#academicstuff

Advice for others who must deal with something similar: Bring a snack, or coffee with you to class. Take really detail notes. Rely mostly on the textbook. It'll save your life. 

Have a blast during my college experience-- GO, IDAHO!

Today for one of my classes, Alexander Nehamas, a world renowned philosopher and public intellectual, came and gave a lecture titled “I would rather fashion my mind than furnish it.” It was fantastic. He was fantastic. He said a lot of things that really resonated with me, but one in particular was “college gives you opportunities to fall in love with things.” In the six weeks that I’ve been at Stanford, that is precisely what it has done for me. I’ve fallen in love with classes, teachers, friends, ideas, books, pieces of art, and just being here. Here are a few of the things I’ve come to love about college: The freedom to sleep (or not): No matter where or when you fall asleep, you won’t be judged. Everyone is just as sleep deprived as you. They understand. Sometimes you really just can’t help falling asleep at your desk/on the couch/at the dining hall/in the library/during class. College may be the one time in your life when you can adopt a really weird sleep schedule. Example: The past few days, my average bedtime has been after 4:00 am. Last night, I fell asleep at 7:30 pm and woke up at 12:30 only to go back to bed at 1:30 am. In college, you have freedom to choose when you want your classes to be and can schedule them around your sleep schedule. Also, you can take naps with reckless abandon. The Opportunities There are awesome things going on every second of the day (or at least that’s how it feels). There are even multiple awesome things going on at the same time. It’s awesome. There are lectures from world renowned professors, entrepreneurs, scientists, authors, artists, politicians and more. There are workshops on belly dancing, making sushi, architecture model building, love letter writing. Being at college makes you realize how much is going on in the world, and you’re in the thick of it all. Spontaneous Adventures Sunday hikes. Steam tunnelling. Farmer’s market trips. Breaking out of the “Stanford bubble.” Midnight bike rides. Frolicking in the rain. Stargazing on a turf field. The People Last Friday, a pack of sixteen girls from my dorm and I biked out into Palo Alto to celebrate the birthdays of two girls in our dorm with deep dish pizza. It was awesome. Afterwards, I went to a party at the Russian frat on campus. It was awesome. After that, I stayed up until 4:00 talking about street art, Battlestar Galactica, politics, the purpose of education, and climate change. At one point, we sang “I Want It That Way” by the Backstreet Boys and ate animal crackers. It was awesome. In my classes, in my dorm, and in my dining hall there are Olympians, science fair winners, company founders, inventors, movie stars, Spelling Bee Champions, authors, and true geniuses. It’s pretty awesome, but what’s even better is the fact that I can count some of them as my friends. The Classes To quote Ben Jones of the MIT: “This is the only time in your lives when your only real responsibility is to learn.” My classes and professors are interesting and just amazing. It’s wonderful just reflecting on just how much I’ve learned and grown here already, and there’s even more awaiting me. Conclusions: College is wonderfully terrible and terribly wonderful, like all things, it has it’s bright sides and dark sides. It’s nowhere near as glamorous at you may have imagined it to be in high school. In the beginning, it all may seem ridiculously awesome, but eventually it all just becomes just another part of your life. I just try to remember how lucky I am every day

My dorm is absolutely amazing. We have 5 Canadians residing in it, so on Sunday we celebrated CANADIAN THANKSGIVING! We gathered around the ping pong table in the lounge, ate mashed potatoes, pumpkin pie, Olive Garden salad, and pretzels, sang the Canadian national anthem (well the Canadians did), and went around the table saying what we were thankful for. We expected maybe 10 people to show up, but at least half of the dorm was there if not more. While sitting there, talking with my dormmates and eating good food, I realized that I really did feel like they were my family.