Through our round table discussion of preparing for an interview, what to say during the process, and how to follow up, I couldn’t help but think that I had heard this advice more than a fair share of times since beginning the college admissions process almost two years ago. Dress the impress, don’t stutter, know your material, don’t forget to send an email within a week, and most importantly: BE CONFIDENT! It seems like interviewing for a job seemed to have a trivial counterpart to speed dating in real life. During our discussion, I couldn’t help but connect the parallels between the two: in both situations, you have a brief and intimate encounter with someone whom you wish to impress, and within that 30 minute to an hour period, you must be able to communicate your credentials through your wardrobe, your speech, and your personal experience. Even though we’ve all heard the spiel over a dozen times in our young, developing professional career, and will continue to learn and memorize the interviewing drill, I’ve learned that perhaps that the whole process is not so scary. The interviewer sitting across the table from you is, in fact, unchangeably a human being, and all you can present to him/her is your best self. And at the end of the day if it doesn’t work, as they say with dating, there are plenty of other fish in the sea!
Author Archives: Wanxing Lu
What is Murder?
To the naked eye, a murder may as direct as one’s causation of another’s death, but to a judge, the question becomes who was at fault, and what was the motive? As we watched The Talented Mr. Ripley, we were prompted by Judge Miller to assume the rolls of prosecution and defense attorneys, to debate who was the blame for Dickie Greenleaf’s death. It was interesting to ping-pong discussions of internal motives and secret plots of Mr. Tom Ripley and briefly assume the role of defending or accusing someone of intentional murder. To us, it was just a short span of a half hour where we debated on the fate of a fictional character, but I couldn’t help but wonder what the immense pressure and enormous responsibility an actual attorney would take on. This riveting discussion led to even more riveting questions, like how would an actual prosecutor obtain the evidence, and would the jury believe it? The plot of this movie was quite intriguing, and I left with a newfound appreciation and curiosity for the process of accessing a murder to its true justice.
Roman Civil Liberties
Rome may seem advanced society, living in architecture that would be comparable to modern structures, but the true evaluation of a society’s development is the breadth of rights and dignity given to its people. As we sat around an intriguing presentation about the various battles, victories and tragedies, or ancient Rome, I was fascinated with all the advanced developments and accomplishments that Rome had achieved so early in its development. It wasn’t until we started asking questions in the last few moments of the presentation when it struck my attention that the people of Rome still harbored on the idea of slavery. While the women of Rome were far more privileged that those of other locations, it still seemed that the idea of people of color honoring those same civil liberties was still far at hand. In my opinion, no matter how vast a land or how much wealth a nation can accumulate, it still boils down to how is justice served to those whole live and breathe the same air as us, to truly determined how advanced a civilization is become. It is true that Rome was more developed that most nations at the time, but of course there was much room for improvement. This is an interesting issue that still rests at hand to this very day, and can provide a progression of improvement of civil liberties granted to people of all backgrounds and identities, and can also remind us that we may get carried away with glam and glist, but at the very heart of human interaction is the way we treat those who are different that us.
Snakes: They’re Like People Too!
Walking into a room scattered with slithering snakes is quite daunting at first, until you have one wrapped around your arm and crawling into your sleeve for warmth. While taking a break my Sunday night problem sets, I wandered into Rose Common Room to find snakes ranging from the size of my palm to taller than myself (which is not saying much considering I’m a lofty 5 foot 3 inches tall). I entered the herpetological atmosphere with the perception that snakes were the furthest thing from a human, but instead, I found out I was quite wrong. On top of having gorgeously smooth skin, snakes are friendly, shy, don’t like being touched on their head, and can even sneeze when they get sick. In fact, they can even vomit too, when their stomachs are not settling well – which is even more than what you can say for horses! This experience was quite nicely wrapped up at the end with a live occurrence of a snake vomiting on the student (which in retrospect might not have been quite exciting for the girl holding the snake)!
Starry Morning
Pools of paint on paper plates, and dirty lakes of water lays in a coffee cup.
Artists delicately dip their brushes, and commence their masterpieces
One girl uses cardboard letters to spell out her name.
Another paints a frame,
And her friends does the same.
Everyone seems half awake, and room bustles with soft spoken chit-chat.
A blank canvas stares at me.
It waits to be sketched, erased, and colored, impatiently.
I search through my phone for a potential muse
And I find, to my delight,
My favorite painting, Starry Night.
I pick up my brush
Ready to get my sleeves dirty
I would truly stay here all day
If I didn’t have a problem set due at five thirty.
Facebook Stalking – For more than just your high school crush!
Today I learned two secrets to obtaining my dream internship: professional stalking and polite pestering. I’ve heard that normally you shouldn’t reveal that you’ve gone through your crush’s Instagram feed over 20 times, but from an academic perspective this might not be a bad idea. During this discussion, I felt genuinely glad, and somewhat proud, that one skill that I have honed on in since eighth grade can be put into use in an academic setting. However, instead checking what Daniel Brown’s dream car is from some Facebook photos, I should concentrate on what kind of research a professor is doing or what specific projects a company is currently in the midst of developing, so that I can demonstrate my genuine interest in the position as I’m applying. Furthermore, I discovered that following up with an application a couple weeks after an interview (or “double-texting” as we call it in the industry) is not only a great vehicle to demonstrate persistent interest in the position, but also a sly technique to check if you need to send more information to the interviewer! Overall, I’m relieved to say that some of my somewhat embarrassing stalking skills and pestering texting habits will actually come in handy to potentially land me an internship for this summer!
Art of Nothing
In high school, my English class was prompted to write an essay on whether we consider photography an art form or not. At the time, with my art connoisseur nose stuck high in the clouds, I chose not. I didn’t believe that photography was anything more than documentation of something else that was beautiful or intriguing or jaw-dropping – in other words photography was a copy of art, but not art itself. However, while watching Ms. Freyer’s film, as she elaborated on the essence of capturing the small moments of everyday, and exposing the hidden beauty within miscue details of life. Though this film, I was able to see how photographers were able to capture seemingly dull and unappreciated fragments, into not only intricate spectacles of design and composition, but also brazen and controversial narratives of the given time – which by any means would qualify as a praised piece of artwork. If I could, I would show myself this film in high school, but I am very grateful for this eye-opening perspective of photography and its voice.