SUMMER 2015: Where Is She Now?

Happy summer, everybody! May your days be filled with sleeping in, drinking refreshing ice-cold mudslides, and binge-watching your favorite shows. 

Well, it’s really been terrible of me for not posting anything on here lately. What happened to me?

Not surprisingly...college kind of took up a lot of time. I was pretty much busy around the clock, with classes, work, and the maintenance of a semi-existent social life. 

I definitely developed quite a dependence on coffee as the year went on. 

So in other words, I didn’t get lazy with my blog, really. Okay, well maybe I did. 

There were just so many things going on, but that was obviously what made my freshman year so great and so memorable. And of course, I'm going to try and write about all of those experiences. It's in the works.  

I know I basically didn’t update this old thing at all while I was there, so I'm going to try and do better. The key word here is "try". 

I guess I should also explain what I’m doing this summer. I completely lucked out and am interning at a top corporate law firm in Boston called Murphy & King, Professional Corporation. The firm specializes in litigation, bankruptcy law, real estate law, employment law, and more.

This internship is honestly perfect because I’ve always considered law school as a post-undergraduate path. It seems at least like something I would love doing; I need to be in a profession that involves working with people, and reading/writing are things I consider to be my strengths.

Therefore, I’ve really been trying to get a better idea of whether or not law is something I want to pursue…. and what better way to do that than to intern at a top law firm in the city? The firm is on the 21^st floor of 1 Beacon Street, so every window gives you the most incredible view of Boston. 

It felt like I was in the classic law firm that you see in the movies. Extremely business-like, high-scale, and successful. So what in the hell is a rising sophomore in college doing here…

The first time I went into the office, I was able to sit down for an interview with one of the co-founders at the firm, Harry B. Murphy. He’s won multiple awards for his work as a bankruptcy lawyer, and is considered one of the top lawyers/experts in Boston…so I was absolutely terrified to meet him. 

I was wearing a dress, a black blazer, and flats with a set of dangly pearl earrings…and I questioned my outfit decision from the minute I stepped into the lobby to the minute I got back into my mother’s car, trembling. 

He walked us into one of their many conference rooms; and I was immediately floored. 

There were bookshelves lining the walls, stacked neatly with green and blue leather-bound books on every topic of law that you could imagine. The glass windows went all the way from the floor to the ceiling, and gave you an unreal view of the ocean, downtown Boston, the bridge, and so much more. It was insane. “You are in so over your head...” I kept telling myself.

However, our conversation went decently well, as in I didn’t stutter over my words the whole time, or give him some ridiculously terrible answer, and Mr. Murphy was a really pleasant man. He talked about how the firm normally never hires people my age, since we have zero background in law and haven’t taken any law-related classes yet (true, and very true). 

Sometimes, there would be an intern or two just to do very simply, administrative things that really don’t require any thinking…but he suggested that I actually enjoy my summer and use it to have fun or work at a job like waitressing or babysitting or something. I was feeling pretty discouraged and dejected, having to accept the unfortunate truth, but he then invited his Director of Business to come and speak to me about getting an actual position here. This man was very nice and slightly more encouraging, concluding our conversation by saying that he would confer with his Human Resources Director, and would give me a call early next week.

So I went home still not expecting anything to come out of it…I mean, why in God’s name would a top law firm take in an inexperienced college student to help them with anything at all? I wasn’t expecting to get a position, and I certainly wasn’t expecting to get paid.

On Tuesday morning, I was in the city again with my high school friend, Jackie, when I got the call. It was the firm’s Human Resources Manager, and she gave me the breakdown of what my role would be. 

Basically, they were willing to have me come into the firm and help in the bankruptcy branch. I would be helping the associates and partners with whatever they needed; it would mainly be administrative tasks, but I would definitely be able to see what the lawyers do on a daily basis, and get a better understanding of how a law firm works. I would be coming in 3 days a week (because they know I’m in college and still need a semi-restful summer, so they were willing to give me 4-day weekends), from 9 am- 5pm, with an hour-long lunch break.

I can’t tell you how excited I was when I got the call. I was scribbling all of her words down in my planner, trying not to jump out of my seat. Jackie and I were at a table outside, enjoying our Dunkin Donuts iced coffees…and a car pulled up right next to us blasting these rap songs.

Not that I don’t adore hip hop/rap music at like, 10 am, but it also sucked because I was probably coming off as some ghetto-ass, inconsiderate little teen who didn’t even feel like turning off her music for the most important phone call of her entire summer. Perfect.

I told her I could start that week, and thus began my kickass internship at Murphy & King. This will be the end of the 3^rd week that I’ve been there now, and I’m so happy to say that I’ve finally mastered the schedule, the commute, everything. 

I struggled hard-core for awhile with so many things…just to give you a rough idea of how far I’ve come, here’s a brief list of my challenges:

·      Waking up at 6:15 am everyday I have to work...the old, high-school Melissa used to be an enthusiastic morning person. Then everything changed when the Fire Nation attacked. (Everything changed when college started). 

·      Buying commuter rail tickets the old-fashioned way every time before I realized that (like everything else in this world nowadays), there’s an app for that! Gasp

·      Deciding which stations to use (Back Bay or South Station, Westborough or Southborough) in order to optimize my travel time and seating choices 

·      Using Google Maps to find my way to the firm and getting lost quite a few times

·      Being an idiot and only wearing newly bought flats for the 35 minutes of walking back and forth…and wincing in pain every time I took a step. I have the blisters to prove it.

·      Not knowing whether or not the glass doors at the main entrance of the firm are Push or Pull doors. The very first time I tried opening them, I struggled for at least 10 seconds before Paula, the awesome receptionist that I now adore and really enjoy talking to every day, mimed that I had to push them. This one is still tricky- those glass doors fool me every time for some reason.

·      Trying to buy my lunch everyday…this isn’t really challenging. Just expensive. I just kick it old school and bring my lunch everyday now. 

The biggest challenge: trying to adult...just in general. Flats/heels? Gross, get those away from me. Blazers and purses? Do I have to...? 

However, like I said, I’m beyond thankful for the opportunity. Even though I’m not necessarily carrying out the most glamorous jobs sometimes, I really am happy there and I still feel incredibly lucky.

I get my own desk right across from the lawyers’ beautiful offices.The lawyers at Murphy & King are extremely intimidating, because they’re so good at their job, and super knowledgeable. In fact, I help enter a lot of their timesheets into the computer system that we have, and I would never put that type of information on here specifically, but let me just say..."damn. That hourly rate is...unreal." 

The amounts of money that these lawyers make in a day is absolutely unimaginable for a broke little college student. 

 I only work 3 days a week (living the dream with these 4-day weekends), I get an hour-long lunch break, and it pays really well. Plus, I take the commuter rail into and out of the city everyday, which has also proved to be enjoyable, as long as the train is on time and it isn’t crowded af. 

I normally use the time to listen to music and type out all of these entries for whoever bothers to read it afterwards. I feel really happy avoiding all of the obscene traffic that I would have to deal with if I were driving in a car. 

Wait...I'm Still a First-Year?

Well, look who's back on her blog for once!

Winter quarter is officially here, and in full swing; thus, I apologize for my prolonged absence. It's unfortunate that I can't blog as much as I'd like to, but to quote "Dead Poet's Society", this girl is trying to suck the marrow out of life! And by life, I guess I mean college.

Have I been successful? Eh. I'd say I'm well on my way! I'm plunging myself deep into many different things, trying random activities, and doing everything that I can...within socially acceptable constraints, I suppose.

Winter quarter is when things got a lot more serious and stressful for me. Without my trusty little red planner, I wouldn't be able to function a bit. I pencil everything in...I live by that planner, so if you take it from me, I'd actually consider killing you.

For starters, I've started my first-ever college job (hollaaaa) at the Undergraduate Admissions Office here at UCLA. How did I get this job as a first-year? It was actually pretty strange. I overheard someone talking about the office and thought to myself that I would really be interested in working there. After a while, I decided to pop into the office just to ask if they were hiring and if I could have an application.

A woman walking by the front desk heard me talking, and came over to talk to me. It just so happened that I had a few copies of my resume in my backpack (I'm usually not THIS much on my game, don't judge me)...so I gave her one and we chatted for a bit. She told me that she'd contact me after winter break and we would set up a time for an interview. Fast forward a month or two, and voila! I'm a student worker for UCLA!

Work has been great so far. I'm learning a lot, and I always see something different everyday. There's a wholeeee lot to learn, since the Undergrad Admissions Office handles just about everything, and you have to know a good deal about all of the other offices to help many of the people. However, I enjoy it and take pride in the fact that I'm gaining all this knowledge about my school. Aww, look who's taking the whole True Bruin thing to heart :P

I've also applied to be an RA for the next school year! The whole RA application process is pretty length and selective, especially for underclassmen, so I'm not getting my hopes up about getting the position. After the physical application, there's a set of 2 group interviews that everyone has to do, and then from there, you get an individual interview if they still like you. I have my second group interview tomorrow, so we'll see how it goes! Fingers crossed.

The most exciting commitment of all is, of course, class!! This quarter, I'm taking Chemistry 14A, Economics 2, and my GE Cluster still (Interracial Dynamics). I'm also doing a Fiat Lux seminar called "Perceptions of the US Abroad: Discussions with Fulbright Scholars". Each week, a different Fulbright scholar currently at UCLA comes and talks to us about their country, culture, and of course, how they view 'Murica. Super interesting! And all of the scholars are incredibly impressive, intelligent, and all-around amazing people.

Chem and Econ are going pretty well so far. To say that my high school's chem department was bad is an insanely large understatement. I forgot the little that we learned in my junior year chem class, and am now doing a lot of self-teaching just to be sure that I understand the material. So that's going...as good as it could go, I guess. At least I like the professor. His humor is beyond dry, but I can definitely appreciate that. He's cool.

Econ is really interesting, actually! I haven't really been bored in lecture yet, which is pretty notable since the lecture is at 8 freaking am. On those two days, I wake up around 6:30 so I can wash my hair, get dressed and ready, and eat some type of breakfast on-the-go before lecture. And I also like this professor so far too. He has a cool accent, is occasionally pretty humorous, and lectures rather well. Nothing to complain about so far :D

I guess that's it for now. College has been giving me plenty of great memories so far. I really can't complain, even with all of the stress and worry that I have.

From grabbing late-night pizza after volleyball, to roaming around Grand Central Market and Walt Disney Concert Hall, to strolling around gorgeous Bel-Air neighborhoods, to watching Olympians like Jordyn Wieber coach the UCLA gymnastics team at their first meet-- college has been unforgettable so far.

I can't wait to see what comes next, and I'm so happy for the memories I've made so far.

But now this girl's gotta get back to work.

THANKSGIVING POST: A Whirlwind of Student Activism (The Story of the Spontaneous Trip to SF)

Another few blinks of an eye, and we're at Week 8! Pretty crazy stuff. Yesterday night, I enrolled in my classes for next quarter. It's a pretty stressful process, I must say, so I'm glad it's over...for another 10 weeks. And then the whole cycle starts up again....

Today, I wanted to talk about something that I'm very passionate about. It's an unbelievably important and significant topic: the price of higher education. Like so many other students, the cost of education has been rising consistently over the past decades, which is making higher education more and more inaccessible to many people. I have a very big problem with this, as I do not at all agree with the fact that education has become a huge privilege rather than a right, as a result of its absurd prices.

Anyway, I mean to be more specific. My blog post for today pertains only to the UC system. Let me give you a simple breakdown: last week, the UC Regents proposed a 5% tuition increase over the next 5 years, which will continue until the tuition for all UC schools (including graduate schools) has been increased by 27.7%.

As an out-of-state student at UCLA, I'm already paying WAY more than in-state students from California. OOS/International tuition fees are going to be EVEN higher. That's rising from around 35K to 41K, just to attend school here. I don't even think-- I KNOW that this price increase is absolutely absurd.

This doesn't just apply to us, the current students in the UC system. It applies to all future students who are interested in going to any school in the UC system, either for undergraduate or graduate school. So many more people are going to have EVEN larger struggles with student loans and paying off college debts.

Needless to say, the effects of this tuition increase are absolutely massive and awful in the long run.

The UC Regents, including Janet Napolitano, the head of the UC Regents Board, held a meeting at UC San Francisco on Wednesday to vote on this proposal. This is another issue because of the inaccessibility of UCSF. Although the UC Regents are supposed to bounce around from UC to UC, these meetings have been held here in SF for the past 5 years, because if they came here to SoCal, we'd probably be so good at protesting that they wouldn't be able to discuss anything without constant disruptions and rallies.

Anyways, UCLA held a protest last Tuesday, where we marched to all of the major parts of campus, chalked and flyer-ed the hell out of campus, and held a sit-in at Chancellor Block's office in order to demonstrate our discontent and anger over his approval for this tuition hike. I attended the protest and helped the chalking team write lots of big messages on walls and slabs of concrete the night before.

UCLA students weren't stopping there. To make their voices heard, they were traveling up to UCSF that Tuesday night to make it to San Francisco on Wednesday morning, just in time to join the student protests at UCSF with the rest of the UC schools.

We would be driving all through the night to make it in time, since the UC Regents purposefully made such a late public announcement about this meeting that it was extremely difficult to mobilize in time.

That Tuesday, I made a snap decision to join the UCLA delegation going to SF. This was such a great opportunity to raise my voice about something that I truly felt strongly about. Not only did I witness student activism in action, but I also wanted to be a part of it! I wanted to be able to say, "Yes. I took every opportunity that I could in college. I fought as hard as I could to create better opportunities for current and future students. Was I there in SF when students were protesting? Yes, in fact, I was!"

The only thing keeping me from immediately jumping on board was my Philosophy discussion at 10 am on Wednesday morning. After emailing her, my TA actually encouraged me to "go and fight the good fight", saying that she would be happy to fill me in once I got back! With this reassurance, I was officially cleared to go!

I emailed the USAC EVP office to reserve a spot, and then began rapidly making preparations for this trip from SoCal to NorCal. Thus, after my USAC meeting that night, I showered quickly, packed a backpack of essentials, and met the rest of the delegation at Kerckhoff Hall.

Let me just say this: Going to SF is no easy feat, my friends. I thought that we would be taking buses there, as the drive is around 6-7 hours long.

Well, there was the first caveat: we would be driving ourselves. In cars, like large SUVs.

Okay, so that's interesting...I guess I'll sign up to drive then! I have a license and I've been driving our family's SUVs for a number of years. If you need drivers, I'll volunteer as tribute!

Second caveat: You can drive, Melissa? GREAT! Here's the keys...to an 8-PERSON VAN. Go crazy, girl!

Hmmm....well I've never driven a van before. I've never driven in the state of California before. And we're doing this at night. Are we sure you want me to drive? Okay....?

.....and that's basically how it came to be that I ended up driving a massive white pedophile van with 6 other college students inside, from around 12:30 am to 4 am on California's lovely freeways. Hahaha. I'm very glad everyone in my van is alive and well. That's a rather large understatement.

So I drove over half of the way, and then a girl in our van from UCSD drove the rest of the way. She was...a less than stellar driver who thought it'd be fun to freak the hell out of me the whole time and play with her numerous braids while driving. Sometimes, she wouldn't even have her hands on the steering wheel, cause she was undoing a braid. Like, really??

Sorry for giving you multiple heart attacks right now, Mom. I'm okay, don't worry.

On the drive there, I got to know the people who had randomly jumped into my van. I was the only UCLA student, as well as the only first-year in our van. Everyone else was from UCSD or UC Irvine or a community college nearby. I was at first confused by why they were dedicating themselves to such an arduous student protest, but they later said grimly that they were planning on transferring to a UC school.

We stopped twice at gas stations on the drive over for snack and bathroom breaks. Once our van rolled into SF, then came the process of finding UCSF, which proved extremely difficult as well. It was freezing cold and raining, for one thing. Also, we had parked in the medical district of UCSF, which meant that we were NOWHERE near the Mission Bay campus, which was where the protest was being held.

It wasn't anyone's fault; we had simply driven to the address that we were given. However, it required me taking charge and asking business people walking by about how to get to the actual protest. We had to get on a shuttle, and then drive around 45 minutes to get to freaking Mission Bay. Not fun. At all.

So once we got our cold and tired little butts over to the rest of the crowds, it was finally time to protest. People were angry about this tuition increase, to say the least. Students from all UCs had come to protest.

There were a few problems though. First of all, a bunch of people deviated from the original plan that UCSA (The UC Students Association) had organized and set up, which made our presence a lot less effective. Instead of following a specific sequence to give public comment, then march, and then storm the building, a lot of people just went straight to storming the building, which is when a student got arrested and the police smashed a window trying to restore order.

Anyways, here's a brief summary of what happened: we stood in front of the building chanting for a while, with police men in riot gear staring back at us stoically. Then we broke off into smaller groups based on our individual UCs, and heard a lot of students raise their voices and make their opinions heard. Then, there was more chanting and protesting in front of a different entrance to the building, in which people got more riled up and heated.

Lunch (and breakfast as well for all of us starving protestors who hadn't eaten anything yet) was finally served around 1 pm. Fresh from the trunk of one of our UCLA cars, we had granola bars, bananas, water, an assortment of chips, and more granola bars. I was thankful for anything I could get my hands on; I was starved.

A kind person who was part of the protest ordered the largest pile of pizzas I've ever seen. Seriously. There were probably over 60 boxes of pizza. It was crazy. My friends and I found a dry sidewalk underneath a car garage to sit and eat our food like groveling homeless people. Since all of the building had locked down, there were no bathrooms or seats in the area that we could use. Thus, everyone found a random sidewalk or section of pavement and called it home for the next few hours.

As bad as our time at UCSF sounded, I had a lot of fun bonding with my friends during this time, and I'm truly glad that I went. My best friends from the SF trip became: Andrew and Chloe (fellow OP interns), Sanjana (Andrew's friend and fellow first-year), Tony (a fellow first-year), and Christine (a third-year). I really didn't have any attachment to the people in my van, since they were all UCSD or UCI students. Plus, they had dissed UCLA last night a few times before they realized that their (ahem), DRIVER, was a UCLA student. Bad move.

After lunch ended, we stayed for a few more hours before we headed out. By then, all of the news anchors had showed up and were interviewing students. It was great to watch other protestors make our case to local news channels.

The Berkeley group actually left first, on their coach bus, which is so ironic. They're supposed to be these effective, amazing protestors, and yet their supervisors actually told them that if they did anything stupid that got them in trouble, they wouldn't have a ride back to campus. And then they took off early before the Regents decision was actually released. Professional protestors? Really?

Eventually, everyone headed out after the decision was announced: the Regents (obviously) passed the proposal, 7-2. So it wasn't even close. Which is sad, but it's even sadder that I wasn't surprised by the decision. Time to go home, boys!

My group and I found the SUV (I was able to ditch the non-UCLA group, thank God) and then headed back. Tony and I got the trunk space to (kind of) stretch out and take naps. It was so interesting to drive back down to SoCal...I was able to really get a glimpse of the terrain here, which is so incredibly different from that of New England and what I'm used to. The amount of land here is immense. It's also so FLAT and brown. There were these massive hills on our right, that didn't have an inch of green-ness on it. Just windmills.

It was weird, I had this strange moment where I was just hit by the reality of the fact that I'm not nearly anywhere close to home right now. I am, and always have been, completely out of my element here. It hasn't been a bad thing, but it's just easy to forget sometimes when you're on campus at UCLA all the time.

Here, out on the freeway somewhere between SF and LA, I was finally reminded of this truth. And I was proud of myself for coming out here. It's been an amazing, trying, indescribable ride so far.

Well, we made it back to campus eventually, thank the Lord. I truly am thankful, from the bottom of my heart, for everyone making it to and from SF safely. There were a HUGE collection of things that could have gone wrong during the 7 hours of teenagers driving other teenagers. However, we all got back in one piece, which is incredibly important.

I'm so thankful for the memories and friends that I made, and I'm proud to be able to say that I did as much as I possibly could to stop the tuition increase from happening. It really is important, as it affects so many people.

ALSO, it is Thanksgiving today, so happy Thanksgiving, everyone!! I'm chilling in San Diego (first Thanksgiving away from my family! Hollah...) with some family friends. It was too short of a break and too expensive of plane tickets to go home for real, so I'm hanging out in San Diego and exploring a new part of SoCal for this year.

Not to worry though, I'm going home in like, 3 weeks anyways. So it really isn't all that bad. I'm excited to finally go home soon....it should be a crime to be separated from my cat for this long.

I'm thankful for so much. This year, especially, I think, because there's so much that has been going on. Honestly, it means so much to me that I'm at UCLA, able to take these amazing classes and pursue my dreams. Even though it may be difficult or stressful at times, I am blessed with the most amazing support system. My family and friends are more than I could ever ask for, and I have such an incredible community.

If any of you are reading this, I have so much love for all of you and I'm sorry I can't be with you this Thanksgiving, but I'm 100% there with you in spirit. Thank you for everything. I am so, so grateful.

Happy Thanksgiving <3

So...it's already Week 5 of Classes?

Whoa. It's been a long time since I've done any blogging. I feel really awful, sorry for completely checking out! I've been navigating my way through the first few weeks of college, and I can honestly say that things have been ridiculously hectic. So many other things have taken priority. Examples?

Well, I had a math midterm the third week of college, papers due around the same time, and readings the length of novels assigned in my classes.
That's the quarter system for ya, folks.

Anyways, after a few hours in Powell (one of our main libraries on campus) finishing an outline for tomorrow, I figured I could use an extended break and fill y'all in on what's been happening in my life lately.

CLASSES & ACADEMICS

Up first for this post: the most fun topic, duh!

So, I started this 1st quarter taking:
Math 31A (Differential and Integral Calculus),
An Introduction to Philosophy of the Mind (Phil 7),
and a General Education Cluster called Interracial Dynamics in American Society and Culture.

I'll be honest with you, I've got nothing to hide. Math turned out to be a huge wake-up call for me. I didn't take calculus during my senior year of high school, since I knew that I was not going to be even going close to math or engineering, career-wise. Instead, I decided to load up on almost every other AP class my school offered (throughout high school, I took Chinese, Biology, US History, Spanish, English Lit, Microeconomics, Psychology, Government & Politics, and Statistics) that I thought would be more useful to me in the future.

It was really, really freaking hard to jump into a fast-paced, quarter-system-style, calculus class where everyone except for me had already gotten an introduction to calculus in high school. Yep, Pre-calc just wasn't gonna cut it when we covered limits and derivatives in about a week or two. The professor was really nice and fair, but it was really hard to understand him in lecture because he would go off on a lot of math-related tangents.

Professor: "Isn't it so cool how the limit laws can be connected to physics as well through these proofs??"
Students: *Crickets*

The reason why I'd decided to try 31A was because it was one of the first math pre-requisite courses I needed for Econ if I wanted to double major in Psych and Econ. However, through this very preliminary run through calculus, I kind of realized how much math was going to be involved in Econ. So I took a step back and seriously reevaluated what my plan was. I didn't think I could be happy (or even successful) with Economics.

It took me a ridiculously terrible midterm in math to realize all this, but I finally decided to drop the class and move away from Econ. My parents were obviously freaked out that I dropped a class my first quarter of college...and they had every right to be.

"Dropping out?? That's like what you do when you realize you're failing every class! Are you even going to be able to graduate, Melissa???" 

 I was pretty scared too. This was NOT what I'd expected for my first quarter of college. College kind of slapped me in the face, and I learned how hard I'd have to work to do well at a school like UCLA. To be blunt, this sh** isn't gonna be easy.

However, my mom and I talked it over with an academic counselor and I feel like I definitely made the right choice. I know which classes I'm choosing next quarter, and I'll be completely on track with what I want to do even with my dropped class. Also, I don't want my GPA to get destroyed this first year...and there's no point in struggling through a class that won't even help me if I don't use it towards my major.

Okay! On to the next class: Philosophy.

I've never taken a philosophy class, and I have to say: it's a lot more challenging than I thought. I mean, I always knew there were a lot of existential questions that philosophers tackled, but just getting your head wrapped around these ideas and theories that we've been covering is difficult. We're currently talking about the different theories on the relationship between the mind and body (interactionist dualism, physicalism, and naturalist dualism). I really feel like I've learned a lot in this class, which of course is great.

The professor is a really fascinating character to me, and I definitely am not the only one who feels this way. He's really young (late twenties, early thirties), hails from Vermont, and dresses like a skater dude. Both of his ears are pierced, and his regular outfit to class is a pair of skinny jeans, a t-shirt, and high-top sneakers. I guess it's not as surprising that he teaches philosophy, but I'm still intrigued and ridiculously impressed.

My GE Cluster is also a class that I find very interesting. This whole interracial dynamics is something that I've always wanted to learn about, and by taking this class year round, I'm getting more GE units, as well as knocking out the Writing II requirement for graduation. The topics we talk about in class are things that I can actually discuss afterwards on my own time with friends and classmates. To incorporate some SoCal vocab I should probably start using, race is "hella" important.

The only downsides to this class are the 2-hour long discussion sections and the amount of reading we have to do each week. That being said, I'm slowly learning to endure through discussion by talking and participating more, as well as making friends in my section. It's not as awful now.

Also, I don't really mind doing all the readings. It kind of reminds me of the Harvard glory days when I had to do sit in Annenberg, doing piles after piles of readings for Psych and International Law. God, do I miss Annenberg. Powell is beautiful, it really is, but it doesn't even come close to the majestic qualities and grandeur of Annenberg. *Sigh wistfully*

There are 4 professors that teach the class: Stevenson, Ortiz, Matsumoto, and Decker. I've actually ranked them here in terms of my personal preference, except Ortiz and Matsumoto are kind of tied (Matsumoto hasn't actually lectured yet, so I can't really judge how much I like her yet. She seems really nice, though). Decker is...boring and monotonous, to put it nicely. I just don't like the way he does his lectures. It's not exciting or interesting. I love Stevenson, though; she seems like a great person to be friends with. I really want to get to know her better.

We have a huge lecture twice a week, on the Hill, which is really nice because it's way closer to my dorm than most classes. I have my first midterm in the class coming up later in the week, so I'm probably going to start blogging again after I finish that exam. Priorities, people!

Okay, well that's basically it for the low-down on classes and such. I'll cover the many other facets of college life in the next post! Stay tuned, and as always, thanks for checking in! Stay awesome, my friends.

Adjusting to Life in SoCal: Orientation

Well aloha, friends! Melissa here, writing to you from the opposite side of the country. It's been a whirlwind of a few days but I've finally gotten a few minutes to sit down and blog about the first few days in California. Boy, has it been interesting.

I've been here for orientation the past few days..today is the final day of Session 111, which is reserved for international and out-of-state students, which means that almost everyone here is unfamiliar with California. To be honest, around 50% of the students seem to be from China, Singapore, Korea, or Japan.

Translation?
Asians. Everywhere.

It's not a bad thing, of course. It's cool to meet so many people from such a variety of places. I've made friends from Russia, France, Singapore, China, New Zealand, Canada, and of course, places in the U.S. I guess our session is a great example of how diverse this school is....which makes me realize just how white Massachusetts (and the rest of New England, I guess) really is.

I mean, in my community, I knew basically all of the Asian families because there really weren't that many. I was the only Asian on my volleyball team, one of the only Asians in my friend groups....I guess it dawned on me when I got here that the place where I grew up was an extremely Caucasian-dominated place.

I feel like I'm in a bit of a weird situation...of course, on the outside, everyone can see that I'm clearly Asian. At the same time, I act and think so much more like the Americans here, not at all like the hundreds of international Asians. It's just weird, I guess. Sometimes I feel like you're automatically judged because of your appearance, but that's nothing new. I'll just have to get used to it.

Orientation so far has been pretty good! I arrived on the 13th for early arrival, and was picked up by my mom's friend and her husband. They live in Irvine, so it wasn't too long of a drive for them to come to LAX and bring me to UCLA.

After checking in at Rieber Hall and moving all of my luggage into my temporary room at Rieber Terrace, we had lunch and then they headed back to Irvine. I spent the next few hours exploring, meeting new people who were just arriving, and walking around with them.

I went into Westwood with a group of friends we roped into joining us, we watched the UCLA/Texas football game in one of the lounges (Although it was a stressful and nerve-wracking game, we came out on top!!), and then headed back to another lounge to congregate with the rest of the Early Arrival kids.

There were a ton of us in that room, and we played some ice breakers with the NSAs (New Student Advisers, who were current upperclassmen at UCLA) and figured out where everyone was from. Then they brought us into Westwood for the night, where everyone either pigged out on Diddy Riese or In-N-Out. Some of my friends and I got bubble tea at a coffee shop nearby, and then joined our other friends who were eating burgers. I am still an In-N-Out virgin, but that cherry will surely be popped soon. It's only a matter of time.

Over the past few days, we've done so so much walking. That's one thing UCLA will do for you: it'll tone and firm your calves, thighs, and butt, no question. Literally, there are hills everywhere, as well as lengthy sets of stairs on the Hill (the residential area of campus), so you're getting a good workout in just by walking from your room to class.

On the first actual day of orientation, we met our NSAs for the next 3 days. My NSA has been Ollie, who's been a lot of fun to hang out with. In our group of 8 students, I am the only American. Everyone else hails from India, China, Canada, Singapore, and Russia. Crazy!

We had a lot of speakers (funny ones, sleep-inducing ones, etc.) that day, welcoming us to orientation and the first year of college. In the afternoon, we explored some of the clubs on campus who'd gathered at dinner to give us more information about joining. I signed up for a bunch of interesting clubs, like Model UN, the Daily Bruin (student newspaper), Running Club, and even Ballroom Dance! We'll see which ones I end up sticking with....

That night, there was a cute show put on by the NSAs called Cabaret, which was essentially a collection of skits, songs, etc. There were a lot of jokes and insults directed towards our rival, USC, and a lot of parodies of well-known pop culture bits, like SNL and Frozen. They also had Club Jamba that night once the show was over, which was like a dance party. We danced for a bit, but it really wasn't all that great or fun, so we left and headed back to the dorms.

Since so much is crammed into every hour, each day has felt like 3 or 4 days. For me, orientation reminds me of summer camp because we get split up into little groups and we get to know each other and walk around carrying identical knapsacks and whatnot...which of course isn't necessarily a bad thing. It's been fun to experience everything with so many people.

The second day of orientation gave us a lot more free time and independence regarding choosing what we wanted to do with our time. There were a bunch of different workshops regarding your major, internships, research, living in America, etc. We had a lot more free time today to choose what we wanted to do.

We also had to meet with our NSA twice on this day in order to figure out our desired class schedule, and also to just get to know them better. I went into Westwood with a few friends that night, and had to sprint back to the Hill to meet with Ollie...let's just say there's a ton of walking every day.

The third day of orientation included a few "discussions" and presentations on social life in the morning. In other words, they educated us on alcohol, sex, rape, and other related topics. Sounds super fun, right?

We also went for an all-inclusive tour of the campus, laden with crazy stories about anything from pranks pulled on USC, to secret treasures in different buildings. There are tons of ridiculous, interesting facts and stories that I learned. It really makes me want to be a tour guide during the school year. I feel like that'd be a great job for me...but I'd also love to work at the gym or the Student Activities Center.

The tour finished up with us getting "bruin-tized"in the Inverted Fountain on campus. We all repeated the official oath and then dipped our hands in the water. Apparently, you can't touch the water again until you've finished senior year....and if you do, you have to spend an extra quarter at UCLA. I don't want that to happen, that's for sure.

It was a fun three days of orientation! I'll post soon about what I've been doing since then...it's just been a crazy few days! Can't believe I've been here for around 2 weeks...it feels like so so much longer! I love it here, though. Really, really happy so far!

Heading West: LA Bound!!!

Welcome, friends! At this point, I'm still living at home and working at my internship everyday. Most adults seriously have begun to question my assertion that I am, in fact, going to college. In California. When? Soon.

Ohhh, quarter system. Whatever; I don't mind having a longer summer. AND, I leave on Saturday morning. Isn't that friggin' insane? One. Day. Left.

There were some points this week and last week when I started to get serious jitters. What craziness was going through my mind? Here's a collection of examples:

"Hooooly crap. UCLA is like, huge. The freshman class ALONE is 5,000? Competition is going to be insane! What was I thinking??" 

"I'm gonna be a straight-up mess dragging my luggage from LAX to UCLA. A straight-up mess. I have, like, 3 huge suitcases!! It's gonna be awful. Why did I say I was going to do this all on my own??"

"The flight is 6 hours...think about it. You're literally flying to the opposite side of the country. Why didn't you just choose Brandeis?" 

"Are people going to hate me because I'm from the East Coast?" 

"All of the people on my plane are gonna be so pissed at me when I lug all my crap to my seat. Sorry, people. I have my entire life for the next few months in these bags....it's all legit, I swear. They're my essentials."

"Everyone in LA will be tan and perfect and gorgeous....and then there'll be me. Remind me again why I thought this was a good idea." 

"Wait....I'm not gonna see Bella (my cat and the love of my life) for how long??" 

Soooo yeah. I freaked out here and there, once or twice, about random things. However, I've gotten past that hump and am just psyched and beyond excited to go. I finished packing last night, and obliterated all of my fears and doubts as I crammed and finagled all of my crap into my suitcases. Getting everything in order for my departure made it all real, and I was just so excited when it finally sank in. This is real. I'm going to California and I'm going to college and I am so flipping excited!

It's not that I'm not nervous or scared about going anymore. I'm just focusing on the excitement and adventure and thrill of college that has always been by my side while I fret and wring my hands. It's so much better to focus on the positives, don't you think?

I trust that everything will be fine. I really do. Time to head to the glittering Los Angeles, folks.

Are you ready?

Thoughts on Senior Year

I thought I'd take a moment to look back at the past year before moving on to college, which is rapidly approaching as we speak. It's kind of crazy to think about just how fast everything has flown by...

Exactly one year ago, I was taking on the most challenging year of my life. I had signed myself up for 6 AP classes, was playing on the varsity volleyball team every afternoon in the fall, was the Vice President of the National Honor Society, and was the President and Founder of my club for UNICEF. I still wanted to be involved in my volunteer work as a suicide prevention hotline operator, I had arranged to go on a trip to the Galapagos Islands in February, I was working on a mural for the history wing, and I wanted to continue to be available to spend time with friends.

On top of all this, the biggest task I faced was obviously applying to college. I was terrified that I wouldn't end up at a school that I liked, or that my parents liked (they naturally were super interested in my college process as well), and I also worried that I'd get rejected from all of my choices. The typical fears of a college applicant.

Reflecting back on everything one year later, this year was insanely important for shaping who I am as a person. I learned so much from all of my classes and mastered the art of balancing my workload and schedule so that I didn't want to collapse at any second from the stress and pressure.I grew to love (some of) my teachers and form even stronger connections with my friends. And of course, I have so many memories from that year, both good and bad, that I will always carry with me.

I'm so thankful for everyone who gave me tidbits of advice on college applications, or checked in on me while I was pushing through that year. I felt so much more prepared after talking to older friends and adults, and that makes a world of a difference when you are literally freaking out about college or high school or life.

One of the biggest pieces of advice that I'd give to current seniors is this: "Keep things in perspective." There were quite a number of times last year when I thought the world was just going to implode, or that the sky was about to come crashing down on me. I thought I wouldn't be able to live a decent life, that I'd have to give up my hopes and dreams for my future, and start working at a cubicle or at a fast food restaurant for the rest of my days.

The reality of it all is this: You're still going to be just fine. You live in a peaceful area with fresh air, you go to a great high school (despite what you think, you should appreciate what your school offers), and I promise you that everything will be just fine. If you're reading this, you have the luxury and privilege of owning a computer. Most likely, you're able to put clothes on your body every day, you're able to reach into the fridge and grab something to eat without having to worry about buying something else, and you have people in your life who love and support you.

Please just try and keep things in perspective. We're not in a country ravaged by war right now. We don't have a disease spreading throughout our communities. We aren't starving or being ruled over by an evil dictator....because there are people like you and me who are going through all of that. Is it really fair to complain about our petty little issues when others have so much catastrophe in their lives? I know they're first world problems, but we shouldn't magnify them so that they dominate our lives.

Appreciate your life. Appreciate the people in your life. Work hard. Listen to the advice that older friends/family give you. Do your best. It'll be okay.

And enjoy your Thursday! Just 2 more days until I leave! Things are starting to get REAAAL, people.