It feels good to be back in school! Impromptu chats in a friend's dorm room, somewhat embarrassingly sore legs from biking everywhere, and several trips to the bookstore and Target to decorate my room and get organized.
Reflecting on the first week of classes, I recognize a somewhat uncharacteristic calmness within myself. There is something magical about week one, and even more so, about fall quarter, being in a new dorm. I'm meeting new people, engaging with new topics in classes, and re-experiencing certain hallmarks of the beginning-of-school experience from an unfamiliar, slightly more elevated vantage point on the undergraduate ladder. I have time to vacuum, go to the grocery store to stock up on snacks, prepare for all my classes, and still have a social life!
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I could get used to this...
Here's the thing I'm realizing: when we don't have a "I just need to get through this _____ (class, day, week)" mindset, we let ourselves be truly present, pondering only our biggest hopes and brightest ambitions for the weeks to come, because they all seem possible. We should keep this spirit within us.
I'm not saying there won't be difficult weeks. College classes are challenging, and especially so with the quarter system, in which "midterm season" can stretch as far as from week three to week nine. But sometimes, we become complacent in this chaos, doing the bare minimum we can muster to stay afloat. Waking up tired feels normal to us, we rush to class, we tell ourselves we'll take better notes next week or review the reading that we only skimmed over that scarfed-down lunch. We stop thinking about ways to modify our routines. We put off doing our laundry for another day, or two. And most significantly, we may grow temporarily distant from friends, who can be our most valuable resource, and yet feel hard to reach given busy and incompatible schedules. It's ironic that as the season around us makes its most beautiful, dramatic transition of the year, we head somewhat less gracefully for hibernation mode.
During week one, on the other hand, we don't know what "works" for us yet, so we energetically pursue it. We shop different classes, we take different routes to get from point A to point B, and we introduce ourselves to new people. While we can't change the fact that things will start to move faster with each passing week, we can change the mindset we carry along with us.
So this quarter, I am challenging myself, as well as all of you, to be aware. Yes, stay on top of your workload, immerse yourselves in your extracurriculars, and, of course, go to class. But all the while, remind yourself that you are a priority: laugh with friends (outside of the context of how miserable a problem set may be rendering you), go for a nice, long walk alone listening to your favorite playlist, eat a meal slowly, without looking at a phone, TV, or laptop in front of you. Make sure everything that you choose to do is important to you, then do it well and do it fully.
Cheers to the new year; here's to all that is to come.
