A Crazy … & Precious Semester

It’s funny how when told to describe an experience, we often say it was a crazy experience, but also precious wasn’t it? But we never add that statement till much later.

I have just finished my first semester at Columbia University in the City of New York. How did I end up here? A wonder.

This past semester has been one of my most difficult semesters. I remember times, where four or five deadlines all came crashing down into one day. Running from meeting to meeting and sleeping at three or four AM to just finish work. Six classes (two of which are graduate level) and two clubs has taken its toll on my appetite and health.

I want to do everything. I want to read books for fun. Study and do well in all my classes, taking everything my professors have to offer. Take all the design, art, and architecture classes. Partake in social justice. To exercise, to learn to draw, to take photographs, to write poetry, and to learn to write Chinese, to learn to speak Japanese, and to want to know Hindi. And spend time with the people that matter, and open your heart to the new ones out there. Is there a thing as wanting to do everything?

My knowledge of this world has expanded to the edges of the confines that which held me before. I have learnt so much about this world, the reality of it, and how to envision myself in the future of it. It wasn’t until taking a class taught by the CEO of Frog Design that I realized what professionalism looks like in other fields besides research. Oh, how much more learning and doing I have to do. It wasn’t until I took engineering classes, that I came to the forefront of how intricately money drives all our innovations. In an unfortunate way, how money drives this world.

The future is limitless yet I am reminded to root myself in the soil of this Earth. To remind myself of not only where I came from in this lifespan, but the billions of years of molecular evolution for this very moment to come into beautiful existence.

I will take all that I have learned and build skills to become capable of helping people, to carry out my dream that I made to myself those many years ago. Here is the place to do it, and I’m so happy I’m here. Let’s work harder next semester.