood memories and the members of my immediate family are, once again. It’s been nice to live in a familiar house, see familiar faces, drive along familiar roads, shop at familiar stores, and eat at familiar restaurants for the past four months–in fact, it’s been great! I love my hometown. Nonetheless, I’ve felt restless while living in it during the past four months. While it’s been nice to feel a sense of security à la the Peanuts character Linus van Pelt with his blue blanket by being home once again, I’ve felt as though something’s missing. For some reason, I’ve felt a strong urge to return to Hopkins–even if it’ll mean being 225+ miles away from my hometown and my family. During the past four months, one thought has nagged me incessantly: did I become that attached to Hopkins during my freshman year of college? Out of the 228 months in which I’ve been on this planet, I’ve spent only nine of them at Hopkins. Why do I feel almost as fond of Hopkins–and Baltimore itself–as of my hometown?

When I took “Introduction to Psychology” in the spring of my freshman year, my professor said in one lecture that after college, it’s not unusual if alumni settle in or near their college towns, even if their college towns make outsiders wonder, “Who would want to live there?” His explanation of that trend was that these alumni have so many fond memories of their college years, from making good friends to falling in love, that they want to live near the source of those memories. I couldn’t agree with that explanation any more. I’m not saying that I intend to settle in or near Baltimore; I have plenty of years to go before I can seriously decide where to settle. However, I could relate to feeling attached to one’s college town because of positive college memories. I think that except for the weeks of exams, my freshman year at Hopkins was busy in an enjoyable way. There were so many things that I did that I enjoyed, from taking intriguing courses to exploring Baltimore with my friends. It’s no wonder that I’ve wanted to return to Hopkins all this time!

Photo Captions: (1) This is the only 24-hour diner in my hometown, and because of that fact, it’s a popular place to eat. (2) This is my hometown’s hospital. (3) This is my hometown’s main train station. (4) This is my family’s parish in my hometown. (5) This is a pier in my hometown. (6) This is my hometown’s main public library. (7) This is one of the beaches in my hometown.

N.B. I got all the photos illustrating this entry from various websites.

My roommate moved out on Tuesday, May 8, and I moved out on Wednesday, May 9. Before I closed our door for the last time, I took pictures of our empty dorm room. I’ve been at home ever since. No matter how many times I’ve looked at my pictures of my empty dorm room and seen my still-unpacked luggage in my room at home (I haven’t finished unpacking everything yet), I’ve come to the same conclusion: I can’t believe that my freshman year is over, and that I won’t be at Hopkins for the next four months! It’s true that I’m happy to be home, and that I’m excited about my plans for summer vacation. Still, I’ll immensely miss Hopkins and my friends from Hopkins! My freshman year was wonderful, despite the times I worried about schoolwork or had conflicts with my peers. With the way I’m enjoying my time at Hopkins and going through Hopkins withdrawal during my time away from Hopkins, I might bawl at graduation three years from now.

What do we freshmen talk about in our free time? Since there are over 1,200 freshmen with unique personalities here, I can’t provide a comprehensive list of freshmen conversation topics. Sure, there are a few basic ones, from the erratic Baltimorean weather to the long lines at the FFC. Besides those, though, freshmen conversation topics are quite varied.

(That’s Paul Cézanne’s A Bend in the Road.) While I can’t mention everything that freshmen at Hopkins discuss, I’ll briefly discuss one conversation topic: goals for the future. I’ve been in several conversations where other freshmen and I would discuss what we’d like to do in the future, and we’d offer words of encouragement to each other. Sometimes, we’d even brainstorm on how we could collaborate with each other to reach our individual goals.

It’s true that as freshmen, we don’t need to know yet what we want to major in or do after college. Still, for those of us who already do, it’s nice to discuss our aspirations with people who understand what it’s like to have them. With so many of our classmates having goals, it’s hard to be discouraged from having our own. It’s also nice to know that with so many strong academic departments and numerous resources at Hopkins, if we do change our plans, we’ll still have support from the school to do well in life.

Ladies and gentlemen, that’s the end of my spiel.