Author: Vivian

Dear Vivian from 10 weeks ago,

I know you’re bummed that you won’t be getting a traditional experience for your first quarter of college. I want you to know that it’s going to be alright. Online classes won’t be all that dreadful. In fact, I think you’ll like the flexibility of online classes! Joining all those class group chats was a great idea. Don’t be afraid to ask your classmates for help, they’re all super nice. Everyone’s figuring things out just as you are. It’s also a good way to feel like you’re actually taking the same class as other students. It’s pretty easy to forget when you don’t have any live interaction with professors or peers. You’re going to miss that collaborative aspect of being in a classroom, but just remember that this isn’t forever. Don’t lose hope, you’ll be in an actual classroom again!

I know that you got super excited seeing all the great clubs at the Virtual Anteater Involvement Fair. I also know you got super sad knowing that you wouldn’t be able to participate in person. That’s okay, we’re making do with what we have. Keep going to club meetings, or at least try and go to half of them. I haven’t been really great at that recently, but the guest speaker meetings are really interesting! Be proactive and go to more club meetings next quarter!

You should really get a planner too. You’ve wasted wayyy too many post-it notes writing to-do lists. A planner would really quell your anxiety about accidently missing deadlines. It would also save your recycle bin from filling up so fast. Seriously. Go on Amazon, type in 2021 planner. Right. Now. 

Also, apply for internships! You have so much extra time on your hands playing video games during the ungodly hours of the night. Channel your energy into something productive. One plus about being in a global pandemic is that most internships are remote, so you can apply to companies all the way in New York! Take advantage of that; make good use of your time. Don’t get disappointed if you get rejected from an internship as well. Remember, if you’re not failing, you’re not pushing yourself hard enough! 

Last thing, don’t neglect your hobbies. Get back into playing guitar and editing videos. Don’t let school drain your personality and what makes you unique. Take some time to remember who you are and connect with yourself at the end of the day. 

Sincerely,

Vivian who has survived her first quarter of college

I’m sure most of you have read Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. It’s such a staple of academic “required reading” that I’d be surprised if a student hasn’t come across this book at least once in their academic career. Me, I’ve read it twice. Once in freshman year of high school–I definitely did not comprehend anything going on in the play as my youthful brain was not at all prepared to face Shakespearean text (Sparknotes was my best friend)–and again four years later in my freshman year of college for my humanities class. To get us acquainted with the play, the humanities core program invites Thomas Varga, an actor who has played Puck, the mischievous jester-fairy, in an actual production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, to speak with the students every year at one of our weekly Zoom Friday Forums. 

Now, I’ve only once dipped my toe in the thespian world during my senior year of high school when I was cast as an ensemble member for my school’s production of Macbeth (somehow my dreadful audition did not get me cut from the play). I would definitely consider myself a stranger to acting, but I am a huge admirer of those who can pull off such a difficult task. Listening to Mr. Varga speak about how he portrayed arguably one of the most complex and intriguing characters of the play was so eye-opening to me. Not only did this experience teach me more about the work we were studying in humanities core, but it also deepened my respect for actors.  One thing that caught my attention was how actors need to brainstorm backgrounds for their characters to fill in the gaps of what is not explained in the play. Before, I had never realized how little actors had to work with in their scripts. A Midsummer Night’s Dream is merely a two-hour play with a cast of multiple characters, whose backgrounds are not completely explained. Even the main characters don’t have fully fleshed out backstories! Mr. Varga explained that developing a story for his character, Puck, helped him to connect with the character and deliver a more believable performance–because a magical sprite is pretty hard to relate with as a human being!

This Zoom forum was such a great experience and I definitely recommend humanities core students to attend sessions like this to complement coursework and readings! If you’re not in humanities core, I still encourage you to attend Zoom meetings that feature guest speakers. I always find it so interesting to learn about someone else’s passions!

Your friend,

Vivian

My first college midterms weren’t all that bad! I’m not really sure why they’re called midterms because I took my calculus and econ exams during the third week… They should really do some rebranding and call them “tests” because the word midterm just generates anxiety in students everywhere. 

It’s been over six months since I’ve taken an academic test so I was pretty nervous about how much my study skills have degenerated but it seems they’re pretty well ingrained in me–as they should be after over a decade of schooling! To be honest, there wasn’t much to study for since it was only three weeks of material we were being tested on (granted, three weeks in college is a lot, but still). I think the real killer is going to be the cumulative final exam. Oh man, am I dreading that… But we’ll cross that bridge when we get to it.

I’ll be honest, taking exams remotely feels more scary than being in class. I have never trusted technology (and never will). You just never know when it’s going to flake out on you and it just never works the way you want it to! During my calculus exam, which was taken with a lockdown browser–that basically means you can’t open any other tabs and you’re monitored through audio and camera–the page took forever to load when I clicked on the “take test button”. I freaked out and kept clicking on the refresh button but nothing was happening. Frantically, I restarted my laptop and logged back in to take the exam and it finally worked. That was the scariest few minutes of my life because I thought I had gotten locked out and been given an automatic 0. I kind of feel like an old person complaining about this new fangled technology, but it shouldn’t be trusted! You would know if you’ve ever watched an episode of Black Mirror.

Thankfully, those few minutes lost didn’t hurt me too bad and I did well on the exam (by my standards). I didn’t ace it, but math is truly not my strong suit so I’ll settle gladly for my score. I like to think that I did good because I studied hard but ALSO because I was wearing my penguin jammies. I bet my proctor had a good laugh from that. How can anything go wrong when you’re dressed like a penguin! This is me recommending that you take all your exams in a penguin pajamas. Do it! What do you have to lose? It’s super comfortable too, which never hurts during a big scary test! Anyways, I hope you all do well on your exams!

All the best,

Your local penguin jammy wearer

Being stuck at home for months on end has my brother and I hankering for new kinds of foods. My mom’s cooking has gotten quite repetitive (no offense mom), so the two of us decided to take matters into our own hands. We’ve decided to try out new online recipes for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. They’re pretty easy and convenient recipes but are definitely getting us through this slump in taste-bud town. 

So far we’ve made Tuscan white bean pasta, lemon berry yogurt breakfast bowls, creamy black bean taquitos, and a delicious chili cornbread skillet! If you’re not much of a chef but still want super easy and tasty meals, I definitely recommend checking out this website for some recipes:https://www.budgetbytes.com/ . If I, a very amateur cook can make these with some degree of success so can you! 

Cooking has  been something I’ve been getting into since I realized I was going to be on my own in the world pretty soon. A scary thought, I know, but a girl has got to eat! I’m not the biggest foodie and never really cared much for the “tastiness” of the food I’m eating but somehow making my own meals taste a lot better than store-bought meals. I think the fact that I put so much effort into something adds to the flavor in a magical way. I’ve also found that I really enjoy baking various things for my family. I get a little spark of joy every time my dad reaches for an extra cranberry scone.

I remember in AP lang that dinner scenes in literature can viewed as acts of communion that bring people together. Through my experiences in cooking with my brother and baking things for my family, I’ve found that to be true even in real life. Food can definitely bring people close together. I would definitely recommend getting some cooking experience while you can–it can have a lot of surprising benefits–in addition to keeping you from starving!