This week\u2019s post is going to be a sampling of a little bit of everything which is representative of my scattered brain as the semester nears to a frightening end and I\u2019m trying to gather up all my loose ends now so that I\u2019ll be able to look back at a skillfully tied bow when I board my plane home back to San Diego in a few weeks (this run on sentence probably represents my zipping mind as well!).<\/p>\n
Reading Period (a week without classes right before Final Exam week) officially ends Thursday night (May 3), which means the first official day of Final Exams is May 4, AHHHH! Now this definition of Reading Period, which you\u2019ve probably seen all over this blog, is kind of a misnomer because there are still tons of classes and responsibilities in the form of review sessions, optional (but not really) sections, and the like. For many students (non science kids usually), Reading Period is a time to crank out tons of Final Papers and many classes have Final Presentations and Projects due as well. Language classes also tend to take place during Reading Period but also typically end before the start of Final Exam week.<\/p>\n
Although most look forward to Reading Period, it\u2019s still a crazy busy time \u2013 but can definitely be well balanced as the weather tends to get better and there are tons of social events like House Spring Formals, and last Sunday DAPA<\/a> (Drug and Alcohol Peer Advisers) and CEB<\/a> (College Events Board) held a joint Garden Party<\/a> where there was free cotton candy, snow cones, and a MOONBOUNCE! One of my absolute favorite facets of Harvard is definitely this beautiful and delicate balance of work and play! The tremendous support also keeps me sane during these potentially stressful times. For example, the Resident Dean of Mather<\/a> (my upperclassman House\/dorm) sent out an email that offered her adorable dogs for stress therapy petting sessions!! If someone had told the high school me that Harvard College would offer such a 360 degree service, I honestly wouldn\u2019t have believed you for a second. In fact, I\u2019m still taking in the fact that there are so many opportunities here for me; most of the time, it just feels unreal that my life has been so blessed and has come to such a good place.<\/p>\n Tangent: After I was accepted into Harvard College and basically committed the next day, I was obsessed with the idea of not dying before college. I remember consciously taking less risks \u2013 such as driving safer and not eating unidentified food \u2013 because I didn\u2019t feel like it would be a good time to die since I hadn\u2019t experienced my Harvard dream yet. After a few days of screaming \u201cI can\u2019t die before college!\u201d it was bluntly pointed out to me that I shouldn\u2019t want to die\u2026ever. It didn\u2019t seem obvious to me at the time, but I\u2019m glad I had loving company to help me realize I shouldn\u2019t let Harvard wholly define me. Sure, I worked my butt off to get accepted and continue working other body parts off in my endeavors to exploit my undergraduate opportunities, but it really is important to me that I let Harvard verify my diligence and supplement my identity rather than completely define it.<\/p>\n Anyways, you can probably tell that in the midst of Final Exam shenanigans, I\u2019m so freaking happy. This enthusiastic euphoria stems from my summer plans. It\u2019s literally going to be the best summer of my life and I\u2019m still questioning whether I deserve it. Half of my plans are set in stone \u2013 I just need to book the other half of my flights! I\u2019ll be going home for 2 weeks, traveling Europe (Paris, Venice, and Barcelona) with two of my sorority sisters for 2 weeks, interning in a clinic in Peru through DRCLAS <\/a>(David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies) for 8-9 weeks, working with Refresh Bolivia<\/a> for 3 weeks, and then flying right back to a (hopefully) welcoming Cambridge to move into my new room with my best friends and kick off JUNIOR YEAR.<\/p>\n NOOOOOOOO!!! I\u2019m (just about) half way done with college. Don\u2019t ever tell me or let me realize this again. Although I only look forward to what comes my way in the future, I really hate moments where I can no longer deny the passage of time!<\/p>\n I\u2019ll check back in again next Wednesday (when I\u2019ll be done with 3\/4 of my classes!) Wish me luck because oh boy, am I going to need that partnered with caffeine.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" This week\u2019s post is going to be a sampling of a little bit of everything which is representative of my scattered brain as the semester nears to a frightening end and I\u2019m trying to gather up all my loose ends now so that I\u2019ll be able to look back at a skillfully tied bow when […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4466,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37381],"tags":[64714,64715,64750,64749,64751,3095,3810,29830,1950,59031],"class_list":["post-3494","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-jeanies-blog","tag-ceb","tag-college-events-board","tag-dapa","tag-drclas","tag-drug-and-alcohol-peer-advisers","tag-exams","tag-finals","tag-reading-period","tag-summer","tag-summer-plans"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/collegeadmissionsstudentblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3494","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/collegeadmissionsstudentblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/collegeadmissionsstudentblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/collegeadmissionsstudentblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4466"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/collegeadmissionsstudentblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3494"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/collegeadmissionsstudentblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3494\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3564,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/collegeadmissionsstudentblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3494\/revisions\/3564"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/collegeadmissionsstudentblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3494"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/collegeadmissionsstudentblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3494"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/collegeadmissionsstudentblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3494"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}