Burn-out is a syndrome conceptualized as resulting from chronic workplace stress that has not been successfully managed. It is characterized by three dimensions:

a) feelings of energy depletion or exhaustion;

b) increased mental distance from one’s job, or feelings of negativism or cynicism related to one’s job; and

c) reduced professional efficacy.

Burn-out refers specifically to phenomena in the occupational context and should not be applied to describe experiences in other areas of life.”

– 11th Revision of the International Classification of Diseases (WHO 2019)

I’ve been a bit absent from the blogs lately. It’s not from a lack of ideas of things to blog about: my “blog backlog” in Trello is stacked deep with important things to write about. And, with the summer, I have more time: not spare time, but enough time that I should, in principle, be able to post more without working over time. The problem seems to be a lack of executive functioning: a (relative) inability to follow-through on the idea, i.e. to do what I’m doing right now,⁠01 So how am I able to write this blog post, the one you're reading at the moment? It appears that blogging about not being able to blog somehow sidesteps the paralytic loop. I'm not sure how that works, but I'm just grateful it's working. which is just open WordPress and write.

If you read my blog on decision fatigue last November, you know that my metacognitive battery has been depleted for several months. There’s a lot of reasons, professional and personal, why that’s been the case. At this point, I’ve been able to recognize my symptoms as consistent with a mild case of burnout, felt most acutely along the definitional dimensions of a) and c) above. This isn’t the first time I’ve felt burned out in a (metaphorically) clinical way, so it’s easier to tell what’s happening and know what I need to do (and what I need to stop doing, which I’ll get to in a bit).

One thing I’ve learned about burnout is that it’s as much emotionally challenging as anything else. Like many of my colleagues, and like many students/faculty/staff at MIT, I take pride in my own high capacity and drive for work. Being able to work hard, at a high volume, over sustained periods of time, is part of my identity; admitting, even to myself,⁠02 Fortunately, the general degradation of my metacognitive skills includes the prudence to not admit to this publicly, to your benefit, dear reader. that there is a limit to that is rough. But it’s also important.

In my decision fatigue post, I wrote:

The thing is, it’s usually easier to tell when your body is injured or exhausted, because it hurts and it can’t do things it usually can. When I went to the gym this morning and couldn’t finish my warmups because I was so physically tired from the last week, that was a sign that I shouldn’t do any more deadlifts, because my body was too tired to do them safely or well. After some difficulty with overtraining, I’ve learned to become better at listening to my body; I’m trying to become better about listening to my brain when it, too, hurts or can’t do things it usually can.

When I’m burned out, what it ‘sounds like’ to my brain and my body is that I have a hard time getting started on work-related[/note] tasks, projects, initiatives,⁠03 And, if it's really bad, non-work-related, which sometimes happens too. even those that I genuinely am excited about and interested in. Everyone has problems with the drudgery of work, but burnout, for me, is when there are things you really want to do but can’t bring yourself to begin. Again, not because you don’t have the time, but because, as my grandpa likes to say, your get-up-and-go has got-up-and-went.

The last time I felt like this was summer 2017. I had been working too hard for too long, drinking too much caffeine for too long, and had a nasty, weeks-long mystery-bout of heartburn-style symptoms that had left me underslept and underfed. So, at the relative last-minute, I took 8 days off and flew west, traveling without my laptop for maybe the first time in my working life. I landed in Utah, drove through Idaho into Wyoming and Yellowstone, then up to Montana to visit Ceri, back to Idaho to see the eclipse, out to Glacier for a day hike, out to Manson, WA to visit my friend Kate, then down to Portland to see my old roommate and fly home.

As I write it, it sounds exhausting, but it was one of the most restful experiences of my life because I didn’t do any work. I brought a bunch of books and didn’t drink any caffeine. I spent every day basically trying to bore myself silly: I would get up and read until I was bored of reading, then wander around aimlessly, maybe practice spinning with my LED dragon staff. The eclipse and the hiking and the visits were basically spur-of-the-moment: little jagged edges of my executive functioning reasserting itself as an active force in my life; an ability to initiate things waking up from a deep coma. Basically, turning the router off and on again, but for my ability to do things.

My goal over the next few weeks is to do that again. Right now, I’m at nerd camp, which isn’t exactly restful (and I’m still working remotely, this blog post included), but is re-centering, and a good change of activity. Next week, I’ll try to take a good solid week of hard vacation. Later in July, I’ll replicate that pattern, with a week at IMO, and then some time in Europe and back home where my goal will be to become as bored as possible — to restore my battery to full capacity.

One reason I’m blogging this, beyond just the desire to blog something, anything, after what feels like a long time away, is I hope to illustrate and validate what some of you reading this may be feeling without the same words or framework for understanding it. Last night, I was talking with one of the junior counselors at my nerd camp, who just finished her freshman year at Taco Bell Architecture University in Palo Alto. She was describing a very similar set of symptoms: the same intellectual curiosity and excitement they’d always had, but a decreased ability to follow through. We talked a lot about my own experience with burnout and the ways her symptoms were similar or different from my own.

I can’t emphasize this enough: you are not a brain in a vat put on the earth to do math at things in economically productive ways. That may be one of the things you choose to do with your time, and if you do, then go for it! But don’t forget to take the time you need to rest and recover, both for your own future productivity (as in the case of a narrow professional condition like burnout), and, more importantly, for the rest of your life.

That’s it. That’s the blog post. Here’s a double rainbow:

I’m three weeks into my MISTI, and I think I’ve pretty much got this 9 to 5 gig down to a skill. Wake up, go to work, code, go for lunch, choke down my ‘mildly’ spiced, tears-inducing meal, play badminton on some days, table tennis on others, code some more, come back to my hotel room, watch some Netflix and fall asleep. It’s mundane and boring and exactly what I need. It’s the first time in the last two years that I’ve stopped to think, to really process things, to take a breather and, in the words of one of my friends, ‘reshuffle my cards’.

I feel spoilt- the company I’m interning at put us up at a very posh apartment-style hotel in one of the leafier subsets of the city. From the balcony of my room on the tenth floor I have a majestic view of the Bangalore bungalows intertwined with lush gardens, and in the early morning before the sun fully rises, I can spot the hills in the distance. One day, I’ll snap out of my crippling laziness and go for a run in the woods behind my hotel, but until that day comes I’m content with sitting on my balcony watching the sun set over the quiet neighborhood, a cup of tea in hand, with no p-sets weighing on me or exams looming in the near future.

A particularly scenic sunset

I’ve thought about so many things that have been lurking in my subconscious for months but that I’ve not had the time or emotional capacity to fully address before. Why in God’s name did I declare Computer Science as my major? I labored through Computer Studies in high school and found it intriguing at best and perfectly frustrating at worst. I don’t have any coding experience to speak of, and my current data science project is the first vaguely pleasant interaction with programming I’ve had. Did I fall victim to a herd mentality, get caught up in the hype and decide that since course 6 seemed to be the right path for so many others, then it must be for me as well? Do I truly believe what I tell everyone who asks me why I chose CS, that it forms a good foundation for me in whatever field I choose to go into later? And then I ask myself another question- if not course 6, then what? I was obsessed with astronauts when I was a kid, but come on- how many people actually end up becoming what they dreamt of being when they were kids, anyway?

I sip my tea and put my legs up on the balcony rail. Ah, I love the autonomy I have. I can eat honey straight out of the jar since it’s mine- I can use a cup twice without needing to wash it- I can get ice cream from the Baskin Robbins downstairs every single day and convince myself that calories don’t count in the summer. Being so far from home has its perks. But I miss my home, every single day. I miss my cat and my brother’s annoying dogs that chew on the ends of my jeans even though I only have two good pairs. I miss my mum hugging me every day before leaving for work and my dad bringing me apples and tangerines and grapes every evening when he gets home. He’d flip if he knew I barely ate any fruit at school.

That train of thought leads me to thinking about next semester. I have resolutions. Not many, but profound ones. First, I need to take my health seriously. No more skipping meals and living on a burrito a day. I need to eat fruit every other day and exercise whenever I can. I should invest in a water bottle and carry it everywhere so I can keep hydrated. Second, I need to resist the urge to oversubscribe myself and overcommit to things. I should create time to be nowhere and do nothing, and I should write more often. Third, I need to make time to do things I actually like, like music. Maybe I’ll start taking violin lessons, or dedicate more time to my piano lab classes.

Bangalore is as close to Nairobi as a city would ever get, I think. It’s vibrant and mildly chaotic with motorcycles, vehicles, buses and pedestrians all jostling for space on the rather narrow roads. I am once more surrounded by familiar brands, like the network provider, Airtel, and the detergent, Persil. I’ve had to switch back to saying ‘serviettes’ instead of ‘paper towels’, and asking if I can have my food packed for take-away instead of to-go. But even as things are almost back to normal, they are still distinctly different. The stares I get as I walk through the grocery store or the food court remind me that I’m an unusual sight, a rare species. Sometimes I feel special and other times I just feel tired. Even then, the small kindnesses never cease, and when I catch peoples’ stares, I instantly get an open smile, and I find myself smiling in return. My spice tolerance has greatly increased, as has my inclination to try new things, like a dessert comprising of carrots and milk solids that’s surprisingly tasty, and a dish that mixes potatoes with oranges in a thick yoghurt-like cream.

(From left) Fellow MIT interns Quiyue Liu ’20, me, Watchara Ouysinprasert ’20, and Diogo Netto ’22

Bangalore Palace

Mulling over my thoughts on the balcony has helped me establish some facts, the biggest being that I’ll never know what the future holds for me, and I should save myself the worry of trying to guess. The best I can do is to make the wisest decisions based on what I know now. Another indisputable fact is that a hot cup of masala tea laced with as much honey as I deem fit can solve almost all my problems, which is a neat trick to have up my sleeve for getting through next semester.

In high school, we liked cooking and baking. We also liked documenting our kitchen adventures, so while we’d cook/bake, we’d make an effort to try to take nice pictures of the process and final result.

But since coming to MIT, we mostly stopped cooking/baking because we no longer had the time for it. And hence haven’t blogged any food related content.

This summer, we’ve had more time to be in the kitchen, and we’ve made a few things we want to share! Fair warning: We do have pictures, but they are not particularly aesthetic or instagramable, since we’ve been out of habit from food-blogging. We only thought to share these recipes here yesterday, after having long eaten everything.

1. Walnut Rugelach

We’ve made this recipe, along with many others from Natashas Kitchen, many times already! Its SO good omg. The dough is flaky and buttery, but not in a gross way (we are probably a minority of people who most of the time don’t enjoy the flavor/smell/anything of butter). The filling is sweet, but not too sweet, and so versatile! Essentially any mix of nuts, dried fruit, and some jam! Here are the beauties before we inhaled them in about half a week.

2. Chicken Taquitos! 

For this recipe, we just looked it up on Youtube. We don’t follow this channel, but if all her stuff is as good as this recipe was, we really should! Anyways, one day we had leftover chicken from a different dish our mom made, so we decided to make taquitos, and boy were they delicious! It was also pretty easy: shred chicken, roll in warmed up corn tortilla, and fry! The only difference we did from the recipe is in the dipping sauce. We didn’t put as much jalapeño and omitted the ranch. It came out !

3. Smashed Potatoes

We watch BA Test Kitchen videos regularly! Being the carbivores we are, we knew we had to make this when we saw Molly making this recipe. We were hesitant about the sauce, because it looked like it had a bunch of random ingredients, including anchovies, mixed together. Our instincts were right. The potatoes themselves, eaten with sour cream, were phenomenal. But the sauce… let’s just say, we won’t be making it again.

4. Arancini

Another Natashas Kitchen recipe! We saw this video sometime last semester, and thought it looked so good! We knew it would take quite a bit of time, between cooking the rice, forming them into balls, breading and frying them, so we specifically set aside a day when we were totally free to make it. Something that’s pretty magical about this dish is seeing how quickly so much liquid gets absorbed into the rice, and also how much more volume the rice takes up after the matter! Something that we feared was that the rice balls would fall apart during the frying process, because we were not sure if we packed them tightly enough or if we added too much cheese to the center. Two of them did in fact fall apart, but they all tasted great so overall it was a success!

5. Sesame Bread

Another BA Test kitchen recipe! We saw this video when it came out last semester, and were waiting until the summer to make it. It was worth it! We ate the whole thing in the matter of days. If we make this again though, we will most likely either add less or no cardamom. We did like the flavor it gave, but felt it was a little overpowering, and might have preferred tasting more of the sesame.

6. Strawberry Rhubarb Pie

We started watching emmymadeinjapan religiously about a year ago. We love her cooking style, and usually like the recipes she likes! So when she said that she’s not a pie person (like us), but loves this strawberry rhubarb pie, we knew we had to make it. It was quite the mission to find rhubarb though. We had to try FIVE grocery stores over the course of two weeks. It was also quite the mission to get the lattice pattern right. It involved many mess ups, re-rolling out the dough, and dealing with the the gross butter smell (because this crust had SO. MUCH. BUTTER.) In the end, the pie was amazing as Emmy said it would be. The filling was sweet and sour, and the crust perfectly flaky.

If we make more recipes during the rest of summer, we will take better pictures of them, and make a follow-up redemption post.

I’m finally all settled into my summer experience in ~~the bay~~

My 6AM-6PM days begin with a long but beautiful commute through the mountains and are filled with hours behind the tissue culture hood. The cells and I, we’ve really gotten to know each other.

In between splitting and seeding cells and learning to increase throughput with the use of all kinds of automated machines and processes,  I’ve found myself genuinely excited to wake up make my way to work. The routine has it’s own kind of charm to it.

In addition to experiencing what it’s like to be a “real adult” in the “real world”, I’ve been able to spend a good amount of time soaking in the California sun and revisiting my childhood dream of becoming a professional artist. The outcome is below:

It’s summer in Cambridge, which means three things:

1. I’ve suddenly become a Plant Dad ™ and am growing tomatoes in my office window
2. The good people of Boston Spinjam are meeting on Mondays on Killian Court right outside my office for some spinspiration
3. It’s time for those of you who might want to be bloggers to share your thoughts with the world!

The best representatives of MIT students are MIT students.

Admissions officers can write about holistic admissions authentically, but we can’t write about what it’s like to live in Conner 2, or plan stuff for REX, or UROP, or decide how to pick your classes, or a really cool new thing you learned today in class, and so forth. MIT works by giving people high standards and great autonomy; the blogs are a specific example of this general case. The mission of the blogs is to allow our bloggers to communicate what being a student at MIT is like. You should interpret this mandate expansively.

In the main, we are looking for bloggers with good judgment who can write clearly and regularly to help communicate to their readers something about what it’s like to be an MIT student through their own experience. We expect you to blog at least once every two weeks and create other kinds of content as the mood strikes. We may ask you to help advise creative projects in the office and serve as a shibboleth for student culture. We pay you for this. It’s a pretty good gig to be honest.

Your application will be read by a small committee including some admissions officers who work on the blogs + the senior bloggers. This application itself was designed mostly by student bloggers to help ask and answer the kinds of questions that might be useful for identifying their kin. Please note that *only* current MIT students may apply to be bloggers (i.e. no prospective students or students at other colleges).

If this sounds like something you might like to do, then head on over to Slideroom and fill out the blogger application, due July 31. If anything isn’t clear, let me know in the comments or via email!

As of one week ago, it is officially summer!!!⁠01 and oh boy does the weather know it... i swear it jumped like 5 degrees celsius as soon as the solstice came around Here’s what I’m up to :D

In like November/December (which seems so long ago now), the concept of summer wasn’t real to me. I couldn’t visualize my actual self having a summer, only what The Ideal Nonexistent MIT Student would be doing in my place. So I applied to some fancy-dancy computer science internships and got some much-less-fancy rejection emails. (Which wasn’t too surprising, given my relative lack of related experience.) This did not particularly get me down, however, because over the winter break I realized that it was my actual self, and not the Ideal MIT Student, who would be existing this summer. And my actual self really wanted to go home for the summer. Like, REALLY wanted to go home. I missed my parents, my house, my city, my dog, my friends…

So I googled for the email addresses of some professors at the university near home, sent out “cold emails” aka begged strangers for a job, and three Skype interviews later, here I am! It turns out that me and my very weird and variegated resume (programming, Latin, linguistics…) are just right for a very particular project: looking at DEEDS, or the *clears throat* Documents of Early England Data Set.

Here’s a real contract! The picture is from the French book Les Pratiques de L’Écrit Dans Les Abbayes Cisterciennes, and the caption in French is describing the subject of the contract (some land being given to monks from Pontigny).

The background is that in medieval England, every time a contract was drawn up for land or property transfer, it was monks who did the writing (since, uh, writing is hard if you are a peasant). They wrote in Latin, of course, on vellum.⁠02 aka pieces of animal skin Over time, the vellum fell apart, and all the little pieces of it were hard to keep track of. The contracts were recopied into big paper books, or cartularies, full of lots of different contracts, about different people and places and things. So although we still have the Latin words themselves, a lot of the original info about the contracts (say, when they were written, where, or by whom) has been lost.

Enter: natural language processing! My job is to work together with some other people with different skillsets and backgrounds⁠03 for example, statistics! i know no statistics, but hot diggity am i very rapidly figuring some out. to try to analyze the wording of the contracts and draw some useful conclusions. Did different orders of monks each have some words or phrases that were particular to them? What does that tell us about those orders (perhaps geographical location, or something about their values or faith…)?

Maybe right now you’re thinking wow, that sounds really boring (like one of my friends said after I told him about my summer job — you know who you are! ;) But I think it’s just the coolest thing I get to write code, attempt and fail to translate medieval Latin,⁠04 it's actually pretty different from classical Latin in terms of vocabulary, and much less well documented -- if anyone knows of a good dictionary, plssss hit me up! and learn a bit of history too along the way.

And you know what? Except for all the sitting,⁠05 oh my god, so much sitting, i'm actually developing back problems having a job is pretty dang awesome. This is not a particularly Hot Take, but wow… getting to go home at 5 pm and have the rest of the night to yourself, rather than having psets and essays and quiz prep follow you home, is incredible. I get to cook dinner with my parents! Or go out with my friends! My mom and I are lifting weights at the YMCA together, and I think I’m going to start running with my dad.⁠06 we run at the nearby high school track, and public school only just got out for the summer

My city is such a beautiful place: filled with flowers and buildings and people.

Time passes differently here, although just as weirdly: at MIT the days are slow because they are full, and the weeks are fast because I am tired. Here, the days are slow because they are empty (or, you know, emptier) and the weeks are fast because I am content. At MIT, I’m happy — I’m always learning, moving forward, making progress, feeling satisfied — but here, my forward pace has slowed.⁠07 although not stopped -- i have learned SO MUCH about real-world programming in the past few weeks that my classes could never have taught me I am warmed by the sun, and like molasses, my time drips sloooooowly off the giant spoon of the universe.

There is much more ahead of me: the fall, new classes, a new room, catching up with MIT friends… but for now there is lunch in the sun with friends, a small dog who welcomes me home each night, cooking with my family and coding with a purpose, and life is very, very good.

A few days ago, Spotify generated a playlist for me that included a song from Bowling for Soup. This, of course, made me think lmao, remember Bowling for Soup? This, of course of course, made me get sad about growing up, so I amplified the sadness by listening to more Bowling for Soup songs. I learned 3 things.

1. The Girl described in “Girl All the Bad Guys Want” could not possibly be any real person who has ever existed. That song is wild.
2. High school never ends.
3. I cannot tell the difference between good and bad music.

In keeping with the theme of nostalgia and high school and growing up, I thought I should write a bit about how different things are now. A lot of people reading the admissions blogs are rising seniors in high school. I am now a rising senior in college. It’s crazy how much can change in that four-year gap.

The summer before my senior year of high school I had no idea what I was doing. I didn’t know if I wanted to be a scientist⁠01 At this point, I was pretty sure I was going to go to school for chemical engineering, since I was ~good at chemistry in high school.~ I was young and naive and blissfully ignorant of 5.12. for the rest of my life. I didn’t know which schools to apply to in the fall, mostly because I had no frame of reference for which schools were out of my league.⁠02 I didn't do sports, I didn't have a lot of leadership experience on my resume, and I didn't want to go anywhere north of Birmingham's latitude because I hated the cold. I was in lab from 9 to 5⁠03 a completely unexpected series of events led to me, a high-schooler, getting the opportunity to work in a real chemistry lab for the summer during the week, working on a project that wasn’t entirely mine.⁠04 this was a relief to me; I am very grateful to have leeched off of one of the very sweet grad students' projects I was anxious because I had to prepare a poster for the poster session at the end of the summer, but I didn’t think I had enough data⁠05 the premise of my project was essentially Is This A Good Way To Purify Large Amounts Of Protein? and the results were essentially No to make a poster. My mentor gave me papers to read, but it felt like they were in another language.⁠06 which added to doubts I already had about me being cut out to be a scientist At lunch time, I would eat a cold sandwich that was somehow always just a little bit wet.⁠07 I like a cold, dry, plain sandwich. The ones from this summer were mostly smoked turkey and cheddar on a very large piece of Publix Cuban bread, and the moisture was coming from either the processed lunch meat or condensation from humid air+refrigerator. Everyone else in the lab was an adult with a life outside the lab,⁠08 the grad student I worked with was married! but I had no idea where they found the time for that. They all seemed so cheery and friendly.⁠09 I was not. Whenever I went home in the evenings, I just wanted to watch TV⁠10 I think that summer I was really into Freaks and Geeks and Wilfred and eat unhealthy food,⁠11 Twizzlers, cherry Coke, a whole bag of sunflower seeds, kettle-cooked chips but I didn’t even have much time for that. My days were long, and I was scared to see where this was going.

That was me at 17. I’m 21⁠12 but no one believes me because I have looked 14 for the past 7 years now, and this is what my 21st summer has been like:

It’s the summer before my senior year of college, and I have no idea what I am doing. I don’t know if I want to be a scientist⁠13 I want to create! But I also need financial support! for the rest of my life. I don’t know which schools to apply to in the fall, mostly because I have no frame of reference for which schools are out of my league.⁠14 You think undergrad admissions is opaque? HahahahhahahahahhhaIdon'tknowhowI'msupposedtogetintoabioPhDprogramwithaCingeneticsbutIwilltryhahahahhhahhahhh I am in lab from 9 to 5⁠15 a completely unexpected series of events led to me getting the opportunity to work in a real Big Pharma biology lab for the summer during the week, working on a project that isn’t entirely mine.⁠16 once again this is a relief to me; I am very grateful that I did not have to find my own novel drug target to work on I am anxious because I have to prepare a poster for the poster session at the end of the summer, but I don’t think I have enough data⁠17 the premise of my project is REDACTED to make a poster. My mentor gave me papers to read, but it feels like they are in another language.⁠18 I've been doing this for at least 4 years and I still have to reread paragraphs over and over to make sure the ideas actually enter my brain At lunch time, I eat a cold sandwich that is somehow always just a little bit wet.⁠19 I still like a cold, dry, plain sandwich. There are no Publixes where I can get the Cuban bread and lunch meat that I like, so I just buy a pre-packaged sandwich from the cafeteria. They always have some kind of wet ingredient like chipotle sauce or herb mayo or meat juice, but I keep eating them anyway. Everyone else in the lab is an adult with a life outside the lab,⁠20 Two of the people in my cubicle block are moms. Additionally, both of the other interns in my cubicle block are heading to grad school in the fall, so I feel like the least capable person in the room most of the time. but I have no idea where they find the time for that. They all seem so cheery and friendly.⁠21 I still am not. Whenever I go home in the evenings, I just want to watch TV⁠22 I haven't seen Into the Spiderverse yet or Stranger Things 3 or the second half of Ramy or a thousand other things I need to watch and eat unhealthy food,⁠23 Pocky, cherry Coke, a whole bag of sunflower seeds, the biggest Laffy Taffy you have ever seen but I don’t even have much time for that. My days are long, but I’m excited to see where this goes.

some things never change, just like my permanently blurry face

i mentioned this in my previous blog post about LA, but let me reiterate: LA is not a city made for walking. like, in any sense. unfortunately, i don’t have my own car here, but also want to see places around the city, so i’ve had to rely heavily on the wheels of other entities, both private and publicly funded. here are some of the trips that i have taken, take currently, and plan to take again.

home to work

my daily route to work as shown by moovit, a public transit app that includes bus and subway routes

this is my daily commute to work. it usually takes about 5-10 minutes longer because of the world renowned LA traffic, but it’s a pretty reliable commute. i usually leave at 7:33 to catch the 7:51 bus⁠01 or 8:00 to catch the 8:11 bus if i decide to sleep in till 7:45 and get to work around 8:20 so i can leisurely eat breakfast in the office kitchen⁠02 for free because the kitchen is stocked 24/7 with chobani, cereal, and coffee - the 3 Cs that make up a perfect breakfast until 8:50, which is around when i usually clock in for the day.

home to sawtelle japantown

my uber route to sawtelle japantown

sawtelle japantown is one of LA’s cultural neighborhoods, and is close enough by to me that i take full advantage of its proximity about once every week. the east coast doesn’t hold a candle to the west coast in terms of japanese stores and restaurants, and japantown brings me a lot of joy because it reminds me of japan a lot. there’s a japanese market that i do groceries at about once every two weeks, and a boba shop that i adore⁠03 catch a more detailed description of noble tea in the boba review post that i will inevitably make . unfortunately, it’s a bit far by bus (a little more than an hour) so i’ve always caved and just taken an uber pool to get there.

work to the beach

walking to the beach from work is a bit far according to google maps

i was really excited about being so close to the beach when i was planning my summer from back in boston, but it turns out that it’s not actually *that* close by…it’s about 3 miles away, a 15 minute drive and a 45 minute walk⁠04 google maps underestimates how fast i walk . i’m usually too tired after work to actually make this trek, so as a result, i’ve only been to the beach twice in the six weeks that i’ve been here :P

work to san francisco

map of our road trip up to the bay area via santa barbara and san ardo

two fridays ago, my MIT friends and i set out on our weekend road trip up to san francisco! my friend picked up a budget car⁠05 which cost like thirty bucks for the whole weekend, and that made me feel sad about how much money i spend on uber from somewhere near caltech, headed over to playa vista to fetch me, and off we went! we took a pretty speedy route up through the countryside of california after stopping in santa barbara to pick up another friend. the middle of california is remarkably unpopulated – peep the tiny city we stopped in for gas in the middle of the trip – san ardo! it has a population of about 500, and had the most incredible view of the night sky. we pulled over on the (single) road that ran through the town after getting gas, and i saw the milky way for the first time! there were shooting stars, planets, and more stars than i’ve ever seen. unfortunately we had to leave earlier than i would have liked because a rattlesnake rattled at us from somewhere in the bushes and we booked it out of there, but maybe i’ll stop by san ardo for gas again someday.

a july 4th adventure with my boyfriend!

we spent the first part of our day in hollywood wandering around the walk of fame and hollywood boulevard…

we spent the next part of our day in santa monica, and took the metro down from hollywood. it was my first time using the LA subway system and it was a pretty good experience

there’s sort of a transit dead zone between santa monica and marina del rey, so we bit the bullet and took an uber because we didn’t want to be late for the marina fireworks!

LA public transit sort of goes dead after 11 pm, but it turns out that uber is REALLY expensive right after the fireworks happen, so we walked around for a bit and waited for uber prices to drop before ubering home. we ended up getting home around midnight, and the uber was still way too expensive :(

i was surprised by how nice the subway system is! people shit on LA public transit a lot, and i think my final opinion on it is that it’s not bad, it’s just missing functionality in a lot of places. for example, i live right in the deadzone that lies between two subway lines, and would have to take the bus or an uber to get to the nearest subway stop because its too far to walk.

having to rely so much on either buses or ubers has forced me to perform a LOT of cost benefit analyses. do i want to pay 7 bucks for an uber pool for a trip that takes half the time or less, or do i want to take public transit, which is basically free at around $1.75 a ride? sometimes i don’t have a choice and have to uber, but most of the time i’m lazy and just take an uber anyways because i don’t want to spend an hour on the bus when i could uber there in twenty minutes. my wallet is definitely taking the hit for this, though.

home to caltech

we decided that we didn’t have enough time in the day to take public transit the whole way to caltech, so we decided to uber to the nearest metro station to save time

we took three subway lines (three!) to get to the closest station to caltech

…and we finished off the trip by walking through the lovely city of pasadena to get to caltech!

this trip made me really frustrated and really proud of public transportation. the trip to caltech took forever and a half – more than two hours to go twenty miles? more than two hours for a trip that i could have done in 40 minutes with a car? it was frustrating and somewhat disheartening because i don’t want to have to rely on a car all the time, especially later when i’m a Real Adult living in a city somewhere. the way back was much faster for some reason – i think we finished the entire trip in an hour and a half, which was much better!

to reflect on this transit masterpost, i’m starting to think that i would like to own a car someday. this sounds weird because *everybody* wants to own a car, but i thought for a long time that i’d like to live in a city where i didn’t need a car to get around, and could just rent one whenever i wanted. having to get around without a car is making me realize how badly i need one, and cities like boston – where you can walk or take the T pretty much everywhere you want – are the exception rather than the norm. i think i would like to live in boston – i like boston a lot because it’s small and walkable and you can rely on your own two legs to get around. but i also realize that i should get out of boston because i’ve lived there all my life and i need to expand my horizons beyond what’s familiar to me.

who knew transit could make you think so deeply about your future life decisions? i definitely didn’t when i started this post, so consider me a learned woman :P

Disney Channel paints a perfect image of exactly what it’s supposed to look like. Instagram feeds filled with beating rays of sunshine. Swimming pools and ice cream sundaes.  Long road trips to new places. Countless visits to the local diner to savor every last bite of your favorite meal. Polaroids scattered in a half-packed bed room. Late evenings spent in the serenity of the people you’ve grown up with, the people you’ve learned to call home.

There’s this subtle (or maybe not that subtle) pressure to make the most out of that last summer before college. To explore. Make Memories. Prepare. After all this is a really special time. A time that momentarily suspends you between the days that were and the days that are to come.

I’m here to tell you that as long as you don’t trip and dislocate your knee cap just a few weeks into break, you, my friend, are going to be just fine. And even if you do trip and dislocate your knee cap, well, chances are you’ll still be fine:

“It’s been about two weeks since I’ve busted my knee. That means a few different things. One, I’ve spent the past fourteen days traveling back in time to the blissful years of childhood care. Two, I’ve been spoilt by 24/7 room service. Three, my sedentary lifestyle has resulted in about a five-pound weight gain. And four, I can finally kind of sort of walk (more like stumble) my way around. Yay for knee dislocations!

To give you a little context, I’ve always secretly taken a lot of pride in not damaging myself. When people shared stories of broken toes and bicycle catastrophes, I thanked God for my overall wellness. I’m a person of numbers and statistics. And a lifelong injury-free streak, was well oddly comforting to me. When I was about four years old, my family and I got into a car accident in India. As we were driving between two cities, we were cruising between two lorries (Indian trucks). And within a split second and one brake pressed and one not, we were caught between the two boulders of metal. All I remember is seeing everyone stumble out of the car as I spit a mouthful of blood, my eyes closing on me. The only other memory I have is holding my grandpa’s best friend’s hand as we made it through the hospital. My mother was getting her broken arm casted up. My grandma was getting her forehead stitched. My grandpa was in surgery. My uncle was in physical therapy. I had survived. Untouched.

Now it’s impossible for someone to experience something like that and not believe that they were somehow impenetrable. That they were protected from pain and damage. Maybe that’s why I was the monkey that I was, 360ing on monkey bars and cartwheeling off of sofas. But more or less, I had this confidence in my own wellness. And although my monkeying around remains a sweet memory of my elementary years, I subconsciously continued to have this faith in my wellbeing.

Of course all of that personal illusion went down the drain when I casually tripped over a curb in an Albertsons parking lot and dislocated my knee. For the first time, I wasn’t whole. Something had gone wrong inside of me. And I could feel it. It hurt. Like bone against concrete. There went that stupid streak of mine. I wasn’t impenetrable. Life was just as unexpected to me as it was to others. And man was that a heartbreaking realization.

I was incredibly lucky to have my aunt with me at the time. Her instincts kicked in and she reduced my dislocation. My mother rushed me to the ER and two weeks later, I’m in a simple knee brace, stumbling my way around. All is well.

Now, it’s really easy to misconstrue this whole thing as me just being overly dramatic (as I usually am). But this has been a blogpost that I’ve been going back to back on publishing.  But I think it’s needed. I need to reminder myself of how delicate our perceptions are. How anything can happen at anytime. (side note: I spent two hours ice skating before ironically falling on concrete) And there just isn’t anyway to foresee it. A knee dislocation is a very drawn out example of that. But as we build lives for ourselves, it becomes important that we all keep the bigger picture in mind. That we remain humble about ourselves and others. That we realize that we too are subject to the actions of time. Because life has it’s own plans. And we’re simply riding along.”

-Me, three summers ago

a survivor of a dislocated knee cap smiling through the tears

Looking back at this, the takeaway remains the same. As you make your way through all that life has to offer, things become increasingly unexpected. The six weeks I spent on bedrest before heading off to college forced me to spend a lot of forced time with not just myself, but the moments I found myself in. And while my summer took quite the turn with crutches and frequent visits to physical therapy, there was a lot that I got out of that summer. Things I wouldn’t trade for anything. I had no choice but to slow things down and take things as they were. And it gave me a new found appreciation for the people and experiences in my life.

To my to-be college freshman, wherever this summer may take you, remember to exist in the present and soak in all that each and every single moment has to offer. Consider yourself warned: avoid parking lots, they punch hard.

I’m away from campus at IMO, but I heard from my colleagues on the phones back in Cambridge that we’ve gotten some inquiries about our essay prompts for the forthcoming cycle, so I’m posting them. I want to be clear that there’s no reason to start on them now, but some people like to begin thinking and planning in advance, which I respect and value (one of the most important things a good college applicant can actually do to help their application is make sure everything is done on time!).

As you may know, we have our own application, with 5 short-answer essay questions (I’ve blogged about the philosophy behind that here). Sometimes we change the prompts between cycles, but this year, we’ve kept them the same as the last few years, to wit:

• We know you lead a busy life, full of activities, many of which are required of you. Tell us about something you do simply for the pleasure of it. (100 words or fewer)
• Although you may not yet know what you want to major in, which department or program at MIT appeals to you and why? (100 words or fewer)
• At MIT, we bring people together to better the lives of others. MIT students work to improve their communities in different ways, from tackling the world’s biggest challenges to being a good friend. Describe one way in which you have contributed to your community, whether in your family, the classroom, your neighborhood, etc. (200-250 words)
• Describe the world you come from; for example, your family, clubs, school, community, city, or town. How has that world shaped your dreams and aspirations? (200-250 words)
• Tell us about the most significant challenge you’ve faced or something important that didn’t go according to plan. How did you manage the situation? (200-250 words)

I want to quote Mikey from his post announcing these prompts in the past:

People often ask me, “How do I stand out in an essay?” or something to that effect. As MIT admissions officers, our primary goal in reading these essays is to get to know you, the applicant. It’s not to be wowed, or feel like we need to read the most unique piece of writing we’ve ever seen. Over my ten years of working in admissions, I’ve probably read over 100,000 essays; after a certain point, there’s just no such thing as a truly *unique* essay. So worry less about coming up with something we’ve never read before (because we most likely have anyways), and focus more on making sure your essays authentically convey who you are (or some aspect of who you are). If I, the reader, am able to learn something new about you, then you’ve written a great response and the essay has served its purpose.

Lots of bloggers have posted about their own approach to essays (see, e.g., this post by me, this one by Krystal, this one by Chris S, and this one by Nisha D.). But mostly, as Mikey said, I’d advise you to be strategically nonstrategic in your own essays, and not try to get into our (or anyone else’s) headspace for your essays.

Here are a few tips, tricks, and aphorisms I’ve found useful over the years:

• You are more interesting than anyone you can pretend to be; indeed, you are compelling and interesting enough as you are (you do not need to be more, or different, than what you are).
• You should learn something new about yourself in every essay you write (otherwise, you’re probably not being introspective enough).
• When trying to decide what to write about, pretend a friend you hadn’t spoken to in awhile had asked the question, not a college (you’ll get less performance anxiety and write more unselfconsciously).
• After you draft your essay, give it to a good friend, and ask them if it sounds like you; if it doesnt, rewrite it until it does (because if your friends can’t see you in your words, how can we?).

Good luck, and happy writing!

TO SET THE MOOD: EX MACHINA SOUNDTRACK

Trying to say something that sounds important?

Hello, hello! I finally have WiFi (most of the time), a working computer, and some free time to go through my photos from the semester and briefly reflect after a hectic last few weeks between final projects, finals, senior week, graduation, traveling, and now MISTI for the summer. But more on all of that to come, I promise!

This past semester, I took 6.S978 to try my hand at the intersection of law and technology, with a focus on privacy policy. I was actually studying in Switzerland the day GDPR was implemented, and in one of my classes we discussed the implications of the legislation and the precedent it set for the global tech community. With privacy becoming increasingly more consequential in our day-to-day lives, I was interested in exploring how I could use my background in Course 6 to better understand and contribute to the policy debate.

For the first class back in February, the Georgetown Law students flew up to Boston to meet us on campus. The rest of the semester, we continued to have our classes together but through video conferencing, using clicker mics to communicate back and forth. The A/V setup worked surprisingly well, and with this new approach to cross-institutional classes, we were able to receive lectures from the professors on the Georgetown side and participate in discussions jointly, and vice versa. We spent our time together reviewing and debating cases, hypotheticals, precedents, and legal frameworks. Each week we’d focus on a new privacy topic, covering ads discrimination, smart cities, and police geolocation in particular. The entire class was centered around developing legislation on one of these privacy areas.

My project team consisted of me, another Course 6 senior, and two Georgetown Law students. We were mentored by Daniel Weitzner, the Founding Director of the MIT Internet Policy Research Initiative in CSAIL and Laura Moy, the Executive Director of Georgetown Law’s Center on Privacy & Technology (my advisor Ilaria Liccardi also helped run the course). We met each week to work on our projects and bounce off ideas. Beyond that, our Georgetown teammates shared with us MIT folks their expertise in crafting, analyzing, and debating legislation. My fellow MIT teammate and I tried our best to learn as fast as we could about the law in the short time we had, and offered our technical background to try to devise robust solutions to modern-day data privacy and handling issues.

We had 8 weeks to research and put together a 17-page white paper, 13-slide pitch deck, and a 22-page piece of state model legislation (and many, many more pages of brainstorming, rough drafts, and notes). Our group focused on smart city transportation technology. Our bill, the TransporTech Act, aims to offer states a piece of model legislation to regulate the increasing volume of data on individuals’ movements in public—by foot, vehicle, or other mode of transportation. 

Taken from our executive summary:

RATIONALE

To ensure the privacy and security of individuals, States should adopt this model legislation to regulate the use of transportation data. Cities across the country are increasingly deploying sensors, cameras, and other technologies to collect data on traffic patterns, pedestrian movements, or public transit usage. This data can then be used, for example, to alleviate traffic congestion in real-time, reduce auto fatalities, or plan for transportation infrastructure projects.

Taken together, the data collected on individuals in a smart city as they walk, drive, or take the bus can reveal sensitive details, including their personal, religious, or sexual associations. Moreover, if law enforcement is given unfettered access to this data, they can surveil individuals without having to lift a finger, and can mine that data for years into the future. This means that, in cities with transportation-tracking technologies, individuals may never feel free from the watchful eye of police. If this data is not secure, malicious actors can likewise obtain the transportation patterns of individuals, perhaps using it to stalk or harm them.

This law curtails the harms outlined above by requiring that the transportation data that cities collect cannot reasonably be traced to individuals; that it be secure; and that police get a warrant if looking to use the data for law enforcement purposes. Further, this law infuses transparency and public accountability into a city’s use of transportation-tracking technologies by requiring that cities disclose the existence and locations of such technologies, and consider potential discriminatory impacts before using a new technology.

 

SUMMARY

This Act provides that local governments must ensure the privacy and security of data they collect on individuals’ movements in public – by foot, vehicle, or other mode of transportation. Cities must follow a tiered framework based on the transportation data’s sensitivity for use and retention. Data that can identify an individual (personal identifier) or a small subset of individuals (quasi-identifier) must be de-identified before it’s ever shared with the public, and police must obtain a warrant before getting access. When a city contracts with a vendor, they must also abide by the data privacy tiers and security requirements. The law requires that local governments establish a Transportation Data Division to carry out the city’s obligations. A statewide Data Review Board also issues guidance to cities.

This Act requires cities to report any potential for bias or discrimination before a
transportation-tracking technology is deployed. Cities must also disclose the locations of all such technologies, any vendors with whom they are doing business, and any additional entities from whom the local government has received transportation data. Individuals can also request access to their data. Finally, this Act provides a private right of action for individuals whose data was handled in violation of the Act. It also provides a suppression remedy for any evidence obtained as a result of transportation data used by law enforcement without first obtaining a warrant.

For our final presentations, we all met down in DC. We MIT folks flew down bright and early Thursday morning and headed straight to the Georgetown Law school from the airport. We had an hour or two to do some last-minute prep and steady our nerves before our presentation. Each team had 10 minutes to present and about 5 minutes to answer Q&As from a panel of privacy experts judging our legislative proposals.

Our presentation went smoothly enough, but the Q&A was by far the most nerve-wracking part. We had a dry-run of our presentation with a Q&A from our professors and classmates two weeks before in class—we even presented through the video conferencing setup, with two of us at MIT, two of us at Georgetown Law—but we had no idea what to expect from the judges who all were leading experts in their respective legal domains. We defended word choices, definitions, and subparagraphs. We argued our rationale for introducing new regulatory bodies and enforcement mechanisms. We worked as a team to answer these hard questions that we didn’t always have complete answers to.

Team Smart Cities A: 2 Class of 2019 Course 6’s & 2 Georgetown Law students

In the end, we were awarded the Black Mirror Wildcard for the most futuristic, comprehensive, and ambitious legislative proposal! Wild, eh? In just one semester, we went from zero to something, an attempt to make sense of the legal frameworks that govern our country and apply it to an open-ended problem. Our model bill was ambitious, indeed, but maybe some of those ideas will trickle into future bills and proposals.

Receiving the Black Mirror award for our model state bill!

This course has definitely made me much more conscious of my own digital footprint and aware of the issues that headline the privacy debate. Sometimes problems can’t be solved with more engineers developing more robust technical solutions, as we learned in this class.  Sometimes that’s where the law needs to step in. And who knew that a Course 6 undergrad with no previous experience in the law could contribute to that conversation?

After our presentations, we got a tour of the National Cryptologic Museum next to the NSA and a really interesting conversation with one of the civil liberties and privacy officers. I stayed an extra day and spent the weekend relaxing in DC and sightseeing, checking out the museums and exploring the city.

A contemplative moment at the Lincoln memorial

The spot where Martin Luther King, Jr. stood to make his “I Have a Dream” speech that I stumbled upon after observing tourists huddling around there

A working Enigma machine used during WWII that we got to test out

Some elements of the DC metro’s brutalist architecture that we know all too well on campus (I’m looking at you, Student Center…)

A new addition to the National Portrait Gallery, colors bold and vibrant

Spent an evening strolling down DC’s Embassy Row and finding a V for Victory

A biometrics exhibit at Hirshhorn Museum, more like an eerie physical embodiment of the topics covered in our privacy law class

Picked up an authentic Georgetown Cupcake from Georgetown and enjoyed it just outside the Capitol

Hello there, NSA

Love the architecture here

A few weeks ago, I took some much needed vacation time to attend World Pride in New York City and celebrate the 50^th anniversary of the Stonewall Riots – a momentous occasion in US history that many argue sparked the modern LGBTQ+ Rights Movement. Throughout Pride Month, we were reminded of Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera – Black and Puerto Rican transgender women who started the Stonewall Riots and are the reason why our country has had so much progress when it comes to the LGBTQ+ community. At the same time, we were sadly reminded that while some in our community have gained many rights, the reality for transgender folks (particularly trans women of color) is that progress has not been as drastic for their community.

This reminded me of a conference I had recently attended, where admissions officers and college counselors were discussing how we can support transgender students in the college application process. One of the biggest takeaways I took from our conversation was that many transgender students want to know why we are asking about their gender identity and if it will be important when they are applying to us. Additionally, our admissions office is striving to be as inclusive to transgender students as possible, but admittedly do not know all of the answers. Thus, I thought I’d be transparent and share some things that I think about when it comes to transgender identity and applying to college.

Why do we ask?

When we are reviewing applications, our first duty is to try to understand the world in which our applicants are coming from; we want to know the context of your environment so that we can evaluate your achievements, accomplishments, and setbacks within your individual context. For example, if I am reading an application from a student in rural Arkansas who has limited opportunities to extracurricular activities and is working a part-time job to support their family, I would take their circumstances into consideration while looking for markers of excellence in their application and I will understand that their application will look different than students from other parts of the country.

The same is true for transgender students. We know that struggling with gender identity can create a lot of strain in high school that could affect a students’ academic performance, we know that some transgender students experience bullying which could contribute to different behaviors in the classroom, we know that teachers may have bias against transgender students which could come up in their letters of recommendation, and we think that for some students, their trans identity may be incredibly important to who they are as a person as we try to learn more about them.

Do you have to disclose to us? Certainly not. However, do know that if you do disclose, your transgender identity will never be held against you in our admissions process.

Do you have to write an essay about trans identity?

Certainly not! We ask 5 short answer essays in our application, including about the community you come from and a hardship that you’ve had to overcome. For some students, writing short essays about their trans identity to answer those questions is the best way for them to fill out their application. If that’s your case, go for it! These can be powerful and helpful essays.

However, we also know that (like all students), transgender students are multifaceted individuals. We ask a drop-down question about gender identity, and there is also room for additional information on our application. You totally can write an essay about transness, or you can let us know in other places on the application and use your essays to write about other aspects of your life. The choice is truly up to you.

What if I am not “out” to my family/guardians/school community?

This is something that has been on my mind recently when thinking about supporting our trans applicants. Some of our transgender applicants are completely “out” to their communities and are advocates in their hometowns; other transgender applicants have not told anyone in their community and a college essay may be the first time they are disclosing this aspect of their identity.

If a parent/guardian/counselor calls our office to inquire about you – what pronouns should we use? If a student has already disclosed in an application that they are trans, we would hate to misgender them. At the same time, we would never want to accidentally “out” a student to someone in their community. Most of the time, when someone calls, we have no idea where a student is at in their coming out process (and this may change throughout the application cycle, just a like a student’s gender identity may change throughout the application cycle).

One solution is to not use gendered language at all in our communication. This is something we’re always striving for, even though it is challenging because we are socialized to thinking about gender as being binary in so many different ways (I challenge cisgender readers of this post to pay extra attention to how much gendered language they use/see for the rest of the day – it’s shocking when you focus on it!).

For students applying – if this is something you’re concerned about, let us know! We want to be as open as possible, and we will protect your privacy. In your application, or in an email to our office, let us know if you are “out” or not and which pronouns we should use with your family (if you are comfortable doing so). MIT is not a regionalized office, but for other colleges that you are applying to, you can also get in touch with your direct regional representative to tell them more about your particular situation. Just know that college admissions officers want to support you as much as we can during this process, and the more we know the better we can do so.

What about overnight stays?

I do believe that MIT does have a lot of supportive policies for trans students – including that our housing assignments are made by your gender identity. We will never place you in a living situation you are uncomfortable with because of your gender identity (comfortable beds is something I cannot promise).

If you are coming for an overnight visit during Campus Preview Weekend, our Weekend Immersion in Science and Engineering, or any other program run by the admissions office, please let us know if your gender identity is a concern of yours. We have forms where we ask about gender and where you’d like to stay, but we also know that forms and checkboxes are never perfect, especially when it comes to identity. You are more than welcome to call us or email us and talk us through your housing concerns so we can find a host to support you. Also, I personally love it when students let me know about ways in which we can be more inclusive – including on our overnight visit request forms. The onus is on us to make the forms as inclusive as possible to begin with, but we are constantly learning and growing ourselves. Many great steps towards inclusion in our process have come because students have reached out and told us about ways we can be better.

One other area I struggle with during our programming is going around the room and introducing ourselves with pronouns. I used to do this at every event because I did not want students to be misgendered by others. At the same time, I know that it can be a lot of pressure for some students to have to “out” themselves (or lie about their identity) if they do not want to say their pronouns in a public setting. Our Title IX Office has recently come out with stickers for pronouns, so that folks who want to be visible and clear about their pronouns can. I have seen the stickers work well, but I also know that introducing oneself with pronouns can be empowering and a public way to show support for the trans community. My goal is to create the most inclusive space that I can, and I still cannot tell if the stickers or public declaration is the best way to go. In an ideal world, everyone would inquire about other people’s gender all of the time, but as a society we are clearly still far from that utopia.

In conclusion, clearly we all have a lot of growth and learning to do. Our work is not done until every transgender student can apply to our institution and not face any obstacles, barriers, or roadblocks. If you are transgender and would be gracious enough to give me your feedback on our process, including things you did or did not enjoy, I am always excited to listen and learn. I also know that it is not your responsibility to educate me, so I will continue to read as much as I can.

I hang a drawing of Marsha P. Johnson at my desk so that every single day I am reminded of the folks in my community who gave me the opportunity to express myself as authentically as I can today. In Marsha’s memory, I will continue to advocate for the transgender community.

Resources:

MIT’s LBGTQ+ Resources

Previous Blog Post about Trans@MIT

MIT’s Support Statement for Trans Students

MIT Resources for Trans Students

At MIT, we have pre-registration as well as regular registration. This confused young freshman me, so slightly less young senior me will try to explain:

• Pre-registration opens very early, and regular registration opens very late. For example, pre-registration for Fall 2019 opened May 1, 2019, but registration won’t open until August 26. This is different from most other universities where you register several weeks or months before the first day of classes.
• Pre-registration is not as binding as regular registration. You can resubmit your pre-reg subjects as often as you want. However, once you submit your regular registration, you will have to complete an add-drop form if you want to make any changes.
• Pre-registration is about helping you figure out what classes you want to take and helping the administrators figure out how popular classes will likely be. There are some classes that are always very popular and that will take pre-reg status into consideration when deciding who gets to take the class.
• You can submit as many classes as you want for either pre-reg or registration. Since pre-registration is required, some people just submit one or two classes to make the deadline while they figure out what classes they actually want to take. Some people still can’t decide when registration period rolls around, so they register for twenty classes, attend the first lectures, and choose which ones to drop. There isn’t a wrong way to do it, just as long as you submit something.
• Incoming freshmen do not have to pre-register. I panicked a little about this after an upperclassmen told freshmen me that I should do it ASAP during orientation week. You’ll register with your advisor, and everything will be fine, even if you don’t get to take the HASS you want to take that semester.

I submitted my Fall 2019 pre-registration on May 1 because I knew exactly what classes I wanted to take in the fall. Then, as has happened the last few times I have submitted my pre-reg without an ounce of doubt in my mind, I had some second thoughts. I just resubmitted my pre-reg yesterday. Only two of the classes that I originally submitted are still on the list. I went from this:to this:

…which is quite the leap. (The pictures are blurry because I grabbed them with snipping tool.) I won’t go into what these classes are about because the schedule will likely change by the time I actually register, but the classes I’ve added are 20.101 Metakaryotic Biology and Epidemiology, 21A.508 Culture and Ethics in Science Fiction Worlds, 4.354 Introduction to Video and Related Media, and 9.72 Vision in Art and Neuroscience. The last one is sort of the reason why I’m writing this post. There are some classes that you won’t really find out about unless you read the course catalog. I can’t believe it took me three years of MIT before I actually decided to look at the entire course catalog. You should do it. Now. Here is the link.

I have spent a whole afternoon looking at this catalog now, thinking about what could have been. I only have a year left at MIT, and there’s no way I’m going to get to take all the classes I’ve discovered, despite MIT’s unlimited units policy.⁠01 this is legit one of the best things about MIT--you can register for as many classes as you want, as long as the number of units is greater than or equal to 36! you pay the same tuition regardless! unfortunately I am only mentally equipped for about 4.5 classes a semester so I've been sticking to degree requirements This post will serve as the repository of courses that I likely won’t get to fit into my final year, a sampling of what could have been. Tag yourself!

Course 1

1. 1.007: Big Engineering: Small Solutions with a Large Impact
2. 1.009: Climate Change
3. 1.018/7.30/12.031: Fundamentals of Ecology
4. 1.057: Heritage Science and Technology
5. 1.063: Fluids and Diseases⁠02 I just imagine one big sneeze
6. 1.081/20.104: Environmental Cancer Risks, Prevention, and Therapy
7. 1.084: Applied Microbiology
8. 1.089: Earth’s Microbiomes

Course 2

1. 2.180/6.027: Biomolecular Feedback Systems
2. 2.184/9.34: Biomechanics and Neural Control of Movement
3. 2.787/HST.535: Tissue Engineering and Organ Regeneration
4. 2.799: The Cell as a Machine⁠03 I find molecular motors really interesting

Course 3

1. 3.034A: Organic and Biomaterials Chemistry
2. 3.094: Materials in Human Experience
3. 3.095: Introduction to Metalsmithing⁠04 nothing more badass than a forge
4. 3.985/5.24/12.011: Archaeological Science
5. 3.987: Human Evolution: Data from Paleontology, Archaeology, and Materials Science

Course 4:

1. 4.110: Design Across Scales and Disciplines⁠05 I was going to take this last semester, but I was worried I wouldn't have enough time for a fifth class (turns out I kind of did)
2. 4.301: Introduction to Artistic Experimentation
3. 4.320: Introduction to Sound Creations
4. 4.602: Modern Art and Mass Culture

Course 5

1. 5.08/7.08: Biological Chemistry II
2. 5.353: Macromolecular Prodrugs
3. 5.361: Expression and Purification of Enzyme Mutants
4. 5.362: Kinetics of Enzyme Inhibition

Course 6

1. 6.580/20.305: Principles of Synthetic Biology⁠06 I've read up on Synthia a bit and I am amazed
2. 6.805/STS.085 Foundations of Information Policy
3. 6.903: Patents, Copyrights, and the Law of Intellectual Property

Course 7

1. 7.20/HST.540: Human Physiology
2. 7.21: Microbial Physiology
3. 7.23/20.230: Immunology
4. 7.26: Molecular Basis of Infectious Disease
5. 7.27: Principles of Human Disease and Aging⁠07 aggghhhhh I want to take this so bad I've been working on DNA damage research for two years now
6. 7.28: Molecular Biology
7. 7.31: Current Topics in Mammalian Biology: Medical Implications
8. 7.33/6.049: Evolutionary Biology: Concepts, Models, and Computation
9. 7.37/10.441/20.361: Molecular and Engineering Aspects of Biotechnology
10. 7.371: Biological and Engineering Principles Underlying Novel Biotherapeutics
11. 7.46: Building with Cells
12. 7.64: Molecular Mechanisms, Pathology, and Therapy of Human Neuromuscular Disorders
13. 7.70: Regulation of Gene Expression
14. 7.72: Stem Cells, Regeneration, and Development⁠08 I took a developmental biology class last semester and now I am torn between wanting to study cancer or neuroscience or development or regular cell bio
15. 7.77: Nucleic Acids, Structure, Function, Evolution, and Their Interactions with Proteins
16. 7.95: Cancer Biology
17. 7.98/9.301: Neural Plasticity in Learning and Memory

Course 8:

1. 8.282/12.402: Introduction to Astronomy
2. 8.286: The Early Universe

Course 9:

1. 9.00: Introduction to Psychological Science
2. 9.012: Cognitive Science
3. 9.04: Sensory Systems
4. 9.13: The Human Brain
5. 9.16: Cellular and Synaptic Neurophysiology
6. 9.24: Disorders and Diseases of the Nervous System⁠09 it's amazing how I am vehemently opposed to going to med school when I find disease so fascinating
7. 9.26/20.205: Principles and Applications of Genetic Engineering for Biotechnology and Neuroscience
8. 9.32: Genes, Circuits, and Behavior
9. 9.35: Perception
10. 9.42: The Brain and Its Interface with the Body
11. 9.46: Neuroscience of Morality
12. 9.48/24.08: Philosophical Issues in Brain Science
13. 9.49: Neural Circuits for Cognition
14. 9.85: Infant and Early Childhood Cognition

Course 10

1. 10.424: Pharmaceutical Engineering
2. 10.443: Future Medicine: Drug Delivery, Therapeutics, and Diagnostics
3. 10.495: Molecular Design and Bioprocess Development of Immunotherapeutics
4. 10.540: Intracellular Dynamics
5. 10.548/HST.525: Tumor Microenvironment and Immuno-Oncology: A Systems Biology Approach⁠10 I just recently found out about the tumor microenvironment field and honestly everyone should be a course 7 why isn't everyone a course 7
6. 10.606: Picturing Science and Engineering
7. 10.644/HST.914: Frontiers in Therapeutics and Drug Delivery

Course 11

1. 11.015/21H.226: Riots, Strikes, and Conspiracies in American History⁠11 I like the messy side of history
2. 11.133/21A.302/WGS.271: Dilemmas in Biomedical Ethics: Playing God or Doing Good?

Course 12

1. 12.001: Introduction to Geology
2. 12.007: Geobiology: History of Life on Earth
3. 12.177: Astrobiology, Origins, and Early Evolution of Life⁠12 I Want To Believe
4. 12.178: The Phylogenomic Planetary Record
5. 12.400: The Solar System

Course 14

1. 14.64 Labor Economics and Public Policy

Course 16

1. 16.400: Human Systems Engineering
2. 16.423/HST.515/IDS.337: Aerospace Biomedical and Life Support Engineering⁠13 NASA pls hire me to do experiments on your astronauts

Course 17

1. 17.20: Introduction to the American Political Process⁠14 I think everybody needs to take this class
2. 17.28/21H.213: The War at Home: American Politics and Society in Wartime
3. 17.315: Health Policy
4. 17.42: Causes and Prevention of War
5. 17.581: Riots, Rebellions, Revolutions

Course 18

1. 18.781 Theory of Numbers⁠15 F-cking Numbers, How Do They Work?

Course 20

1. 20.020: Introduction to Biological Engineering Design Using Synthetic Biology
2. 20.202: In vivo Models: Principles and Practices⁠16 I care about the mice
3. 20.213: Genome Stability and Engineering in the Context of Diseases, Drugs, and Public Health
4. 20.365: Engineering the Immune System in Cancer and Beyond
5. 20.375: Applied Developmental Biology and Tissue Engineering

Course 21A

1. 21A.01 How Culture Works
2. 21A.103/STS.046/WGS.225: The Science of Race, Sex, and Gender
3. 21A.120: American Dream: Exploring Class in the US
4. 21A.132/21G.058: Race and Migration in Europe
5. 21A.155: Food, Culture, and Politics
6. 21A.305/STS.062: Drugs, Politics, and Culture
7. 21A.311: The Social Lives of Medical Objects⁠17 I took 21A.500 Technology and Culture with the professor of this class (Moran-Thomas) and she was great
8. 21A.411/21H.380: People and Other Animals
9. 21A.501/STS.074: Art, Craft, Science
10. 21A.505/21G.069/STS.065: The Anthropology of Sound⁠18 almost took this last semester but scheduling conflict
11. 21A.520: Magic, Science, and Religion⁠19 I think this is the class I heard about where they brought in actual witches as guest speakers

Course 21G

1. 21G.024/24.906: The Linguistic Study of Bilingualism
2. 21G.111: Chinese Calligraphy⁠20 stroke order and direction and no prior knowledge of Chinese required
3. 21G.705: Intensive Beginning Spanish for Medicine and Health⁠21 I took four years of Spanish but I haven't used it since high school so I probably need beginner training

Course 21H

1. 21H.00: The History of Now⁠22 this is supposed to be like a current events + historical context seminar
2. 21H.001: How to Stage a Revolution
3. 21H.273: From Coca to Cocaine: Drug Economies in Latin America⁠23 I took IB History of the Americas and developed a heavy interest in Latin American history but ended up not declaring that as my HASS concentration and maybe I regret it a little
4. 21H.315: American Consumer Culture
5. 21H.332: Christianity in America
6. 21H.333: Early Christianity⁠24 I went to Christian school until eighth grade, and though I can recite whole chapters from the Bible, I know very little about the early church
7. 21H.381/WGS.222: Women and War

Course 21L

1. 21L.013/21M.013: The Supernatural in Music, Literature, and Culture
2. 21L.024: Literature and Existentialism
3. 21L.580: Translations⁠25 the IB English Lit works in translation unit was my favorite

Course 21M

1. 21M.608: Screenwriting⁠26 I wish I was funny enough to be professionally funny
2. 21M.623: Physical Improvisation⁠27 maybe this would help me be less stiff

Course WGS

1. WGS.228: Psychology of Sex and Gender
2. WGS.250: HIV/AIDS in American Culture

Course 24

1. 24.00: Problems of Philosophy
2. 24.09: Minds and Machines
3. 24.118: Paradox and Infinity
4. 24.120: Moral Psychology
5. 24.211: Theory of Knowledge⁠28 a third shoutout to IB
6. 24.221: Metaphysics
7. 24.230: Meta-ethics
8. 24.9000: How Language Works⁠29 I wanted to take linguistics classes but the way things are scheduled, it wouldn't have worked out well unless I took 24.900 Intro to Linguistics my freshman fall. Additionally, I'm anxious that formally studying linguistics would make me enjoy it less
9. 24.901: Language and Its Structure I: Phonology
10. 24.904: Language Acquisition
11. 24.914: Language Variation and Change
12. 24.915: Linguistic Phonetics

Edgerton Center

1. EC.305: Digital and Darkroom Imaging⁠30 someone please explain to me how photos are developed

Health Sciences and Technology

1. HST.031: Human Pathology
2. HST.081: Hematology⁠31 hematopoetic stem cells? dope
3. HST.516: Sleep and Circadian Clocks: From Biology to Public Health
4. HST.718: Anatomy of Speech and Hearing
5. HST.721: The Biology of the Inner Ear

Naval Studies

1. NS.22: Navigation⁠32 pretty sure this class is just for ROTC kids but I would love to be able to navigate using the stars and such

Science, Technology, and Society

1. STS.009: Evolution and Society
2. STS.050: The History of MIT⁠33 I'm gonna try and take this as a listener wish me luck

Okay, in retrospect maybe this isn’t the best “tag yourself” prompt. It does kind of read like the results of a personality quiz, though. A personality karyotype. I think it’s interesting how the categories with the most classes are the ones that I have considered majoring in (sorry courses 15 and 22). Congrats for making it to the end of the post. Your prize is a couple of screenshots of a funny thing my phone did. Glad to know I am visually similar to sad cats.

A collaborative post by guest blogger Jessica Quaye ’20 and Caroline Mak ’18

---

Preface:

This past Friday after finding out about his passing, Jessica and I learned that we both had known Professor Winston .  We shared with each other how he made an impact on our lives and also learned about other students’ unique stories with Prof. Winston.

Like he would say, ‘You won’t be alone if you take care of your people’, so we highlight his legacy through our collective memories.

 

The official MIT News orbiturary is here.

---

Jessica:

 

Do you know that feeling when someone is explaining something to you multiple times, but you’re just not getting it?

And you feel bad, because they keep trying even though you can see that they’re frustrated?

But despite trying your best, nothing becomes clearer.

That is how I feel reading “Patrick Winston died early this morning”.

 

It’s really difficult for me to process that I will no longer see Professor Winston, one of the few professors who managed to make MIT feel like home.

 

6.034, Artificial Intelligence

 

Everyone who knows me knows how much I loved and admired Professor Winston. There are many geniuses at MIT, but not all of them prioritize and humanize people the way Professor Winston did. I took this picture during the last 6.034 lecture, when he was summarizing the lessons he wanted us to take away. On that day, there were many other slides but he spent a great deal of time talking about how important it was to prioritize togetherness (especially in a place like MIT where it is easy to isolate yourself when overwhelmed with work).

Each lecture he taught enriched me technically and shaped me into a better member of my community – In both 6.034 and 6.803, he would either start the class with an interesting short story and accompanying life lesson, or end it with advice he had picked up from the author of the paper we read.

He was an epitome of a stellar professor – one who balanced his wealth of technical expertise with valuing people so beautifully that to me, his biggest teaching instrument was his exemplary lifestyle.

I am grateful to have experienced someone who thoroughly understood and contributed to the magic of MIT, and I pray that his soul finds rest.

Caption: I took this picture before our last chat because I thought it was cute. I think it does a good job capturing all that I want to say. Rest in Peace, Professor Winston. You were my favorite – Jessica Quaye

Caroline:

Every year MIT solicits nominations for Institute awards, one of which is the Excellence in Mentoring award given to a professor who serves as an advisor.

The 2015 recipient of that award was my freshman year advisor, Professor Patrick Winston. In my nomination of him, I wrote about the impact his mentoring had on me, particularly that year. Since it’s been five years later and I’m even now still processing his passing, I think the words from back then convey what he means to me best.

“As a freshman this year there were multiple traumatic experiences with the suicides, one of which early on I was very personally affected by.

He took each time afterwards to email me and ask me how I was, and even that genuine question, invitation to talk, was incredibly appreciated.

He’d always invite each of his advisees to talk in his office and very often had open doors for me to pop in when I’m around in Stata.

He never seemed in a hurry to have me go after meetings and we’ve had wonderful philosophical and personal conversations. However, one of the most important things he’s said is that:

“MIT is not a war”, “what are you doing for fun?”

Making sure my expectations for myself were reasonable, and stressing the importance of balance was incredibly echoing later on as stress piled up, and it’s been a pleasure to have him as my first freshman advisor. – May 15, 2015”

Winston, I will miss rollerblading into your office, and I will miss you, so much.

Prof. Winston receiving the Excellence in Mentoring Award May 2015

President Reif:

“… Patrick’s humanity and his dedication to the highest principles made him the soul of EECS. I called on him often for advice and feedback, and he always responded with kindness, candor, wisdom and integrity. I will be forever grateful for his counsel, his objectivity and his tremendous inspiration to our students. MIT will miss him. I will greatly miss him too.  – L. Rafael Reif ”

Full letter from Reif will be posted at president.mit.edu

Facebook stories shared with permission:

Also I am sure that many more people have their stories to tell. Just email me at azukibean@mit.edu if you want to add yours (Doesn’t have to be Facebook lol).

The tech is also collecting stories that you can submit at news@tech.mit.edu

alternate subtitle: how I learned to stop worrying and throw some food in a pan

Almost exactly twelve months ago, I had never cooked a full meal in my life, if you don’t count boiling a hot dog, pouring myself a glass of water, and taking ready-to-eat baby carrots out of the fridge. Learning to cook was the one thing I hadn’t crossed off all of those “get your child ready for college!” lists; when I read those lists out loud to my parents, they’d say “I think we’ve done a pretty good job! Well, except for…” Except for the cooking. Cue shrug from me.

At just about same time, June/July 2018, I and the rest of the Class of 2022 were submitting our dorm ranking choices, agonizing over the wait for results, and frantically refreshing the myhousing.mit.edu page to find out where we had been assigned.

My parents (who met at a university with a mandatory 20-meal/wk. dining plan) thought it was crazy that I was considering living in a dorm with kitchens instead of a dining hall, and a 10+ minute walk from any other dining hall to boot. “This is OUR Shuli? The one who doesn’t even eat fruit if we don’t cut it up first?” 01 This is a true story about senior-year me. Of now-me, I will say only that necessity (read not getting scurvy) is the mother of invention (read getting off my ass).

My line at the time was, I don’t mind a walk to the dining hall! It might be nice to be able to cook myself dinner sometimes! I can just get on a medium-sized meal plan and see what works best for me!

Flash forward like two months. It’s October of freshman year, I have already downgraded from medium-medium meal plan to small-medium meal plan, going to the dining hall is starting to seem like an increasingly unnecessary chore, and you know what? It turns out I like cooking my own food, and I’m pretty good at it, actually.

Hey, what’s that noise? It’s so quiet, I can barely hear it… Oh, I know! It’s my entire family dying of shock.

To be honest, I was pretty surprised, too, but when I look back it totally makes sense. I’m not the worst picky eater, but I have a few favourite dishes I really like, and I’d happily eat those all the time. When I eat with my family, of course, the meal depends on all of our wants and needs. But when I’m on my own, why would I go to the dining hall and have to make my choice out of those options, usually only ending up with something I like okay,⁠02 or a few sad times, something I don't even like at all when I could cook exactly what I wanted to eat? Dudes: it’s revelatory. I cook when I’m hungry, and I cook whatever it is I want to eat at that exact moment. And I love it.

In preparation for another wonderful year of cooking and eating delightful hit-the-spot dishes, I wanted to shore up my skills a bit this summer. During the year, it’s hard to try new things, because it’s such an investment: it takes me much longer to make something I’ve never tried before, I make more of a mess and then have to clean it up, and even just buying all the ingredients can require an extra grocery store trip,⁠03 there is nothing I hate more than standing in the store and realizing I'm not quite sure if I need /this/ spice or /that/ spice, and I have no clue where to find the cans of whatever, all while my basket grows heavy in my hands and my psets await me at home... no mean feat in MIT’s food-deserty location.

But during the summer, I have access to a car, and a well-stocked kitchen,⁠04 no offense to putz kitchen. it contains many wonderful things, but absolutely zero lids that actually match a pot. and two people I can coerce into helping me! It’s the perfect time to perfect some recipes, so that when fall comes, I can shop and cook with skill and ease.

Here are some delicious things my parents and I have cooked this summer! I have linked a recipe for each one.

Overnight Oats

These seem to be getting really popular lately? I feel like you’ve either heard wayyyy too much about these already, or you’ve never heard of them at all. In any case, overnight oats are (IMHO) a better and easier version of oatmeal. You take some dry oats, dump a bunch of milk on them, and maybe put some honey or vanilla in the milk. Then you refrigerate overnight, microwave in the morning, and presto! A filling⁠05 like, rEALLY filling, if your previous breakfast experience includes things like an applesauce cup or two small slices of bread breakfast with approximately 3 minutes of total effort. If you’re real bougie, try adding some coconut milk,⁠06 we bought a big can and froze ice cubes of it to use one by one toasted almonds, blueberries, or maple syrup.⁠07 only REAL CANADIAN MAPLE SYRUP THOUGH, none of you Americans' terrible fake corn syrup. that stuff is a pale comparison at best, like a human next to a greek god in their true form. if you have only had fake maple syrup then you know nothing, less than nothing, you know NEGATIVE about maple syrup. sorry ! At risk of sounding like an infomercial, every time I eat it, I’m surprised that something so easy could taste so good!!

Spinach-and-tomato dal

When I had a ton of classes in Stata spring semester, I got really into the Stata cafeteria’s dal (the only good dairy-free food they have, tbh, and it’s such a good source of protein!). But it was ridiculous to be paying $10 a day for a bunch of lentils, and ridiculous how sad I felt whenever I showed up and it wasn’t on the menu. So, this summer I’ve been trying out some dal recipes so that I know what spices I want to buy when I get back. I’m hoping to cook and freeze some huge batches, and then always have super-fast, vegetarian⁠08 I'm not a vegan, but it seems like becoming more of one can only be a good thing for me, other creatures, and the earth. lunch that makes me happy!

This spinach dal is my favourite because it only has a couple spices (perfect for someone who only has one cabinet, such as myself) and it comes built-in with vegetables. Add rice and it’s literally a whole meal, which is ideal. I definitely add more spinach, and a LOT more tomato, than the recipe — the burst of flavour from the tomatoes is the best part

Marinara sauce

I saw this NYT recipe for making marinara sauce from scratch and after I read the comments (a thousand variations on “this recipe is perfect just the way it is and you should not change a single thing or ever make anything else”), I realllllllly wanted to try it. The main ingredient is “San Marzano tomatoes, certified D.O.P if possible,” and the crowd in the comments section was adamant that nothing but San Marzano would do.

I emailed the link to my mom and said, hey, do you think Loblaws⁠09 local generic grocery store chain; think star market would carry these specific fancy tomatoes? She said, let’s go to Pusateri’s. Pusateri’s, you ask? Think Whole Foods, but even more so. How much more so? When we walked in the door and looked into the store, the San Marzano certified D.O.P. tomatoes were the first thing we saw. Like magic.

I squished these whole, canned tomatoes into oblivion (and had tomatoes under my nails for days), and then we threw them in a pan. And that was pretty much it! This sauce was easy and delicious — and yes, I could tell the difference from store-bought. (I’m sure the fresh basil from my mom’s tiny pot in front of the garage didn’t hurt, either.) I will definitely make it again, although I wouuuuld recommend maybe a tiny pinch of sugar or baking soda to cut the acidity just a bit. Don’t tell the commenters I said so

Blueberry basil ginger lemonade

So, I guess I can stop right here, because I’ve literally just told you every ingredient in this drink. But I won’t, because if I did you would miss out on hearing about the amazing second food contained within this food!! The instructions say: simmer blueberries in sugar water; blend with basil and ginger; strain and discard solids. But this is a dirty trick! The so-called solids are in reality… jam. Sugary, well-pureed blueberries with a hint of ginger and basil? Why throw it away? Honestly, the lemonade is great (especially with a bit of seltzer/club soda), but the jam is the bigger win, as long as you’ve got good bread to put it on. The way the strong, familiar blueberry taste is balanced out by the other flavours (which are a bit lost in the drink version) is something that I don’t think you can find in many commercial products.

Dessert Summer Rolls

Sorry, no recipe here! These came out of my own head. For several years, I’ve loved traditional “summer” rolls (a.k.a. cold rolls), which are like spring rolls, but wrapped in translucent rice paper rather than fried dough. The versatility of the dish (I mean, you can wrap anything you want in rice paper as long as it fits…) made me wonder about what a dessert version of it would be like. Instead of noodles, maybe the base could be sweet coconut sticky rice (my family uses this recipe, approximately). The proteins and veggies could be swapped out for fruit: mango as a base, since that fits with the rice, and then…?

I wasn’t sure what the last ingredient should be for a long time. When we finally bought materials last weekend, we picked up nectarines and apples (and were also considering cucumbers). But I can report quite surely that the apples were the way to go: the crunch they bring is honestly the most important part of all. We saved extra sweetened coconut milk and used it for a dipping sauce. It was amazing!!

It’s often said that nothing tastes better than food you cooked yourself. But I want to add something to that: nothing tastes better than food you designed, shopped for, tinkered with, and cooked yourself.

Cooking is a magic on par with engineering, for me. It’s a place where you can begin by setting aside any need for rules and logic, and instead thinking, what would happen if I added this? Or just threw in some of that? If I put a giant wheel on the top? And once your idea has come to beautiful fruition, you can perfect it; bring back the math and the numbers, tweak things this way and that way, until it all comes out just right. And not anyone’s just right, but yours: the just right you envisioned from the start. And when it hits your tongue, it tastes soooooo good.

some food pics I have that I like, but that didn’t make the cut (mostly because I didn’t make them): poke, cherries, kompot 

As a part of MIT’s unconventional housing assignment process, the Class of 2023 has been spending their summer deciding where to live with the assistance of the MIT guide to residences. One major component of this process are the so-called Interactive Introduction to the Institute (I3) videos, which are produced by students to show off their life and culture of their residence halls.

In the ’90s and early ’00s, these were recorded to VHS tapes, and later DVDs, but with the advent of YouTube/Vimeo/etc they are now posted online, so I thought I would embed them below for those of you who want a peek into how the different MIT residences choose to tell their story to their incoming classmates!

Because New House is split into several cultural living communities, each one tends to make their own I3 video; this year, not every community has a video posted, but I’ve embedded the ones that do exist below. 

Inspired by Ceri’s Dear July 

Dear July,  

You are special this time.

Not that you weren’t before,

but it’s just that this time you are particularly special. 

Because you are the last one that precedes certainty – at least for now.

You brought us work experience that challenged us, July. We got some things right and many things wrong. But we learned from the mistakes and are prepared to do better when we meet your older sister August. 

You were kind, July. You let us spend time with our high school friend, who is working close by! And we went on walks with our mom every night! Okay fine, almost every night. 

You were also not-so-kind, July. You made us move again, for the sixth time specifically 

(fifth, if we only count the times we remember)

But it wasn’t all bad. We dug up so many memories, pictures, and projects that we hadn’t seen in years, and laughed a lot! So for that, thank you.

But mostly, you were confusing July. Senior year is coming up. You reaffirmed our choices, but then made us question them. You made us excited for the future, but also scared. We made spreadsheets and lists, and spoke conversations and conditionals. 

Still, we are taking your confusion into tomorrow, despite our efforts to organize it away. So we will welcome the uncertainty that succeeds you, and take things one day at a time. Just like we did with you. 

my summer is coming to an end. i think shuli mentioned this in a previous blog post: the days go by slowly but the weeks speed by. here are some things that i’ve taken away from this summer. these things aren’t from one particular category of my thoughts – they are very random and i’ll be impressed if you can catch a single thread of coherence running through them.

• sometimes it’s fine to take a weekend off and not be “productive”. feeling guilty about not being productive isn’t healthy and is probably an instinct instilled by our capitalistic society
• don’t run without stretching. i got shin splits within a week
• relatedly, chug water after you run because the LA air is dry and you’ll wake up the next morning with a sore throat if you don’t
• waking up at 7:15 is too early, but 8 is too late. 7:45 usually does the trick
• setting one alarm never works
• Lyft is way cheaper than Uber late at night
• boba with 25% sugar tastes just as good as regular boba
• i want to be a designer, not a coder.
• there are very few women in the game industry and this is still a huge barrier to entry into the industry in the year of our lord 2019
• eating the same thing for lunch and dinner every day does, in fact, get boring
• dumb, impromptu decisions are sometimes really fun but sometimes aren’t actually very fun at all
• cloud’s up air in super smash ultimate is really good, and his recovery sucks ass
• getting good at 2D platformers requires practice
• the sims is more addictive than i remember it being
• eating snacks does positively correlate to gaining weight
• weight isn’t actually that easy to lose
• getting into routines is hard
• falling out of routines is also hard
• my body really has aged and no longer can function on less than seven hours of sleep
• working 9-6 is exhausting
• imposter syndrome is a thing in the real world, not just at MIT
• having a standing desk is nice, but i can either stand or get work done
• playing educational videos in the background is a good way to stop yourself from using your phone at work
• having no social life has its ups and down
• clothes take 24 hours to air dry to my satisfaction
• out of all the cities i’ve lived in so far, i think boston is still my favorite
• i want to live somewhere that’s not boston. i want to get out of boston.
• living in LA without a car sucks
• LA is too flat for my taste. i feel exposed
• california is a beautiful state
• i have a strong fear of having to decide what i want to do after college
• i want to work in the game industry, but not as a programmer
• drivers in LA don’t know how to use their blinkers
• i want to take a roadtrip around the united states
• the learning curve on blender is too damn high
• sometimes its easier to write code than to learn a software
• sometimes writing code is fun
• code is a tool but not the be all end all

Step 1: Wait and Hope

You have to wait. Not a week. Not a month. At least a year! Check your emails frequently. If you wait and hope hard enough, you will eventually see it.

A free organ!!

Step 2: Alert the Others

Make sure people in your community are ok with this new addition to the family and get ready to catch the organ!

Mimi S. ’22 doing her part

Step 3: Wait and Hope II

At this point, others have claimed the organ before you. Don’t lose hope! Maybe take a trip to California, or something. I don’t know. I don’t control you.

Despair…

Step 4: Wait and Hope III

…

Step 5: Claim

Claim it. Claim the organ. It’s yours now.

She did it! So proud! ^-^

Step 6: Prepare for movement

Get a U-Haul. A dolly. Quite a few people, at least two of them need to be strong. Coordinate! Don’t wait until the morning of to put everything together!

Step 7: Worry

Worry that everything is going to fall apart and prepare for the worst case scenario by constantly thinking about it.

Step 8a: git fetch organ

Jonathan L. ’20, Sarah W. ’21, Jo M. ‘GRT, Chris X. ’21, ready for action!

This is when everything comes into play. Make sure everyone understands what they have to do. Communicate with the organ donor. If there are too many people to fit in the front of the U-Haul, just jump into the back of the truck and get comfy.

Jo M. ‘GRT comfy in the back of a U-Haul.

Step 8b: git sick

Become incredibly nauseous to the point where you can’t actually help at all and sleep on your futon for essentially the entire ordeal while trying not throw up. Throw up anyway. Regret not being able to partake in the fun and joy of carrying an organ back home. Become empty inside. This void will be filled by your new organ!

Step 9: Pick up the organ

Jonathan L. ’20 and Jo M. ‘GRT bringing organ down some steps

Jonathan L. ’20 and Chris X. ’21 prepping organ for transport

Step 10: Load up the organ

The whole team together. Thank you Mr. and Mrs. Lanza for the new organ!

Step 11: Bring it up a whole 4 flight of stairs

Chris X. ’21 and Drew H. ’22 ready to go!

Drew H. ’22 happy to be in a somewhat safe place.

Avital B. ’20, Sarah W. ’21, and Avery N. ’22 bring the organ to its final resting place.

Step 12: Gather ’round the organ

A lovely celebration of a lovely instrument!

That’s it! You now have an approx. 100 year old organ in your very own home. But that can’t really be it? Can it? No! Now begins the best part!

Step 13: Restoration

Yum! Instructions! Simply delicious!

Using your official American Reed Organ restoration book, fix anything that might be wrong with your fancy new antique organ! Bellows not working? Fix them! Keys janky? Please fix it. I’m begging you. The B flat key doesn’t work really well. How am I supposed to play music like this? Come on!

I, Giorgano Giorganna, have a reed that I know is right and just!