This is the last week of classes.

While I would like to say the close is bittersweet, the euphoria of impending freedom is too high.

That is not to say of course, that I didn’t enjoy this semester. (As much as college student can ever really enjoy a semester that is. I know how we all battle with our inner sloth).

I had a particularly challenging roster of classes this half-year. And it was great. I could literally feel my brain expanding.

And that made me realize, despite the insane papers and horrifying exams, all these classes didn’t just teach me the usual content stuff, like dates, or psychological studies, or theories of architecture.

I actually also learned how to manage three big assignments due on the same day(start early. think of what is early and then start a week before that). And how to study for an exam in two days (trust me, all nighter are not the way to go). And how to look for online citations in a mad dash of panic (easybib is the boon of my existence).

While I would like to say that I learnt these things by being cautious and realizing what could possibly go wrong and not doing it, the truth is I learned all those lessons the hard way.

But that’s fine. That’s what college is far; to fall but also to learn how to get up again.

It’s been a productive semester.

With the year finally coming to a close, South Asian Students decided to host our chosen organization on campus so that they could talk a little more about their work.

The organization in question is Counselors Helping (South) Asians/Indians,Inc. (CHAI). As their name suggests, they assist South Asians, in particular, with issues of Mental Health and Mental Wellness.

The focus group we had on campus revolved around identity, displacement, and stressors which for me at least, was kind of eye opening. Other than the occasional realization that America sometimes functions very differently from back home aka Pakistan, I’d never really felt like I was…culture shocked? To see people coming forth and sharing their own experiences, which in some cases were so drastically different, was educational.

The organization’s reps who came over managed to hold a very casual, open ended conversation about what identity means to different people and how they think it affects their day to day life. A theme which, inadvertently perhaps, tied into the theme we had for our Culture Show as well. At any rate, I discovered that for a single word, ‘identity’ sure has a way of creeping up in conversation in a million different forms. Which initially, if one is as unused to thinking about identity as I was, can be a little surprising.

But ultimately, is fitting.

Because one thing I’ve learnt from all the conversation we’ve had about identity this year, there’s really no way of setting up parameters around it that will be considered valid by every single person involved. So instead of feuding over who is wrong and who isn’t, maybe its best to leave it an amorphous, nebulous thing.

Accessible to all.

This weekend I managed to visit two areas of Philly I’d never experienced before; the zoo and old(e) city.

Well, I’ve been to old city, but only as a most cursory visitor.

The best part though was that I visited both as class field trips. Which means that I went to each site with a professor who is incredibly well versed in that particular area.

It was like a guided tour of the best kind.

In old city, we ended up visiting Elfreth’s Alley, the oldest residential street in America.

It’s quaint Americana at its best. The streets were cobbled and the houses crowded, but there was a calm in the air that’s very hard to capture the closer you get to downtown.

Speaking of old, the zoo was quite historic as well; it was the first zoo of the United States.

The management’s done an excellent job maintaining it though and the animals all seemed rested and happy.

The aviary was something special, I don’t think I’ve ever seen so many different colors on one animal.

All in all an eventful weekend.

The end of the semester is drawing close and naturally, so are deadlines for assignments.

When I entered college last year as a mere first-year, I had a wholly different method of studying. Sit down in front of your books the night before X was due and cram.

That kind of stuff just doesn’t cut it anymore when the work you have to turn in is something like a 5 page analysis of economic policy.

Just the research for something that easily consumes hours, forget even writing it in a vaguely understandable way.

And then when you do find relevant stuff, it’s a whole another ball game just trying to understand it. My personal belief is that academia is secretly using another language that only sounds like English but has nothing to do with actual English.

Especially when arguments supposed to be made with English are made in math. With exponents.

Such is the life of a college student.

These last two weeks, on each Friday, we got to meet Cheryl Boone Isaacs and Karin Timpone respectively. Cheryl is the president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and Karin is the Global Marketing Officer for Marriott International (plus she’s a  Bryn Mawr alum!).

I attended multiple sessions with both but my favorite ones were generally the lunches. It’s just a lot more relaxed and conversation flows very freely.

Wyndham’s great catering only sweetens the deal.

Often literally, since we often get dessert.

(Not only does LILAC arrange for us to meet these phenomenal women at the top of their respective industries, it even pays for food. Win and win.)

Anyway, being able to listen to the stories that both women shared was a great opportunity. Not only does it help when you realize that these people who seem to be at the towering apexes of their careers are human just like you, it also gives us a little peek into the effort it took to get where they are now.

And that no matter how effortless or gilded their passage into their current positions might seem, in reality it was more like a duck in a pond.

Serenely gliding above water but madly paddling underneath.

Ultimately, I walked away from the table with the realization that one of the most important things we can do for our careers was to just show up. To not be super picky or stay stuck in the quicksand of indecision. And this was something that both of them mentioned, in one form or the other, to just choose something, anything. Even a job flipping burgers can teach you a lot, if you just let it.

Because anything is better than nothing.

As Zubin writes about in her blog (which everyone should read, its so well written), last week’s Wednesday was our Campus Day of Learning. Following a series of controversial events that I shan’t go into (but you can find out about if you google Bryn Mawr confederate flag) our administration decided to set a whole academic day aside to discuss these pertinent issues about prejudice and how they affect all of us.

Since I was less industrious than Zubin, I only managed to make it to one of the sessions, the one about Islamophobia. I don’t really know what I was expecting to see when I went. I knew that people I knew and was friends would be on the panel so I had a rough idea of what kind of responses they would put forward.

But, as with any discussion, exactly fifty percent of what makes it good is the audience. And with this kind of conversation at this kind of time, I remember thinking that this could really swing either way.

Thankfully, it swung in the better direction.

For starters, the event had a healthy turnout. Quita Woodward, where the event was being hosted, was full, with a pretty even split between faculty and students. And people were eagerly asking questions, polite, curious, intellectually stimulating questions.

After the usual disclaimers that their experiences were personal and that they weren’t Islamic scholars, the panel did a good job framing the issues raised, which basically means that they gave honest accounts of stuff that had happened to them, real people as opposed to what one reads in the news, what they thought of certain religious practices and trends, and the place of Islam in their lives. Through the variety of the responses they offered alone, the diversity of the muslim community not just on campus, but also internationally was pretty obvious.

Ultimately, I walked out of the event feeling that perhaps large scale conversation about religion was possible, something I didn’t realize I thought was impossible before.

The weekend before spring break was so great.

I know it sounds glib, but its true. That feeling you get when you can just feel freedom moments away and wresting away from all those pesky responsibilities, that’s what I’m talking about.

That weekend, I went and saw Swan Lake, a ballet performance. Funded in part by the Dance program, 16 of us braved historic snow levels to get to the extremely fancy Academy of Music in Philadelphia to watch the Pennsylvania Ballet company put on a stunning performance.

(I will admit here that I had to google the story of swan lake to understand what was happening on stage. This is largely due to my own inexperience with sophisticated dance.)

Walking back to the train station I remember feeling culturally educated, and just a little pretentious.

Spring break itself was a completely different story. A bunch of friends and myself volunteered for Alternative Spring Break (organized by 8th Dimension at Haverford) that after a little snafu, placed us with Rebuild NJ in Monmouth.

As part of a larger team, we were tasked with rebuilding houses that had been destroyed by Hurricane Sandy almost two years ago.

It was the first time I picked up a nail gun.

Oh the power!

The trip was all sorts of rewarding. We were helping people put back their lives, we got to meet the other volunteers, and of course, we had no essays or assignments due.

And then we came home to this beautiful, warm, SPRING weather.

All in all, a week well spent.

As Spring Break deliciously inches closer, it brings with it an inevitable maddening task.

Applying to internships.

Lots of them.

Which is even more unfortunate because I’ve only applied to two so far.

The process is a lot more complicated than I originally imagined. It’s not just selecting a bunch of companies and shooting out your resume at them blindly praying something will stick.

I mean, you could do that but boy will you need to cover some ground, just in terms of sheer quantity.

And like I mentioned, I’ve only completed two applications yet.

Instead, I’ve been advised to make a custom application for each opening. Which makes sense. If you really want to work there, at least let that shine through.

Of course it lengthens the process by magnitudes.

This past Tuesday, LILAC (Leadership, Innovation, and Liberal Arts Center) connected us with Thanh-Trang Hoang-Le, a recent alum who is now working at MaassMedia in Philadelphia.

Among all the ridiculously helpful insights she had, one thing she said really stuck out, “no one will hire a super qualified person everyone hates.”

Which just helped ground me. In this mad dash to apply to X number of firms in X number of days, it can be really easy to forget that we are dealing primarily with humans.

And showing them that you are human too is really important.

This is the fifth week of school. And in a weird paradox that I’ve only ever experienced in college, it feels like time has flown by while barely dragging forward.

It’s a strange feeling. You look back on the beginning of the semester, unpacking, starting classes and it feels like some part pf your brain is still at the point, just settling in, getting its feet wet.

And then you look around your desk and see the dates for two upcoming midterms scrawled across multiple scraps of paper like a death sentence.

That’s nearly half a semester gone. If you’re a sophomore, that’s 43.75% of your college days over. Which just sounds like way too much too be true.

But then you remember the fatigue. Of too much cold, too much work and too many events. And you realize you feel like its been years since you had a proper break.

The whole experience can leave one feeling quite confused.

It is precisely at this point, though, that one should firmly hold oneself by the jaw (a la John Travolta) and turn to face the future. Count/hope/pray that it gets warmer.

And finally, that spring break gets here soon.

Every weekend, student activities plays a movie that is free for anyone to go watch. This past weekend it was Big Hero 6, a movie that I had already seen but loved enough to watch again.

(Projected on a huge wall no less.)

When two friends and myself entered the room, it was pretty empty.

Not surprising, given that people actually have lives on the weekends…

ANYWAY.

As I (re)watched the movie, I couldn’t help but think that I was watching a Marvel movie.

Hell, Stan Lee even made a cameo. (Of course, as the end credits revealed, I was in fact, watching a Marvel movie.)

His proper (there were two) cameo was after the end credits, which is possibly the most Marvel move in the whole canon.

Which makes me wonder/hope/think, in the great tradition of Marvel churning out yearly movies, we could be soon be looking at Big Hero 6 2.

Judging by the number of students we had by the movie ended, it’s likely to be just as successful. (We weren’t the only ones watching TV on a weekend!)