J: Year in Review 2019
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| and the sun sets on another year... |
Context, or Motivation
Last year’s version of this document can be found here:
https://www.alanzhu.me/2019/01/2018-year-in-review.html
This document has been produced every year since 2016; that is, I have been writing this every year since the end of freshman year of high school up to the beginning of freshman year of college. This year, it also comes at the end of the decade, the first full decade I have lived through, [2010, 2020). This is kind of miraculous in a weird sort of way. As it has been described at the beginning of every post so far:
This document has been produced every year since 2016; that is, I have been writing this every year since the end of freshman year of high school up to the beginning of freshman year of college. This year, it also comes at the end of the decade, the first full decade I have lived through, [2010, 2020). This is kind of miraculous in a weird sort of way. As it has been described at the beginning of every post so far:
“This is mostly a document for me to look back on and read in a couple of years or something, so I’ll have some memory of what I actually did in my high school years, though this is probably focusing on detail that will seem unimportant in a few years.”Perhaps another quote that demonstrates why this tradition is so important to me is this:
“Personal growth isn't a state function. The path you take totally matters.”Writing over the course of a year documents where I’ve been, how I got from point A to point B, and how I get to the next point, C. It’s good to sit down and look back on that path, and to carefully see how things have changed. However, the more I read this, the more I find that it has become a little clumsy, both in size and in content, and most likely this will be the last document of this form—although perhaps the same questions will continued to be answered, more frequent free-form reflection may take the place of some of the rest of this. Time will tell.
Since the blog continues at a powerful pace, and therefore most events from the year have been previously covered, this will be a somewhat brief summary of events, followed by the annual questionnaire/reflection.
An accompanying photo album exists, and can be found by asking the author.
A Brief Summary
January
The year started off at a friend’s house with the end of college applications, watching TV shows and listening to new music, and an attempt to write poetry daily which continued for a reasonable amount of time. It also had FRC kickoff, reflections on past goals, and an instant emotional turmoil following the start of school and debate. One mediocre debate tournament with college friends was followed by an acceptance to Georgia Tech, then the end of a semester before a Harvard interview and missing RSI and starting to teacher aide and eat lunch at home with my mother. Presidential Scholars candidacy started, and we ran a debate tournament which was a lot of (poorly distributed) work, along with the observance of Rent: Live, further hatred of inequity, and an uneventful close to the month.
February
February was a Stanford interview, Chinese New Year, the first clearing of the ground from snow, A Very Potter Musical, icy roads, a really bad Solo and Ensemble performance, a snow day, a more fun debate tournament with friends where I ranked in International Extemp for the first time, practicing the AMC 12A, placing 2nd in a West River Student Congress, failing (relatively) the AMC 12B, finishing out Science Bowl strong with first place and an All-Star award, deep involvement in robotics build season, getting a likely letter from Columbia, Stop Build Day, reaching Superior Distinction in debate, hitting post number 200 at debate national qualifiers, submitting my RSI staff application, getting fifth in Policy Debate in qualifiers, riding a wave to fourth and a qualifying spot in International Extemp, getting mired in AP Bio, finishing my Presidential Scholars application, reflections on Bao, and heading back East River for State Debate.
March
March started with placing 3rd and 8th in extemp and policy at state debate, a short stop back home, then a week of going to Sioux Falls for Student Congress for my last tournament to coming back for four hours to a newspaper article to going to Duluth for FRC, where we placed 19th, got picked too early in the second round, got snowed on, and then I slept in an extra day. It followed with another snow storm, during which I got a Yale interview, an MIT acceptance, a UChicago rejection, and a five-day snow weekend where I spent a lot of time with robotics people before starting up musical practice and heading down to Denver for another FRC regional where this time we did much better, ranking 15th and getting picked way early in the first round, which sent us to worlds! This spurred great debate for me about attending NSB vs. Worlds, in a time where I also had dinner with other MIT prefrosh and I also got into Harvard and Yale, and the month faded out into the musical and a decision to go to Worlds.
April
April started with me getting a counselor position for RSI 2019, which is perhaps some of the best news I have ever received, slowly becoming more and more invested in the musical, Side Show, and a lot of continued focus on robotics, including prom! The next week was getting hit by another three-snow-day snow storm, during which the musical went on and I realized the joy of playing in the pit for good musicals, wasting time in regards to our unexpected spring break, getting semifinalist for Presidential Scholars, watching an ungodly amount of FRC, recovering my AP Bio grade, and realizing that I had very little time left in Rapid. Towards the end of the month, I comMITted, and then headed to Detroit for FRC Worlds, where I did my best to be myself and meet new MIT people, and where we dropped gradually in the rankings during qualifiers. We also got to do some fun things, such as Avengers: Endgame and other random shenanigans before we eventually got home via DFW (a change, since it was snowing in Chicago), and I returned home to prepare for Large Group Ensemble contest and attend the Evening of Excellence, also obtaining a new laptop which is now my primary use.
May
May started with snow and contest, where the second violins pulled our weight at least somewhat. Calls to RSI people slowly began as robotics events wrapped up, and approaching the end of the month and Pride caused a lot of self-reflection on leaving Rapid and who I was or am. I got to talk to the NYT about Pride, celebrated my 17th birthday, became a Presidential Scholar, was deeply saddened and concerned by the Highlands Ranch shooting which has simply passed out of the national discourse, went through my last AP testing season as RSI students began filling out the introductions document, ended my last year of Mathcounts coaching, received two awards at my last Orchestra concert on the day of my last AP test, and watched the year wind down with Honors Convocation, getting back into reading books, some late-year snow, a TV interview, letters to teachers, a debate party, a senior picnic, graduation parties, and, eventually, the true end of the journey: graduation itself. May petered out with packing to for my journey through China to Boston and D.C., Minecraft, and some last-minute meetings with friends, all of which made me think about what the word home meant to me.
June
June began with me putting together my counselor group poster and my MIT advising and pre-orientation applications as we headed down to Denver and from there we headed out to China via Seattle (during which I watched Coco). I was in China for around two weeks, during which I spent time first in Tianjin with my mother’s side of the family, visiting various places around the city, continuing to read e-books checked out from the library, buying high-quality MUJI pens, and hosting pre-RSI Google Hangouts via the MIT VPN, before we headed south to Huaibei with my father’s side of the family, with random fruits and food, lots of walking around town, preparing for RSI and Presidential Scholars, watching lots of sports games for some reason, writing Mathcounts problems, one particularly egregious form of parallel parking, and watching various movies before heading to Boston via Tianjin for the beginning of RSI.
RSI Part 2: Electric Boogaloo
RSI started with me arriving from China and instantly getting to work after arriving through customs, with an additional day of staff setup the next day before international arrivals day, where I picked up two kids and led a few trips, and then picked someone up before heading out to Presidential Scholars, which was hectic two-day experience where I met so many people (some of whom I still keep in contact with!), shook hands with Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos, had deep conversations at all times of day about many topics, visited the White House and was in a picture with the President (as of time of writing), toured the monuments again, experienced one of the most jaw-dropping arts perfomance I had ever seen, and pulled my first 24-hour all-nighter before flying through LaGuardia after a canceled and rescheduled flight back to Boston, hosting my first bedcheck that night. From there, the rest of RSI proceeded—I’ll spare details given that RSI tends to air on the side of maintaining some level of secrecy about its events. Things which did occur: my counselor group starting at first group bedcheck in last place, borrowing music from the library, starting as part of MSEAS again, going to random locations around campus at random times to explore or singalong, many trips to H-Mart for food, applying to be an MIT Admissions blogger, listening to weird musicals, trips together as a staff, walking over 40000 steps on the 4th of July, many trips led by counselors, reflections on college choices from College Night, organizing the production of the summerbook and the talent show, some negligible amount of lab work, a trip to Woods Hole with the lab, meeting old counselors, memes with Chris Peterson, getting duck-taped to a wall, meeting up with a friend from South Dakota, and a gradual falling in love with it all, my heart filling with the joys and sorrows and care for each and every one of the kids. The Institute closed with my group doing exceptionally well, placing first, and me staying up as much as possible to say goodbye to each and every one of them as they flew off. Their summerbook signatures will forever fill me with joy. The staff stayed a few extra days, cleaning rooms before heading up to the beach and various other fun places to commemorate the end.
August
I returned home as August began and reflected on the RSI past and the upcoming journey of MIT, rereading Turtles All The Way Down in this process. I began reading again (starting to use Goodreads), hitting upon Call Me By Your Name in the midst of this, and also went on various trips to Mount Rushmore, the Badlands, Wall Drug, and Black Elk Peak. I took some time to wrap up RSI tasks and occasionally call some of my kids, get my actual Operator’s License, study for some of the Advanced Standing Exams, get my final non-adult vaccination, before finally packing back up and heading out to MIT, starting with my math pre-orientation program and catching up with RSI friends. Plenty of time was spent learning about various vaguely mathy things, doing puzzles, and exploring Boston and campus (from Faneuil Hall to the Museum of Science to the Simmons Ball Pit to the Z-Center pool), although partway through I ended up not getting the admissions blogger job, unfortunately. Eventually, orientation proper started, with many old friends, many REX events with free food (and karaoke), the swim test, some formal orientation events, the math diagnostic, hair dye, one Advanced Standing Exams I passed and two I didn’t, moving into a new room, class selection, Activities Midway, before the month closed with a day of acapella auditions and laser tag with Next House.
September
September began with Asymptones callbacks and followed with ESP Firestorm, getting into Asymptones, an excess of Super Smash Bros, getting an A on an Advanced Standing Exam, a rummage sale, visiting Northeastern, falling asleep in class on the first day, beginning a life of psets and dining hall food, starting quiz bowl, my first and only fire alarm of the semester, starting to collect and solve The Tech puzzles, meeting up with RSI people, starting classes and getting quickly doused by the firehose from there on out. Small things happened primarily over the weekends: candlepin bowling with my advising group, interviewing for TechX: Think, hot pot, being an audience member in the 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, poorly auditioning for Video Game Orchestra, visiting Harvard, attending HackMIT for the free stuff and walking away with $200, starting Asymptones rehearsals, working on a pedestal in Lobby 7, attending the Career Fair for no results, attending a debate tournament (which convinced me to not do debate again), walking around Boston all the way to the Institute of Contemporary Art with a friend, walking from brunch to lunch with our peer mentors and other freshmen on the wing, auditioning for MTG pit orchestra, attending a talk by Jonny Sun and Bo Burnham, auditioning for my first solo, watching Tangled with Asymptones, more hot pot, and shattering my phone screen. I also started Tennis and talking to my lab again, had dinner with President Reif (et. al.), went to my first political rally (Andrew Yang), spent some time at the Rainbow Lounge, submitted externship applications, attended a few meetings of clubs I did not join (e.g. MIT Democrats), and took my first two MIT exams (one of which I aced), while briefly combating the freshman plague. It ended with me getting my first harmony solo, registering to teach various Splash classes, and a visit to East Campus.
October
October seemed to have calmed down from there, to some extent: it started with me beginning to skip breakfast, and continued with a TechX general body meeting, getting a flu shot, going sailing with my high school friend, starting my habit of eating at McCormick, getting a new phone, turning in my first humanities paper, spending more and more time at EC, doing my first quiz bowl tournament (4-5 in round robin), going to Yamato’s with my wing, attending a lecture about unnatural amino acids, feelings of malaise, externship interviews, meeting RSI kids (and a South Dakotan!) during Math Prize for Girls, having dinner with the Heads of House, attending a Harvard orchestra concert, friend-group lunches at Five Spices and McDonald’s, working on a pedestal in Lobby 7 again, a grueling 24 hour visit to NYC where we hit every tourist destination from daybreak to nightfall (and I saw an RSI kiddo!), acapella group song rehearsals, UROP proposal writing, getting my first humanities paper back, attending a talk about neutron-star collisions, attending a talk about failing, attending a rendition of Rocky Horror, visits to the piano lab, finally starting my UROP, another three midterms across different weeks (of which I aced one), walking around with my mother during family weekend, attending Spooky Skate, performing in Kresge Auditorium for the first time, attending the pumpkin drop, starting Badminton, turning in my second essay, and closed with preparations for NaNoWriMo and a Quiz Bowl tournament at Yale.
November
November was me getting truly hosed and therefore writing less on the blogs, especially with the advent of NaNoWriMo: it started with me getting an externship and then driving to Yale for ACF Fall, where MIT C went 3-4 during round robin and I met up with a friend from Presidential Scholars, and continued with paper revisions, rehearsals for A Chorus Line pit orchestra, reading for high school Quiz Bowl, wing photos, desperately trying to maintain pace for NaNoWriMo, volunteering for HMMT, Twelfth Night, a book talk with André Aciman where I bought Find Me, some karaoke, getting involved with lean0nme, and my first skipped class section. I ended up getting screwed by the two MTG production week(s), three midterms and a paper (of which I aced two), volunteering for the MIT Science Bowl Invitational, a dinner with techX at Yamato’s, visiting friends at Harvard, the Asymptones concert, two Splash classes, lean0nme training, planning spring classes, attending a Syncopasian concert, attending Next Act reveal, a case of seasonal allergies, and organizing Next House Thanksgiving, all over the course of about two weeks. It closed with Thanksgiving break, where I helped make food for the whole house, watched some movies and played some games with others, and slowly finished my work and psets for the semester.
December
December opened with a visit to the MFA and the first serious snow of the season. I placed into Spanish III, pre-registered for classes for the spring, watched Coco in Spanish, and began staying up later to talk to people instead of sleep. I attended a Centrifugues concert, had dim sum, attended externship orientation, picked songs and did karaoke with and was elected publicity director for and ate sushi with Asymptones, watched Monty Python and the Holy Grail, overslept multiple classes, finished up Quiz Bowl with an auditory clue competition, had hot pot, watched the British election, attended events for Concourse, Think, and lean0nme, watched a Logarhythms concert, spent some more time in EC (making food!), had brunch with my advising group, participated in 4W Secret Santa, and felt more and more like I had found a community. I took my finals, bought food for home, and eventually headed home, where I visited high school teachers and friends, found out I passed my classes, called other friends, saw the new Star Wars movie, and spent a lot of time reading (including Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe) and writing as the year and the decade rolled out.
Reflection
I answer the same set of questions every year to see how things change (and stay the same).
Some Questions (Same As Last Year)
Looking Back
1. What one event, big or small, are you going to tell your grandchildren about?
I think I always struggle to answer this question in a way I find satisfying. Maybe it’s just that, on the whole, there’s never anything life-shattering, at least in the present. There’s a non-zero probability that something happened this year will impact me years down the road, but I have no idea what matters and what doesn’t yet. (Of course, there’s also the question of the existence of grandchildren, but we’ll take the spirit of the question at its best.) Perhaps, in the grand scheme of things, the most superficially interesting thing I will eventually get to say is that I was in a photo with the third President to be impeached in the history of the United States.
2. If you had to describe your 2019 in 3 words, what would they be?
I think 2019 would best be described by one word per phase of the year—validation, for the first portion, where a lot of the work I did paid off in the form of various accomplishments, acceptances, celebrations, etc. culminating in graduation; departure, in leaving high school and Rapid City, having to say goodbye to old friends, but also in leaving China, leaving Presidential Scholars, leaving RSI, without knowing when I’d see anyone again; and hurricane, being hit by the full force gale of the semester (and, in some senses, during Pres. Scholars and RSI), overrun with activity and classes and work, occasionally bumping into the calm of the eye, but also loving the wind and the sea nonetheless.
3. What new things did you discover about yourself?
I think I discovered, to an extent, how much care I could muster for another group of human beings, in regards to my counselor group and later to some of my friends. I also discovered that, given the right environment and circumstances, my abilities to accomplish things and focus for long periods of time weren’t as limited as I thought they were. One of the perhaps most interesting things I discovered, was that I really enjoy the process of making food, although whether or not that’s dining hall whiplash is still up for debate. There’s probably plenty of other stuff too, but I just haven’t thought of or noticed it yet.
4. What single achievement are you most proud of?
I’m exceptionally proud of my counselor group winning the counselor cup. To be entirely fair, this has nothing really to do with anything I did and everything to do with my group’s intellectual prowess, but I also think that the sheer idea I had some form of impact on these people’s lives made me extremely attached to their success. I wrote last year in a blog about my life philosophy that “I am [more] proud of my friends than I am of myself” and I think that is still kind of true in a lot of ways, but it comes out especially when I think about “my kids.”
5. What was the best news you received?
I got plenty of good news this year: acceptance to colleges, Presidential Scholars, every single round where I was still “up” in International Extemp at qualifiers, the list goes on and on, and its length is one of the reasons this year has seemed so positive, in a lot of different ways. Since this was the only piece of information I automatically qualified as “some of the best news I have ever received”, however, I have to go with getting the counselor position for RSI 2019.
6. What was your favorite place that you visited in 2019?
New York City—there was just so much of it, and although it didn’t seem like a place I’d be happy living in, it was a place where my two friends and I could just get lost in the splendor and the utter insanity of it all, because although Boston is a city, New York is a city. I’ve always felt like Boston was very walkable, and New York, it turns out, is not, but somehow it is just as dense if not more. This I found to be kind of insane, and I’d love to go back and see a few more things, because I feel like I could keep going back as a tourist for many, many years and I wouldn’t get bored.
7. Which of your personal qualities turned out to be the most helpful this year?
I think my ability to sit down and just look at a problem and just think and tackle it from multiple angles, whether the problem was on a problem set or a real-world problem, really helped me this year, because it allowed me to adapt to and react to new situations and concerns without being immediately overwhelmed with anxiety and eventually resolve issues. Perhaps a good summary word for this is practicality; I love the theoretical and considering ideas in the abstract, but I am also not useless when faced with practical problems, either.
8. Who was your number one go-to person that you could always rely on?
Definitely SyKi at the beginning of the year, probably ShSr during RSI (but also all of staff), and almost definitely LaLi during the parts of MIT which have elapsed so far.
9. Which new skills did you learn?
10. What, or who, are you most thankful for?
I think this is a good sign for the kind of person I am, but as long as you ask me this question, the answer is going to be friends. Perhaps the only other nouns that could even come close are family, life, and freedom, all of which I certainly appreciate a lot, but do not come to my mind first when asked this question. They've carried me through some rough times, and dealt with a lot of me being dumb and/or weird.
11. If someone wrote a book about your life in 2019, what kind of genre would it be? A comedy, love story, drama, film noir or something else?
Maybe I’m not creative enough and just love the genre far too much, or maybe this is the stage in my life where this is the correct choice, but I keep choosing a realistic fiction, coming-of-age story, as was chosen in 2018 and 2017. I’m still coming to terms with my existence and I’m still growing, and maybe eventually as a character I will stabilize enough to go through something else. At the very least, I think this chapter of my life has been much more positive than the previous chapters, which I compared to Catcher in the Rye and deemed “mildly depressing”.
12. What was the most important lesson you learnt in 2019?
I learned that there do exist situations where sometimes I need to conserve my bandwidth. I suppose that I already knew this, to some extent: obviously, sometimes there is just not enough time in the day and things conflict, but I also ran dangerously close to overspending my emotional bandwidth at some points during the school year, and I’ll stay clear of that from now on. Of course, I’m still pretty confident that I have not fully reached work capacity yet, so we’ll see how that goes in 2020.
13. Which mental block(s) did you overcome?
I overcame a significant amount of worry—I think, on the whole, my anxiety levels and depression are much lower than have been previously. I also overcame some level of impostor syndrome, although I realize that a lot of it is more sinister now—a lot of how I feel about how things went are colored by some odd feeling that I ought to be struggling, when in reality that claim is perhaps less true than it seems.
14. What 5 people did you most enjoy spending time with?
*squints at the text* what does this squiggly symbol that looks like an ‘s’ mean?
This list is absolutely too long, but here goes (in alphabetical order0:
AbHa, AcBi, AmLi, AnZa, CaKo, CaMe, CoTa, CJQu, HLKi, JeLi, LaLi, literally all of RSI 2019 (incl. staff), MaCl, MoLa, ShJo, SyKi, ShSr, ToZh, TrSh, WeWu, and probably plenty of other people I’m forgetting.
This list is absolutely too long, but here goes (in alphabetical order0:
AbHa, AcBi, AmLi, AnZa, CaKo, CaMe, CoTa, CJQu, HLKi, JeLi, LaLi, literally all of RSI 2019 (incl. staff), MaCl, MoLa, ShJo, SyKi, ShSr, ToZh, TrSh, WeWu, and probably plenty of other people I’m forgetting.
15. What was your biggest break-through moment school/career-wise?
Obviously, getting accepted to college certainly is a pretty big “breakthrough” moment, although I also struggle to see it as something within my control, especially given the context of the year. I think after my first midterm (or maybe first few midterms) when I sat down and finally felt like, “maybe I can handle this better than I thought” was also a little bit of a paradigm shift, and I tackled the rest of the semester not as threatening, but simply as something to do, which was nice.
16. How did your relationship to your family evolve?
I think I’ve slowly gained more equal footing with my parents (although obviously I am still very dependent on them, both legally and financially), in some senses, and gotten more able to talk with them in a fashion similar to my peers than I was before. I’ve definitely gotten a lot more independent, but in some ways I’m more attached to them than ever in the moments we are together. (Of course, over time, it does get slightly annoying, but sometimes that’s how it goes.) I also think the household itself is changing a little now that I’m gone, but we’ll see how it plays out with time.
17. What book or movie affected your life in a profound way?
This one has to go to "Bao", which I mentioned in at least five blogs this year. There’s just so much to it and I think in many ways it’s really changed the way I look at how I interact with and care for my parents. I’m not sure how much it’s changed my actual actions, per se, but I’m sure it’s done at least a little bit, and my perspective on it compared to others crystallized to me the difference between myself and perhaps some of the other Chinese-American students at MIT.
18. What was your favorite compliment that you received this year?
A simple one that was quite significant to me was from my mentor, which was just “I like the way you’re thinking”, because (in context) it was a pretty significant form of validation from a higher-up. I was also once described as “the kind of person that his friends approach when they need someone to listen to them talk about their problems”; although I’m not yet sure if I quite live up to that ideal, that kind of person is, in some ways, the ideal I seek to achieve.
19. What little things did you most enjoy during your day-to-day life?
I loved singing in the hallways without too much worry about people judging me; being able to collapse on the communal couches and beanbags of the main lounge in 4W and lie there, before working there with others late into the night. Earlier in the year, I think I really loved driving around town, able to move myself from here to there relatively quickly and without much physical exertion or being subject to the outdoors, and the freedom of having an open schedule for me to do whatever I could with.
20. What cool things did you create this year?
I assisted in making a HackMIT project designed to better organize information about various medical tourism destinations, which ended up winning a special award! I made a Playbill for RSI 2019’s talent show which I am particularly proud of. I wrote the most words I ever have in a sprint for NaNoWriMo at the start of a novella which, although nowhere near complete, shows some amount of promise.There are probably more cool things I’ve made, and I would like to make even more things if possible, but I may or may not have the time and/or the skill.
21. What was your most common mental state this year (e.g. excited, curious, stressed)?
I think my most common mental state this year was mild concern. I definitely wasn’t as stressed as last year, but I don’t think I can ever be truly “care-free” in the sense of without any worries, so a gentle layer of concern sort of blanketed the year, spiking in some places and very briefly disappearing on some extraordinary days.
22. Was there anything you did for the very first time in your life this year?
Cheap answer, but I did my very first semester at MIT! I also placed in varsity extemporaneous speaking, visited the White House, toured New York City, stayed awake for 24 continuous hours, among a variety of other things. Perhaps more significantly, however, although I didn’t feel like it or notice it at first, I’ve finally let a place and a community supplant my notion of ‘home’, and during winter break I’ve caught myself storming off and unironically saying “I’m going home” in reference to MIT.
23. What was your favorite moment spent with your friends?
My ability to choose one “favorite moment” wanes with each year—last year, there were two; this year: driving around town to various places in formal wear before and after prom with the robotics team; sitting on the edge of the Potomac talking to people about systemic injustice and other associated topics at 2 AM; finishing the summerbook after days of work with the rest of the RSI staff and then going to iHop in triumph and eating and talking as the sun rose; going to New York City with CaKo and HiAn and walking and taking the Metro everywhere we could fit into something like 12 hours; every time I walked into LaLi’s room and started talking about random, vaguely deep subjects with her and whoever else was present; going to Chinatown to have dim sum with upperclassmen late in the semester, and then practicing singing on the way back; going to Putz with ShJo and making food with people I had never met before and just hanging out on a different portion of campus with different kinds of people; having Secret Santa with 4W late in the semester and finally feeling that I was home, in its entirety, with all of my friends who lived in my wing around me.
24. What major goal did you lay the foundations for?
I laid the foundations for succeeding, in a broad sense, at MIT. Since I have yet to find a “higher calling” or really have any sort of idea what I will be doing after college, I don’t think I really have a major goal past that; hopefully, one will eventually reveal itself.
25. Which worries turned out to be completely unnecessary?
I was definitely worried about not being able to handle MIT—about being beaten down by the people around me in their infinite intelligence and wisdom, as well as not being able to handle the coursework. (Similarly, last year when I wrote this, I found that completely unnecessary worries were “about being completely outclassed or not fitting in at RSI.”) Instead, I’ve found that, apart from deep technical topics, I’m pretty capable of following and, occasionally, even leading conversations.
26. What experience would you love to do all over again?
Bring me back Presidential Scholars. Those 48 hours of meeting and talking to so many different people about so many different things and going through so many insane events from shaking hands with the Secretary of Education to being invited to the White House to witnessing the Presidential Scholars in the Arts—it’s a whole other world out there, it truly is. I still occasionally text AmZh and AdKw, and to imagine that I met them over the course of 48 hours is insane to me.
27. What was the best gift you received?
I have received so many good gifts this year, but, to be perfectly honest, nothing can beat the gifts I got from my counselor group at RSI at the end of it all: a mug that says “today’s goal: keep the tiny humans alive” and a pillow with a map of the world and all of their signatures on it. It. I think these are actually my most treasured possessions out of everything I own, and I hope that many years down the line I’ll be in a place of my own and they’ll still remind me of everything I did this summer.
28. How did your overall outlook on life evolve?
I think my outlook on life is relatively similar to where it was last year, albeit slightly more settled, now that I’m starting college and not ending high school. The stability of the next few years gives me a great base to grow from, and although I am still not confident in the future, I think I’m probably about as optimistic as I’ll ever be.
29. What was the biggest problem you solved?
I struggle to think of an answer to this question. Maybe I'm not doing enough large-scale and continuous work for me to have large-scale problems and eventually, piece-by-piece solve them yet. The most painful process and the largest joint task which I was responsible for organizing this year was probably the RSI Summerbook, the creation of which took many, many counselor work hours. The system we used to create it was not particularly efficient, and the whole thing was riddled with problems, but eventually it was completed.
30. What was the funniest moment of your year, one that still makes it hard not to burst out laughing when you think about it?
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| rendering courtesy of LaLi; tys, I'm 'B' |
The moment I realized the existence of this graph, and the ensuing memes and hilarity, including this excellent LaTeX rendition by LaLi. As to what it means? That’s a question for someone else to answer.
31. What purchase turned out to be the best decision ever?
I will continually advocate for the 0.25mm hexagonal pens from MUJI that I bought overseas. Those pens are the best fine point pens that I have ever used—they are small, but they are smooth. (There are probably better ones on the market, but these were also cheap.) I also think the H-mart certificates I bought during RSI were a very good decision since I can go there anytime and buy whatever fruits, vegetables, or ingredients I want, although the distance to Next House is somewhat prohibitive.
32. What one thing would you do differently and why?
I might have chosen to take slightly harder classes, and probably studied more for the Advanced Standing Exams—especially, now that I think about it, Chemistry, since its time in my schedule exactly overlapped with other classes I could’ve been taking, and it bore little relevance to the rest of my academic interests. Not passing out of multivariable was probably fine—it definitely helped solidify my knowledge, and I will probably find the basic knowledge and skills gained good to have as I move forwards in other math classes—but chemistry? Kind of unfortunate.
33. What do you deserve a pat on the back for?
I think I managed to tackle freshman fall head-on in a way that not many other people are able to pull off. Part of it is certainly my background, which has helped me get through a lot of classes without much problem, and next semester should be harder, but getting settled in and doing decently well in classes without sacrificing too much on the activities or friends side was a great proof-of-concept for what I can accomplish with my time here. The saying goes: “Work, sleep, family, fitness, or friends—pick three.” Although each aspect of this (especially fitness) was occasionally sacrificed, I think I managed to at least somewhat walk the tightrope between all of them.
34. What activities made you lose track of time?
Spending time talking to people was definitely one of the things that made me lose track of time and usually stay up way later than was healthy. I suppose that this may not be sustainable next semester, but this semester especially I made the decision that, on principle, talking to other people was worth significantly more than most other activities, and to never regret sacrificing x activity to talk with others. This was, as far as I can tell, a good strategy, both because it helped me make close friends, but also because it just taught me so much about other people’s stories. I think this was something I really began to care about last year from RSI, and I’m glad to see it continue in my life. The only other thing I will list here is karaoke. I love karaoke and if there's an event on campus that has it I will probably be there.
35. What did you think about more than anything else?
The future. At the beginning of the year, this meant ‘where will I be going to college?’ Now, it contains a whole barrage of questions: What am I going to study? What classes am I going to take? What do I want to do with my life? What’s the best way to get from point A to point B? What should I do to best fill my résumé, and what for? I’m not sure I have answers to a lot of these questions, and for the most part I think that’s okay. That doesn’t mean, however, I don’t really think about them a lot.
36. What topics did you most enjoy learning about?
I enjoyed learning about other people’s perspectives on various questions of philosophy and life in general, from both Greek texts like the Nicomachean Ethics and the Republic and from the people around me. I also think that the passion of various teachers and a little bit of innate curiosity really helped me enjoy learning about a few small things that were a little out of my comfort zone or my interests: linguistics, chemistry, differential forms, etc. It didn’t really matter too much as to the topic; as long as it was vaguely in my zone of proximal development and the teacher was good, I probably enjoyed learning about it.
37. What new habits did you cultivate?
I blogged every day* of this year. (* the days being cutoff by my sleep schedule, of course, and not the rotation of the Earth.) I'm not sure if there's anything I do quite as habitually—I started taking notes in LaTeX and began staying up consistently later, but this was not true for all circumstances or throughout the year.
38. What advice would you give your early-2019 self if you could?
Things will be fine—don’t underestimate yourself and just keep working hard with the full knowledge that everything will be alright.
39. Did any parts of yourself or your life do a complete 180 this year?
My attitude about food has finally gone from “consumption of food is overrated” to “food is good”, which is a new (and presumably better) stage in my life. I think I also have gone from someone who is relatively shy and introverted to someone who is much louder and more expressive, although this change is about a year and a half in the making. There are probably more things that have also changed, but they are no longer noticed.
40. What or who had the biggest positive impact on your life this year?
I think this answer could really be either my RSI counselor group—who gave my life meaning for six weeks this summer and taught me how to be someone who really, deeply cared for others and was eternally supportive and never gave up—or my friend group—who were usually the main perpetrators in making my life enjoyable and entertained deep talks where we worked towards building personal philosophies (or at least, my own).
Looking Forwards
1. What do you want the overarching theme for your 2020 to be?
Ascent. I don’t there’s anything about my current trajectory that’s particularly concerning, apart from the existence of possibly better ones (and, in general, I’ve decided that additional optimizing is probably too much stress for marginal gain), and so, with due luck, 2020 will be a trend upwards, using current systems to learn more, gain more experience, and possibly test the limits of what I might be able to accomplish.
2. What do you want to see, discover, explore?
I want to see my counselor group again, hopefully in Cambridge in the fall, and more of Boston and the area around MIT; discover more interesting things in my classes and my activities; and explore my academic interests and the opportunities that MIT has to offer its students outside of classes.
3. Who do you want to spend more time with in 2020?
I want to spend more time with people in general; I think it would be nice to go a little out of my comfort zone and meet new people who are different from me and my friends and have different ideas about the world and how to approach it, but I also feel like I don't spend enough time with others as a whole, friends or strangers.
4. What skills do you want to learn, improve or master?
I think I’d still like to write more and write (hopefully) better, and I’d also like to work more on various forms of music, whether it be singing, violin, or piano. I’d also like to just generally create more direction in my life, so that when I do things I do them for some purpose (which can be personal enjoyment!) and not just because they exist. A little more time-management skill might be helpful, but, for the most part, things are going well on that front.
5. Which personal quality do you want to develop or strengthen?
I want to develop my ability to block out the world around me and focus—I occasionally find myself able to distract myself with work, leave my phone somewhere else, and leave all matter of social media closed on my laptop, and when I do, my productivity is glorious, with hours of work on end possible. However, I find that this is not always the case, and I would like for it to happen more often. With perhaps marginally higher efficiency, I might be able to do significantly more of what I would like to do.
6. What do you want your everyday life to be like?
I’d like to be busy—as I quoted in Un-numbered I, “Busy doesn't mean happy. I know that. But at least I'm not bored. Being bored is the worst." I mean it in a different way than I did last year, though, when I said the same thing: rather than being busy with my own things, which I often find limited energy motivation for, I’d like to be busy being part of communities working towards certain goals (Asymptones, Think, etc.) and to be busy learning things, although I’d certainly like to maintain a level of reading and writing on my own.
7. Which habits do you want to change, cultivate or get rid of?
I’d like to try and be healthier, both sleep and exercise-wise. It’s not as if I don’t have time during my day to exercise, and I’m pretty sure doing so would also help me sleep at a more reasonable time than occasionally happened during this year. I was able to keep a pretty good sleep schedule at the beginning of fall semester, so I’m sure that can be set up again with some effort. I don't think I have any particular qualms about any other habits or the lack thereof. I might start trying to consistently use Google Calendar and Todoist, but this is as of yet unclear.
8. What do you want to achieve school-wise?
Part of me is still clinging on to that 5.0 GPA dream, but we’ll see how that goes. My main goal is to not shy away from taking classes that interest me, and to immerse myself in challenging classes. I want to find the limit of my academic load (after balancing against activities, of course), since this will help me judge essentially the rest of my semesters at MIT, where hopefully I can operate at something like 70-80% to be busy, but not on the edge of being burnt out.
9. How do you want to remember the year 2020 when you look back on it 10/20/50 years from now?
I'm not sure yet. I don't think I want it to be particularly extraordinary, but rather just another building block as part of the conglomerate of "college."
10. What is your number one goal for 2020?
My goal for 2020 is to build a stable base for myself at MIT, while also being unafraid to try new things, working from a foundation towards whatever is out there.
Lookback on 2019 Goals
Initial Goals:
1.
Mixed success. The blog continues. The novella which was previously mentioned in this goal has disappeared, and a new one has taken its place, which I was writing daily for a brief period of time, before it, too, took a hiatus. Poetry writing is at a complete standstill, save for a few bits here and there (after the initial push, that is).
2.
Mixed success. I’m definitely still involved and interested in music in a lot of different ways, so I think the spirit of the goal is somewhat maintained. I definitely haven't learned the Fantasie Impromptu. Senior year Orchestra ended relatively well, and I've figured out that I want to spend most of my time with my violin playing in pit orchestras and in more casual situations, although part of me still yearns for an orchestra. I think I've gotten a lot better at singing harmony parts (and high notes!) with the Asymptones as well, so that's pretty good.
3. Get accepted at Georgia Tech, and then get at least two acceptances out of Harvard, Stanford, Columbia, Yale, MIT, and UChicago. (Although, to be fair, I won’t really be able to do much about this during 2019.) Don’t get whatever offers you do have rescinded.
Success. Honestly, I don't think this goal was very useful, given that I didn't really do anything this year to affect it, but at the very least it was achieved and surpassed.
4. Establish organizational structures that will make getting things done a near certainty, and have some sort of concept as to how productive you are during a day. (In doing this, however, also make sure you’re not over-extending yourself or burning your motivation out too much.)
Mixed success. I actually have time-tracking data from across the semester and from the first five months of the year, so I’m not unimpressed with this performance. I also don’t think I really ever screwed up too hard on making sure things got done, but I also know that I am not as organized as I could be, having dropped the usage of my planner halfway through a semester and sort of moving through other task management systems like a vagrant instead of settling myself down.
5.
This is mixed, for a variety of reasons. I trained one policy debater who is now training other novices, which is nice, although I don't think I really created this sustainable environment, nor do I think the training I gave to pass down is particularly good. However, policy on the state circuit itself is ending after this year (or something like that), so I don't necessarily think that I am really totally liable for a lack of sustainability.
6. Make National Science Bowl for the last time!
This was a success, although I ended up not attending NSB for FRC Worlds.
7. Turn over a new leaf at the start of college, without being shy or overly hesitant about my identity—make friends, try new things, and learn!
Mostly successful. I think I have definitely made a lot of new friends here, as well as deepening friendships with people I already knew, although my expectations of accomplishing this through my pre-orientation program and Concourse were probably too high. I'm not actually sure if I've "learned" too much new content, but I've definitely inserted myself into a lot of new things that I wouldn't have done otherwise, and I definitely think I have been much more open and friendly than I was previously, so I think I can be reasonably proud of that.
8. Read at least 10 books outside of school this year.
I read 15, so this was successful! (I am surprised because I do not reading this much recently.) I might have gotten 20 if I hadn't gotten lazy towards the end of the year, but alas, sometimes you can't get everything you want.
9. Take some edX courses this year.
Failure. Nope. Studying enough now in classes which can challenge me sufficiently on their own, and I think there are probably better things I can be doing on my free time.
10. Exercise...?
Mostly unsuccessful. I haven’t exercised in the strict sense of the word, although God knows that I’ve done a ton of walking this year, from RSI to the daily trek to and from Next House. Between September 1st and November 30th (the last time I pulled this data), I averaged 10800 steps per day, which is not bad, especially given it doesn't include PE classes, which I took the first two quarters of the year and enjoyed for the most part. As a strict regime or goal of creating a habit of some kind, however, nothing of the sort happened this year.
11. Have fun!
Mostly successful. Across the year, I did a lot of really enjoyable things and chose a lot of things for personal enjoyment. Occasionally, during the school year (both the end of senior year and the start of MIT), I found myself in an emotional state which was not too healthy and kind of just floating there, but, at least at MIT, I’d often find at least something different and fun during the weekend to occupy my time.
2020 Goals
1.
2. Maintain a consistent system for keeping track of events and activities that is not abandoned on a whim in favor of using your brain, which is occasionally forgetful.
3.
4. Choose to take classes simply because they are interesting, and do your best to not shy away from challenging classes as well.
5. Continue to be involved with music in various ways—pit orchestras, singing, learning to play some additional amount of piano on one’s own time, etc.—find things that are challenging but you do because you enjoy them.
6. Take up additional writing projects—complete the NaNoWriMo story, and move on to create new and different forms of writing, whether through the means of your classes or on your own time.
7.
9.
10. Have fun!
Academics
High school ended: I graduated from Stevens High School with a 4.0 unweighted GPA, a 4.3 something weighted GPA, and number one in the class, although the A in AP Bio was by the smallest of margins.
MIT started—and went relatively well—I passed all my classes (which is the best you can do on Pass/No Record), and, had I been on grades, would’ve gotten all ‘A’s too, which is nice to know. I’m not sure yet how I’m going to approach the next few semesters: whether to overload myself with classes and in what subjects (a diverse range or a highly technical focus), but next semester should elucidate that. I’m not sure exactly how much I learned, but I definitely learned some, and solidified others, so this was good.
This semester, I took:
2.UR Undergraduate Research in Mechanical Engineering
UROP at the Multidisciplinary Simulation, Estimation and Assimilation Systems (MSEAS) group in the Center for Ocean Engineering/Department of Mechanical Engineering; I was continuing work from the past few summers, and although I didn’t accomplish too much, the new methodology and our continued work should give us some interesting results in the coming few months, as long as I continue to work here. My lab group is also really friendly and really funny, so it’s a great environment to have as well.
6.042 Math for Computer Science: no grade as of yet, but I also had over 100%, so...
Some introductory discrete mathematics techniques and proof-writing, especially in relation to subjects important to theoretical computer science. A lot of my “competition math” background helped me get through the vast majority of the subjects, and I ended up doing pretty well in the class as a whole, since anything new which was introduced was pretty easy to integrate into my existing knowledge. I also LaTeXed the notes for this class, which was interesting, but means I have a digitized copy of notes already, and I’m interested in continuing to do this.
18.022 Calculus (Multivariable): A+
Multivariable calculus! I had forgotten a lot of the back half of multivariable calculus, which I had learned last fall. This was a useful review of the concepts, solidifying my general understanding and introducing me to some more complex ideas, like differential forms and the Implicit Function Theorem. The professor was also fun, occasionally a little mean, but helped us develop some fundamental understandings of various ideas of mathematics, ending the class with the idea that, on the whole, mathematics is just abstraction.
24.93 The Search for Meaning
A 2-unit discovery class on semantics and the meanings of words. This class was super fun and pretty interesting in regards to learning a little more about linguistics than I already knew. I really don’t think I’ll have the ability or time to really take any additional linguistics classes anytime soon, but it was nice to have, and its lack of assignments meant I was also able to just take notes and participate in other shenanigans throughout the semester.
CC.010 Concourse Seminar: P
Seminar for Concourse, the humanities learning community that I am in, where we had weekly readings, and then discussions over lunch about various questions relating to those readings. Some of these were fine, others were long and overly abstruse. The conversations I had at the tables were nice, in that they helped me learn a little more about all the people in Concourse, but the arguments some individuals made just had no actual meaning or consistency whatsoever and it really annoyed me.
CC.110 Becoming Human: Greek Perspectives on the Good Life: A
An introductory political philosophy class focused on Greek philosophers and their views on virtue, justice, happiness, etc. We read the Clouds, the Apology, and then some chapters of the Republic, the Symposium, the Nicomachean Ethics, and the Politics. I found that both the literature analysis skills from AP Lit and argument analysis skills from debate helped me out a lot in writing reasonably good essays for this class, and although I’m not sure how much of it is actually applicable to anything I want to do in the future, some of the views on happiness, friendship, etc. seemed like a good way of looking at life.
CC.5111 Chemistry: A+
In retrospect, this class was exceptionally similar to AP Chemistry, with the addition of a few subjects, such as crystal field theory, molecular orbital theory, and enzyme kinetics. Given my background with AP Chem, I found it almost unsatisfyingly easy, which was kind of disappointing, although the professor’s enthusiasm for teaching the subject made reabsorbing the material reasonably enjoyable, so much so that I seriously considered taking organic chemistry with them in the spring semester.
Next semester, I plan on taking:
6.08 Introduction to EECS via Interconnected Embedded Systems
This is an ‘Introductory’ subject for EECS, so it’s one of the requirements no matter which (CS-adjacent) major I end up as, and it has a reasonably high rating with an interesting subject, so I thought it would be a good class to take. This is especially true given that I have some previous experience with Internet of Things-type sensor networks, so it should also build upon/reinforce that knowledge.
18.100B Real Analysis
This is the more theoretical version of real analysis, which is MIT Mathematics’ introduction to proofwriting class. I’m taking this class in order to see how well I can actually handle pure mathematics and the content seems reasonably interesting, and because it’s a prerequisite for 18.701 (Algebra I), a class I’m planning to take next fall.
21G.703 Spanish III
I didn’t want all of my high school Spanish knowledge to go to waste via disuse, so I’m probably going to take up to at least Spanish IV, since afterwards MIT allows you to apply for a lot more study abroad opportunities and whatnot in Spanish-speaking countries. We’ll see how it goes—if it’s actually exciting, I might end up pursuing even more Spanish classes from here on out.
21M.401 Concert Choir*
This is by audition only, and I’m still considering whether or not I actually want to do it, but this will help me get the feel of performance-based classes in the music department; whether or not I enjoy this will probably decide whether or not I want to look at a music minor/concentration, or even possibly audition for Chamber Chorus (although I honestly don’t think I’m good enough for that).
21W.755 Reading and Writing Short Stories
I’m finally starting to take writing classes! I’ve never taken a formal class in creative writing, so this will certainly be interesting, but obviously one has to take writing classes to be a writing major. I’m not sure if I’ll like it or not, since often I find that my creativity comes in random bursts, but one class can’t hurt.
CC.011 Concourse Seminar
Same as last semester, although this time it has less readings apparently, so hopefully it’ll be marginally more bearable.
CC.802 Physics II
This is a General Institute Requirement, and it’s a corequisite with 6.08, so I might as well take it now, especially since I’m required to take at least one Concourse class this semester. This is also my last Science GIR, so I'm glad that's out of the way so quickly as well.
Over IAP, I’m doing an externship at Brain Power, a startup which works with educational technology for students with autism, which should be very interesting, and help me develop my programming skills in a real environment.
MIT started—and went relatively well—I passed all my classes (which is the best you can do on Pass/No Record), and, had I been on grades, would’ve gotten all ‘A’s too, which is nice to know. I’m not sure yet how I’m going to approach the next few semesters: whether to overload myself with classes and in what subjects (a diverse range or a highly technical focus), but next semester should elucidate that. I’m not sure exactly how much I learned, but I definitely learned some, and solidified others, so this was good.
This semester, I took:
2.UR Undergraduate Research in Mechanical Engineering
UROP at the Multidisciplinary Simulation, Estimation and Assimilation Systems (MSEAS) group in the Center for Ocean Engineering/Department of Mechanical Engineering; I was continuing work from the past few summers, and although I didn’t accomplish too much, the new methodology and our continued work should give us some interesting results in the coming few months, as long as I continue to work here. My lab group is also really friendly and really funny, so it’s a great environment to have as well.
6.042 Math for Computer Science: no grade as of yet, but I also had over 100%, so...
Some introductory discrete mathematics techniques and proof-writing, especially in relation to subjects important to theoretical computer science. A lot of my “competition math” background helped me get through the vast majority of the subjects, and I ended up doing pretty well in the class as a whole, since anything new which was introduced was pretty easy to integrate into my existing knowledge. I also LaTeXed the notes for this class, which was interesting, but means I have a digitized copy of notes already, and I’m interested in continuing to do this.
18.022 Calculus (Multivariable): A+
Multivariable calculus! I had forgotten a lot of the back half of multivariable calculus, which I had learned last fall. This was a useful review of the concepts, solidifying my general understanding and introducing me to some more complex ideas, like differential forms and the Implicit Function Theorem. The professor was also fun, occasionally a little mean, but helped us develop some fundamental understandings of various ideas of mathematics, ending the class with the idea that, on the whole, mathematics is just abstraction.
24.93 The Search for Meaning
A 2-unit discovery class on semantics and the meanings of words. This class was super fun and pretty interesting in regards to learning a little more about linguistics than I already knew. I really don’t think I’ll have the ability or time to really take any additional linguistics classes anytime soon, but it was nice to have, and its lack of assignments meant I was also able to just take notes and participate in other shenanigans throughout the semester.
CC.010 Concourse Seminar: P
Seminar for Concourse, the humanities learning community that I am in, where we had weekly readings, and then discussions over lunch about various questions relating to those readings. Some of these were fine, others were long and overly abstruse. The conversations I had at the tables were nice, in that they helped me learn a little more about all the people in Concourse, but the arguments some individuals made just had no actual meaning or consistency whatsoever and it really annoyed me.
CC.110 Becoming Human: Greek Perspectives on the Good Life: A
An introductory political philosophy class focused on Greek philosophers and their views on virtue, justice, happiness, etc. We read the Clouds, the Apology, and then some chapters of the Republic, the Symposium, the Nicomachean Ethics, and the Politics. I found that both the literature analysis skills from AP Lit and argument analysis skills from debate helped me out a lot in writing reasonably good essays for this class, and although I’m not sure how much of it is actually applicable to anything I want to do in the future, some of the views on happiness, friendship, etc. seemed like a good way of looking at life.
CC.5111 Chemistry: A+
In retrospect, this class was exceptionally similar to AP Chemistry, with the addition of a few subjects, such as crystal field theory, molecular orbital theory, and enzyme kinetics. Given my background with AP Chem, I found it almost unsatisfyingly easy, which was kind of disappointing, although the professor’s enthusiasm for teaching the subject made reabsorbing the material reasonably enjoyable, so much so that I seriously considered taking organic chemistry with them in the spring semester.
Next semester, I plan on taking:
6.08 Introduction to EECS via Interconnected Embedded Systems
This is an ‘Introductory’ subject for EECS, so it’s one of the requirements no matter which (CS-adjacent) major I end up as, and it has a reasonably high rating with an interesting subject, so I thought it would be a good class to take. This is especially true given that I have some previous experience with Internet of Things-type sensor networks, so it should also build upon/reinforce that knowledge.
18.100B Real Analysis
This is the more theoretical version of real analysis, which is MIT Mathematics’ introduction to proofwriting class. I’m taking this class in order to see how well I can actually handle pure mathematics and the content seems reasonably interesting, and because it’s a prerequisite for 18.701 (Algebra I), a class I’m planning to take next fall.
21G.703 Spanish III
I didn’t want all of my high school Spanish knowledge to go to waste via disuse, so I’m probably going to take up to at least Spanish IV, since afterwards MIT allows you to apply for a lot more study abroad opportunities and whatnot in Spanish-speaking countries. We’ll see how it goes—if it’s actually exciting, I might end up pursuing even more Spanish classes from here on out.
21M.401 Concert Choir*
This is by audition only, and I’m still considering whether or not I actually want to do it, but this will help me get the feel of performance-based classes in the music department; whether or not I enjoy this will probably decide whether or not I want to look at a music minor/concentration, or even possibly audition for Chamber Chorus (although I honestly don’t think I’m good enough for that).
21W.755 Reading and Writing Short Stories
I’m finally starting to take writing classes! I’ve never taken a formal class in creative writing, so this will certainly be interesting, but obviously one has to take writing classes to be a writing major. I’m not sure if I’ll like it or not, since often I find that my creativity comes in random bursts, but one class can’t hurt.
CC.011 Concourse Seminar
Same as last semester, although this time it has less readings apparently, so hopefully it’ll be marginally more bearable.
CC.802 Physics II
This is a General Institute Requirement, and it’s a corequisite with 6.08, so I might as well take it now, especially since I’m required to take at least one Concourse class this semester. This is also my last Science GIR, so I'm glad that's out of the way so quickly as well.
Over IAP, I’m doing an externship at Brain Power, a startup which works with educational technology for students with autism, which should be very interesting, and help me develop my programming skills in a real environment.
Most Impactful Previously Unexperienced Media
(i.e. musicals, podcasts, music, film, books, etc.)
· "Bao"
· A Chorus Line
· Side Show
· The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee
· Coco
· Goodwill Hunting
· Crazy Rich Asians (book)
· Call Me By Your Name (book)
· Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe
· The Slowdown (podcast)
· fun., Aim and Ignite
· Jonas Brothers, Happiness Begins
· Panic! At the Disco, Pray for the Wicked/Death of a Bachelor
· sodagreen
Blog Statistics
As of 10:27 AM MST on 1/1/2020, 230,409 words had been written and 372 posts had been posted during the year of 2019. Across all time, the blog had 29,709 pageviews and approximately 367 hours of read time.
Because of the existence of time-tracking and mood data, I had the opportunity to do some interesting additional data analysis this year. Based on self-reported data, on average, the happiest month of the year was July, and the least happy month of the year was January. On average, the day of the week I was the happiest was Saturday, and the least was Tuesday.
seven-day average of self-reported mood score with time
Similarly, based on time-tracking data (which excludes June-September, where it did not occur), the month with the highest average hours per day was November (7.47), and the lowest was December (2.85). The day of the week with the highest value was Tuesday (7.11) and the lowest was Sunday (3.20).
Finally, the month with the most average words published per day was October (971), and the least was July (365). The “wordiest” day of the week was Thursday (637), and the least was Saturday (514), where I presume I was doing other things.
Places I Visited: 12 States + China + DC
1. SD—I live here.
2. MN—Duluth FRC Regional, and flying back from MIT.
3. WY—On our way to CO.
4. CO—Denver FRC Regional, family trips, and flying out to China.
5. TX—DFW on the way to and from Detroit.
6. MI—FRC Worlds!
7. WA—SEA on the way to China.
*. China—two-week family visit.
8. MA—RSI, and I live here!
9. VA—DCA for Presidential Scholars.
*. DC—Presidential Scholars!
9. VA—DCA for Presidential Scholars.
*. DC—Presidential Scholars!
10. NY—LGA, returning to Boston, and the NYC trip!
11. IL—ORD, on the way from RSI and to MIT.
12. CT—Yale, and on the way to NYC.
101 Things To Do Before You Graduate
Every year for orientation, MIT gives all of its incoming freshmen a little poster consisting of 101 things you should do before you graduate. Since I’ve been in Boston before, I’ve decided to reset my counter and start anew, beginning from FPOP week (when I received this). As such, I will be tracking my progress on this every year, and possibly every semester if I remember to do so. This semester, I have done the following things, marked with the context of the first time they occurred and their number on the original sheet:
1. Participate in a UROP (MSEAS, #2)
2. Ace a test! (18.022 Midterm #1, #3)
3. Pass the swim test (Orientation, #5)
4. Use your MIT ID to get into the MFA for free (December w/ CaMe, #8)
5. Check out the view from the Institute of Contemporary Art (September w/ CJQu, #26)
6. Zip around the ice rink at Spooky Skate (October w/ LaLi+others, #27)
7. Go to an event advertised on the Infinite Corridor (Bi Awareness@Rainbow Lounge, #35)
8.
9. Enjoy a game of candlepin bowling (September w/ advising group, #39)
10. Visit the Boston Public Library (Math FPOP, #51)
11. Check out the penguins at the New England Aquarium (Orientation, #61)
12. Ride all of the lines on the MBTA (Green/Red: Math FPOP; Blue/Orange: Orientation, for Aquarium; Silver: September, w/ CJQu, #63)
13. Walk 364.4 (± one ear) smoots across the bridge (unknown, frequently occurs, #81)
14. Get yourself a bubble tea in Chinatown (Math FPOP @ Gong Cha, #83)
15. Go to an acapella concert (performed: Family Weekend, watched: Syncopasian, #86)
16. Volunteer for a campus event (MIT Science Bowl Invitational, #88)
17. Attend the Career Fair (September, #97)
17 out of 101 is not bad; we’ll see if we can keep it up as we go.
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