My Kind-of Quarter-Life Crisis

My blog posts on here have become kinda preachy and annoying. Hm. I think it's a symptom of my increasing awareness of my (less than) 6 months left of teenager-hood. I'm not quite sure how the time got away from me, but like five seconds ago I was 17 and not sure what to do with my life and now I'm quickly approaching 20 and (again) I have even less of an idea of what I'm doing with my life. You might think that as a sophomore (with a definitively declared major, no less), I would maybe have a hold on things. Ha, you guessed wrong there.

You'll find that declaring your major makes you feel slightly better in that, on paper, you know where your life is headed. However, your major isn't definitive in that it doesn't exactly tell you what you're going to do with your life. I mean, Miuccia Prada has a P.h.D in Political Science, yet she participated in the women's rights movement, was a Communist Party member, a mime, and is now a prominent fashion designer. What does that even say about our major decisions? I'll tell you what it says to me: to limit what you want to do with your life by what you study in college is crazy. Of course, there are practical considerations (money, which is sadly a joke to an English major such as I).

But I like to think (the semi-idealist that I am) that you should not be bound to work in the field you studied in college. Do what you love, what you're good at, or what you're interested in. I see so many people choose majors based on future economic success. Pre-med is disgustingly over-enrolled. I'm not saying there aren't those who would enjoy that route. I'm just saying, do something you love. Even if it's impractical. You'll learn something anyway, and you'll be a lot happier. If you can't do what you love in college, I say don't bother. But that's coming from the privileged perspective of someone who doesn't pay for college at all, I guess.

The semi-amended version of this statement for the not-so-idealists is try something new. Try something you don't know if you'll like, or something that doesn't go towards one of the many GERs or P/D requirements or major requirements. You have electives. You have room in your schedule. Believe me, even as a double-major I have room for electives. The GERs and P/D requirements will expose you to some pretty great stuff, but there's always another language to learn, a philosophical theory to study, or a historical period to explore. There's dance classes (yoga is something I've been eyeing for awhile), literature courses, and a culture or religion you know nothing about.

There's more to life than figuring out what you want to do as a career. It's important to figure out who you want to be as a person. And that's what college is all about for me.

And that actually ended up being only half-preachy!

Erica

Namaste

Hey, everyone!

We actually had an almost full week of classes this week, and I definitely felt the tiredness. But next week will be the real full week. Yikes. But I'm ready to "attack" the semester. After two years, I like to think that I've got things under control, but life likes to surprise people (especially us poor, unsuspecting college students).

I've previously talked about my love for putting things up on the walls of my room. There's stuff up everywhere. I'm running out of white space. But I think it looks awesome. It's the culmination of three years of inspiration and lots of "Hey, I think this looks cool. Let's put it on the wall." I know that a lot of people decorate their dorms when they're college, but since I don't dorm, I'm missing out on that experience. I'm completely ok with it though. My room is much bigger than a dorm, which means I have more wall space to put things on. Also, if I dormed, I think I would miss all the cool things hanging on these walls.

The primary election was this week, and I voted! My last class that day ended at 6:50 P.M. so I had a good amount of time to get back to Brooklyn before the polls closed at 9 PM. The old voting machines (they're from the 1960's) were not as confusing as I thought they would be, but I heard there was some trouble with the machines in some other areas. The biggest story that came out of the primary was the continuing battle between Bill de Blasio and Bill Thompson. We still don't know who the Democratic mayoral candidate is, which is a bit frustrating. Also, I was surprised to see that Spitzer lost to Stringer. I guess his money wasn't enough to make people trust him. He's super intelligent though, and I really think he may have been the better comptroller.

I was sitting on the train on Wednesday morning on the way to my 8 AM physics class, and I was reading The Bhagavad Gita, which is part of a Hindu epic called Mahabharata. (My religion professor assigned the first few chapters for us to read for next week.) The man sitting next to me was an Orthodox Jew, and he was reading a  book written in Hebrew (which I assume was the Torah, but it could have been something else.) On the other side of me was a woman reading another book, but I'm not sure what it was about. I just thought it was the coolest thing that the three of us were sitting side by side reading three different texts at 7 AM on the train. Kinda awesome.

I had my first bio quiz for Bio 203 on Thursday. It was NOT easy. Sigh.

Some thoughts on DNA: People underestimate the complexity of DNA. They like to think that all the answers to a person's problems lie in their DNA. Maybe they do, but first we have to understand how to read it properly and that is not an easy thing. Also, people like to think that DNA is a concrete thing, and it is in many ways. But gene expression changes all the time, and we don't fully understand why or how.

Anyway, we're approaching mid-September. I'm looking forward to the crisp fall air that's soon to come.

I couldn't figure out what to call this week's featured phrase so I just called it "Meaning of the week". Every time I think about the meaning of "namaste", I want to quit saying "hello" to people and just say "namaste". It's so much more powerful.

S.

Meaning of the Week

Namaste

“I honor the place in you in which the entire universe dwells. I honor the place in you which is of love, of truth, of light and of peace. When you are in that place in you, and I am in that place in me, We are One.”

Late to the Party

Well, explaining my summer, that is. Hello friends, unlike the lead singer of The Ting Tings, my name is Stacey. I am a sophomore and my majors are Chinese & TBA (Economics??). As my sophomore fall starts, I am just beginning to get over my horrible jetlag. Here's why:

This past summer I spent eight weeks studying Mandarin in Taipei, Taiwan! Since I am a U.S. citizen and reached the intermediate-mid level on some speaking test, my tuition and airfare were covered completely by the flagship program, that’s right, $7,000 smackeroos.  

I studied at National Taiwan University (NTU), pictured above at sunset, which is one of the best universities on the island. (When you tell cab drivers you study there, they realize you’re actually smart and not some crazy foreigner, especially the white girl with dirty blond hair and green eyes aka me.)

The campus (above) was a total jungle (unlike the concrete jungle in which Hunter is located) and it was about 800% humidity every single day, but that’s all apart of the experience, adapting to your new surroundings, trying to fit in the best you can. We had tons of independence, lived in off campus apartments, used public transport, the whole nine yards. My favorite mode of transport was biking. Several friends and I signed up for the the bike share system, a super cheap way to see the city, get to class, as well as exercise.

One of the many night markets in Taipei

Obviously there was a whole lot of work, but it was totally worth it. My confidence speaking the language improved a crazy amount, even though I didn’t study as hard as I should of. Hey, I didn’t know when I’d be back so I spent a bit more time exploring than I should have. Ok, a lot more time, but there was so much to see in such little time!

My friends and I traveled all over the island, such as to Taroko National Park pictured above, and every last bit of every trip was planned and arranged by us, so clearly we used the language in “every day situations.”

I also gained like ten pounds since most of the food is so cheap, but now that I’m going to be healthy this semester (ha) I’ll loose it quick enough. (One of the school field trips was to Din Tai Fung, a famous Taiwanese restaurant, food shown above.)

View of Taipei 101 from a nearby mountain

This past summer was an unforgettable study abroad experience, and lucky me, I still have my Macaulay opportunities fund should I want to go abroad again! I think, I’m not so sure how it works, but it is def one awesome aspect of coming to this school.