Last night, I attended the final table talk with Ty about how the semester went based on personal and global events. I had a good conversation with a couple of peers who talked about how their semesters have been difficult and that they are looking forward to winter break. Attending this talk was a good way to refresh my mind into “finals mode” because I still need to take one more prelim and a couple final exams that carry weight on my final grades. I often think of how we value grades so much as students, and how getting higher scores mean so much to us in the moment but will probably seem irrelevant in years to come. College could be much more meaningful if there was less of an emphasis on grades and a greater emphasis on learning; I do understand why grades are in place this way because of how students would never study or go to class without it. A lot of my reflection ended up being personal, and I feel that by living at Cornell we are so isolated from the real world. We could remain enclosed within our own bubbles if we wanted to and never read the news on what is going on in the world. While I am already looking forward to graduating in 1.5 years, the thought of “not having a bubble to go back to”  scares me and lets me appreciate the heavy workload I currently have.