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A letter to me from 10 weeks ago

Dear me in the past,

Savor your time because these ten weeks will fly by faster than you can ever imagine. It may seem strange, but in ten weeks’ time, you will have grown so much—academically, socially, and even personally. A lot will happen, some things good, some things bad. For example, you will ace your first-ever college midterm, but only after being bedridden with covid for a week. Here are some things you should keep in mind to have a great quarter:

Studies are important. You are here to get a degree, and doing well in school is priority number one. However, there will be many opportunities to have fun and express yourself, and you should take them as they come. College is all about learning, but that includes all types of learning, not just academic. Go out and experience new things, and learn learn learn. Things may not always work out for you, but every new thing you try will act as a learning experience. 

Another thing to prioritize is rest and recovery. You might get a little bit of FOMO (fear of missing out), but just know that the priority is you. Take some time for yourself, and know that you don’t have to go to every event. When you find yourself at a crossroads of what to do, sometimes the best is to take a nap. No, seriously. Take naps. You won’t regret it. Mental health breaks (naps) are essential and will power you through these 10 weeks, helping you feel so much better throughout each day. 

On the other side of the coin, coke coffee. Ok, I’ll explain. I’m going to tell you now that Writing 60 not be fun, as time management isn’t your specialty I’m here to warn you of a few all-nighters but also introduce to you coke coffee—your soon-to-be best friend. Combining the taste (and caffeine) of coke and coffee, this capitalist abomination will save an alarming amount of deadlines from becoming overdue. With this new best friend, writing will be bad, but not terrible. 

In conclusion, good times are ahead. Your first quarter will make you grow so much, and even though it may seem hard at times, just know that it’ll all work out. Maintaining a healthy balance between school, friends, and rest is important, and I know you’ll do great. You got this! Keep your head held high and don’t forget to be an academic weapon.

Have a good ten weeks!

Ian

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Christmas Time is (almost) Here

First, it was the Christmas decorations showing up in stores. Then, I saw Christmas decorations in my friends’ dorms. And yesterday, I decided to join in on the fun and help decorate my dorm’s floor lounge. Christmas season is officially here. 

I would highly recommend going to your dorm events, especially so if your RA’s are as good as mine (shout of Santi and Sofia). At the event, there was everything needed to fulfill my festive desires. There was a TV playing Christmas tunes, free hot chocolate, an inflatable snowman, and of course, decorations to be put up. It was a lot of work but incredibly fulfilling. We put the lights up, inflated the snowman, and rounded the lobby out with little decorations. To make things even better, though, Clinton Kane, one of my favorite artists, released a cover of “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” just after the event. The event activities were fun, but hot chocolate with Clinton Kane in the background was definitely a highlight of the night.

Our new and improved floor lounge ft. Caelan
Clinton Kane 😊

This winter break, I plan to go back home to finally see my family again. UCI is fun, but I have felt a little homesick at times, and I especially miss having a big bed to sleep in. But as of now, all I can do is focus on these last few weeks of the first quarter. Next week, my Chinese Association (CA) family is going to have a dumpling wrapping event, and I’m really excited about that. Past CA events, such as going to the arcade and painting tote bags, have been really fun, and going to events like these have helped me connect with other people and forget about the impending doom of finals for a while.

Hope everyone has a happy holidays!

Ian

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Club Activity Challenge Sport Thing

So I am apart of a dance crew: CADC or the Chinese Association Dance Crew and we are a competitive team. But like the name suggests, we are also a branch of the Chinese Association and as a branch, all of the dance team members have to be apart of the club. And I say “have to” because I did not want to be part of the Chinese Association itself because it meant club responsibilities and fams and the usual club stuff.

So as you can probably tell, I did not exactly approach my membership with overwhelming ecstaticness. My responsibilities became real in a few weeks after I joined the team. At the end of October-ish, my dance crew cabinet members required us to attend a Chinese Association event in support of the organization and I don’t even remember what we called it. I only remember hearing that it was “mandatory” and at that word, I was already dreading my attendance and drafting a super creative and undeniable excuse just so I could skip the event.

A week later, the sports day thing (which I later found out was called “CA Constituency” or something like that) was coming up and, despite my efforts, I did not have a super creative and grand masterplan to get out of it. The night before was also a beach bonfire with my actual team members (whom I adore) so I decided that I might as well just see how I feel and decide if I should just, I don’t know, call in sick. But I attended the bonfire and it turned out to be pretty fun and so I found myself looking forward to seeing my team again the next day.

So fast forward to the actual event, I put on a cute outfit and grabbed my book and a blanket (I knew it was at a park and I figured if I anything I’ll just break my ankle or something and just read and have a pretty, aesthetic afternoon). But when I got there and the games actually started, I found myself having a lot of fun. Like a lot of fun. We played a group game where we had to sing songs as a group on the spot based on a theme and I confidently carried my team with some other of my friends. I didn’t realize I had such a competitive side to me and it was exhilarating just screaming out of adrenaline. We played some other games too like charades telephones, which is exactly what it sounds like, and some relay race thing .

Overall it was a really fun time and we got free pizza at the end so I was pretty content. I guess the moral of the story is that being closed minded is for losers. Okay that might be too rough but I am sure you get the point. What I mean is that we, and when I say “we” I mean “I”, need to be more open to new experiences and new things. My initial dread became a feeling of gratefulness; a feeling that transformed when I looked back to what a good time I had. So yay to new college experiences! I will be sure to add this to my life lessons list and I am glad it contributed to my growth. From now on I will be sure to be more open minded and more willing.

For this post’s song which is just whatever song I am feeling in the moment that I am typing…

It’s: “PSA” by SZA which is technically still unreleased. I was just listening to SZA for like the entirety of my afternoon and it was such a good vibe. I am so excited for her album oh my lord finally after 5 years a new album. So yeah go listen to it if you like RNB and even if you don’t; it is just a really sick song.

Okay bye.

Callabunga,

jaden chung

Posted on 1 Comment on ACADEMIC WEAPON

ACADEMIC WEAPON

Academic weapon (noun)—An individual (typically a student) that acquires traits that are seen by many as scholarly. Example: Ian is an academic weapon who doesn’t miss class and studies hard for his midterms. 

The term “academic weapon” blew up as a meme on TikTok, where people doing academically positive things such as not skipping class, studying, and asking questions were referred to as “academic weapons.” And who doesn’t want to be called a weapon? Of course, I had to comply.

Throughout this quarter, I have tried my best to maintain a healthy work-life balance with the help of my friends—and this silly little meme. Midterms the week after Halloween? No problem. My friends and I would go out for Halloween but come home earlier, all in the name of academic weaponry. 

So far, I have taken a midterm for math and econ, and both have gone well! To study for math, I was able to get help from our class’s online discussion board, which allowed me to ask questions to the other 600+ students, as well as the professor. It also helped that I go to class with my roommate Brandon, where we sit in the first row of our 400 person lecture (as academic weapons should). Brandon has been a huge help in this class, teaching me things I didn’t understand and letting me study with him for the midterm. My midterm could have gone better, but I still have finals, so I still have a chance of getting that coveted A.

Even though I expected better in math, at least I have econ to cheer me up. Somehow I aced the midterm, leaving me physical proof of my hard work. And because of this, I now find myself in a predicament I would never have imagined myself in. 

So my econ class has two midterms: one in week 3 and one in week seven. However, in this class, the lowest-scoring midterm gets dropped. See where I’m going with this? I could technically get any grade at all on the next midterm, and it wouldn’t matter one bit. The thought is tempting, and I’ve imagined myself reenacting a scene from my favorite movie Spiderman: Into the Spiderverse, where the main character, Miles, knows all of the answers on his test but gets a zero on purpose. However, one thing is holding me back—I need to be an academic weapon.

All that effort to ace an exam just to throw away my title like that? Not a chance. I’ve already started studying for my midterm next week, and I plan on doing just as well. Maybe then, just then, I can hold the title of academic weapon with pride, knowing that I took the right steps and got the results I wanted.

See y’all next time!

-Ian

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The absolutely most dreadful, undeniably painful, and gruesome midterm experience.

Just kidding. I am chillin like a villain. So far I have only had a single midterm so to be fair, I can’t really say much.

The one midterm I did have was for Film and Media 85a and it was basically just memorizing key terms and concepts. I just completed it a few hours ago and although it ended up being pretty easy, I still had high expectations for my very first, big adult, college midterm exam.

You see, at my high school, midterms were a big deal. Like a really big deal. In fact, we didn’t even use the word “midterm”, we just treated the exams as finals and the school did too. Midterm days were designated with minimum days so it was basically just a final for the end of each quarter. So when I walked into HIB 100 on this particular Wednesday, I thought it would be a little more, well for the lack of a better word, serious. I don’t know I thought maybe that there would be TA’s guarding the doors to collect phones or at least some type of the usual “plagiarism lecture” before we started. But no, I basically walked in and sat at my usual spot and waited for instructions. And eventually the exams started in my usual lecture spot with my usual lecture side desk thing.

At the end of the day, I was wrong but hey I’ll take casual and wrong over serious and right at the end of the day.

And if anything, it was a good study experience for me. I had kind of slacked off for the course so I crammed the night before. Yes, I procrastinated but, personally, I think it was still a very productive and effective cram session. I started studying around 12 a.m. which probably isn’t exactly healthy but besides that, I kind of just jumped straight into the zone. I stayed focus and concocted a study strategy on the spot. Everything felt really natural and I think I did a good job in the end.

What is this super effective and original study strategy you might ask? Well that’s a secret I’ll never share.

Just kidding again. It isn’t super secret and it certainly isn’t original. I just compiled all the important information from my notes and re-wrote it on a google doc. It’s sort of a last-minute study guide–and I think it definitely worked. It allowed me to, one, go over the information in my notes and allowed me to process it as I was rewriting everything. I like it because while studying and going over terms and concepts are important, it also leaves you with an actual cheat sheet at the end. Shout out to my AP Government Teacher for forcing me to do that for homework so I could discover how effective it was for me.

While my very first mid-term was pretty rad (I am not using rad unironically; I just think rad is a rad word and I am trying to bring it back), I have another one (an in class midterm and a take-home essay) for English on Tuesday but to be frank, I am not letting it bother me. I am keeping my peace, kind of, so go me.

Before I finish, I am going to tell you my song of the week/day/songIamcurrentlyfeelingasIwritethis. And for this post its:

“Afterglow” by Taylor Swift wooohooooo!

I was listening to it during my study break and gosh it literally just released all of my negative energy. #sograteful #becomingaswiftie

That concludes post numero tres. I hope you all are doing well. I am I think–trying to anyways and I am being positive about it. Until the next post, see you soooooooon.

P.S. I am learning to add photos to my blogs. I just uhh, don’t know how err, I do but I am lazy to transport my photos from my phone. So until I find an easier way to do it without having to type my entries on my phone, it will stay pictureless. No that’s a lie I have too many good photos not to post so I think next week’s will have photos but no promises.

With love,

jaden.