My contribution to the Senior Reflections Book for Harvard's Class of 2018:
I'm not sure how my first-year self would react if I told her that during her eight semesters at Harvard, she will have spent ten months abroad in Europe, Africa, and South America, performed traditional Filipino dances at Sanders Theater, and made unforgettable friends from campus and far beyond it. My first-year self, not knowing much else, was pre-med and thought she had the next ten years of her life planned. But after being intimidated by Harvard's science courses and her brilliant peers, she decided that she wasn't willing to put in as much work as they did each week, felt no passion for spending time in labs, and thought she would be better off doing something else.
But what was that something else?
She had no immediate answers, and that made her nervous, having been the type of student who always had the answers (I mean, most Harvard people would relate?). She only had inklings of ideas, vague interests she had developed in the past that she eventually decided might be worth exploring at Harvard. Those were things like travel, languages, getting to know people. After leaving aside being pre-med for good, she decided to see where those other interests would take her.
What I would tell my first year self is that she was completely right to do that.
I would regale her with stories of how I followed up on the class that I took on a whim freshman fall, Intro to African Languages and Cultures, by spending a semester studying abroad in Rwanda. I would tell her how I spent a dreamy summer in Austria attending operas and plays on Harvard's dime and getting Harvard credit, while also meeting up with my dad's best friend from his college years there then visiting other friends around Europe. I would tell her about the two summers I spent in Bolivia, one of them to do anthropological fieldwork that would eventually become a kickass senior thesis. I would also tell her about how I spent two years as co-president of Harvard Philippine Forum, an organization that helped me find a wonderful community of Filipino friends, something I never had in the USA until I came to Harvard.
Perhaps besides telling stories, it would be good to give a piece of advice. After the adventure that these past eight semesters have been, I would tell her that nervousness and uncertainty are nothing to be afraid of; rather, they are what push us to accomplish things beyond what we can imagine.
As I look forward, I hope that the me in the years ahead would be able to tell the me about to graduate college similarly inspiring things. Judging by what I would tell my first-year self, those are things I would hardly believe in the present moment. Now all that's left for me to do is go live them.
I'm not sure how my first-year self would react if I told her that during her eight semesters at Harvard, she will have spent ten months abroad in Europe, Africa, and South America, performed traditional Filipino dances at Sanders Theater, and made unforgettable friends from campus and far beyond it. My first-year self, not knowing much else, was pre-med and thought she had the next ten years of her life planned. But after being intimidated by Harvard's science courses and her brilliant peers, she decided that she wasn't willing to put in as much work as they did each week, felt no passion for spending time in labs, and thought she would be better off doing something else.
But what was that something else?
She had no immediate answers, and that made her nervous, having been the type of student who always had the answers (I mean, most Harvard people would relate?). She only had inklings of ideas, vague interests she had developed in the past that she eventually decided might be worth exploring at Harvard. Those were things like travel, languages, getting to know people. After leaving aside being pre-med for good, she decided to see where those other interests would take her.
What I would tell my first year self is that she was completely right to do that.
I would regale her with stories of how I followed up on the class that I took on a whim freshman fall, Intro to African Languages and Cultures, by spending a semester studying abroad in Rwanda. I would tell her how I spent a dreamy summer in Austria attending operas and plays on Harvard's dime and getting Harvard credit, while also meeting up with my dad's best friend from his college years there then visiting other friends around Europe. I would tell her about the two summers I spent in Bolivia, one of them to do anthropological fieldwork that would eventually become a kickass senior thesis. I would also tell her about how I spent two years as co-president of Harvard Philippine Forum, an organization that helped me find a wonderful community of Filipino friends, something I never had in the USA until I came to Harvard.
Perhaps besides telling stories, it would be good to give a piece of advice. After the adventure that these past eight semesters have been, I would tell her that nervousness and uncertainty are nothing to be afraid of; rather, they are what push us to accomplish things beyond what we can imagine.
As I look forward, I hope that the me in the years ahead would be able to tell the me about to graduate college similarly inspiring things. Judging by what I would tell my first-year self, those are things I would hardly believe in the present moment. Now all that's left for me to do is go live them.
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