Happy Halloween! Pumpkin painting is a fun fall activity that I missed out on during my childhood. It was so much fun painting a pumpkin for the first time while learning more about Halloween. Being able to relax and add color to my white plastic pumpkin while also adding new facts about Halloween was a perfect way to spend the holiday. I never knew that Halloween was such a romantic holiday in the past. It encouraged me to do some more research and learn more about the romantic Halloween customs. It was interesting to see how big of a role foods like apples and walnuts played in these customs. It is sort of like how we emphasize candy and apples when we celebrate Halloween, minus all of the romantic implications the food had back then. I was surprised by many of the trivia facts that was a part of this event and had a great time learning so much more about this holiday that I have been celebrating for a long time without really knowing why.
Author Archives: rem359
The Answer Is…
As a huge trivia and Jeopardy! fan, this event was perfect. I was saddened by the fact that Alex Trebek, the iconic Jeopardy! host passed away a week before the event. Doing trivia with friends was a great way for me to remember him. My friend and I liked to compare answers after we entered them in and it was fun to see which answers we thought were correct, especially when we were absolutely clueless about what the answer was! I enjoyed playing Kahoot!, a game that I loved playing in high school but have not played since then. It was great to play different topics including Cornell trivia! There are so many things that I do not know about the school that I attend! Did you know that we had a brain collection? I did not until the trivia game. (Part of it is on display in Uris Hall if you want to visit.) This event was a fun way to take a break from studying for my semi-finals and the perfect opportunity to brush up on my guessing skills. As a trivia lover, I know that there is no way for me to possibly know everything, but making educated guesses based on what I do know is a very useful skill, and will get you a very good answer most of the time. I just hope that my guessing skills are good enough to rescue me during my semi-finals!!
Can I Have an Internship Please?
The process of getting an internship is daunting. Whenever I think about applying for an internship for the summer, I immediately find something else I need to do. I get scared out of applying early because I fear the interview process. I am not great at talking to people normally. Add the stress of being evaluated, needing to come off as competent, and potentially deciding your summer plans and maybe future? No thanks! Thankfully, the internship panel was here to help. They provided great tips and insight into being successful in getting an internship. It was great hearing from other students who very recently went through the whole process. Counselors and career advisors are great resources and have fantastic tips, but they have so much more experience getting a job that they may not remember how it feels to go on your first or second job interview. It was great hearing from other college students with similar concerns and limited experience but still managed to land very impressive internships. When I finally build up the courage to fill out those internship applications, I will be more ready for the interview process because of the great peer advice from this panel.
Fall Leaves Are Here to Stay
I love red leaves in the fall, the bright crimson that always catches my eye when I pass a red tree. I loved going to the Rose dining hall this fall because of the bright red trees that surround the exit. It was wonderful to walk on a makeshift red carpet while going back to my room from the dining hall. And looking past the beautiful trees, out to the distant rising slope with houses dotting the colorful tree covered landscape, is breath-taking too. Capturing these various colors was amazing, and I was happy to take some of the fall colors and bring them to my room. This arts and crafts activity is perfect for brightening up a room. The bright yellows, the deep greens, and the rich purple-red colors that I see so often outside look gorgeous around the outline of my maple leaf. While it is sad that fall and all of the beautiful fall colors do not last forever, I am happy that no matter what the season is, I still get a reddish fall leaf in my window!
Podcast with Professors
Going into this event, I was expecting to learn more about neuroscience and chemical engineering as fields. I had no idea that I would learn more about the professors than about their fields. It was great learning about their journey to where they are now. Sometimes it is difficult to remember that our professors were in our shoes once, taking stressful prelims or midterms, pulling the occasional all-nighter, and finding a good mentor to help shape us in our academic careers. Their stories were really funny and interesting. The rat story told by Professor Yapici was hilarious, but also convinced me not to work with animals! Professor Alabi’s advice to find a good mentor will stay with me throughout my entire life. I found a lot of mentors on my project team, they encourage me to do my best each and every week while also giving me great advice on my projects when I need it. I am glad that I came out of this event with more knowledge about life than about academic fields of study.
Post-Prelim Yoga
After taking three prelims this week, not being extremely stressed out was weird. I felt stressed even though I had no test looming over my head, I was not really behind in any of my homework, and life was pretty dandy. Doing yoga this Sunday was so relaxing, that I finally experienced what not being stressed was like for the first time these past two weeks. By the end of the yoga session, I felt that I could easily fall into a deep sleep.
The calming voice of the instructor as well as his simple yet detailed instructions made this yoga session a great experience for someone who has limited exposure to yoga. The idea of the four B’s was very interesting and I may explore it some more. As a martial artist, I recognized the idea behind the four B’s in the core ideas of my dojo back home. It was fascinating to see the overlap between a peaceful art and a martial art, and I may even implement some of the breathing exercises I learned in a future warm-up that I lead. As a side venture, I may explore yoga some more, maybe even joining the instructor in the court yard outside Rose for yoga classes. I hope that we can have another yoga session soon to help me destress the next time I have a lot of prelims in one week!
What an Incarcerated Parent Means for a Child
When I was six, my dad worked in a city that was a four hour drive from my house. Every week he would be gone Sunday night through Friday. I remember sitting next to my friend and neighbor on the school bus one morning and breaking into tears because I missed my dad. My friend understood my feelings and comforted me by saying “I know, my dad is in jail. At least you will see him on Friday.” As a six year old, I did not understand what it meant to have a parent in jail. I did not really think a lot about how it would affect her. I did not consider how much she must have missed him because I got to spend time with my dad every weekend. My dad went to my Saturday soccer games and taught me to play “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star” on the piano. He was still a big part of my life even if it was only on Saturdays and Sundays. She could only spend time with her dad when she was brought to visit him, which was not often. This seminar made me think more about what it really meant for her and her family when her dad was in prison. It made me think about the impact it had on her education, her home life, and her relationship with her father. This seminar taught me so much about how much children are affected by their parents being in jail or having been in jail. And even though a parent may want to do the right thing, they are set back by laws or an excessive amount of fees that keep them from being able to stick to the right path. I just wished I could have understood this all when I was six.
Just a (Music) Note to Remember
Music has always been a big part of my life. I grew up to my parents listening to tunes from their childhood while they do literally anything. My mom always listens to the radio as she washes vegetables, cleans the house, or folds laundry. My dad puts on his favorite songs as he works, plays cards, or drives to work. When my parents were listening to their music, they shared their favorite memories and songs. Their faces would glow when they heard a favorite song, remembering something special that they associated with the song. As I grew up, I began placing favorite memories with favorite songs. I cannot help but think of the fun I had in the stands as a marching band member when I hear Queen’s “Crazy Little Thing Called Love,” feeling the vibrations in the bleachers from the tubas blasting the walking bass. Music defines a lot of my memories and hearing the music that others enjoy or was meaningful to them was a treat because it made me wonder what they were thinking of when they heard their selected song. My song, “Islands in the Stream” is meaningful to me because of my love of disco and how it reminds me of watching a BeeGees concert on TV with my mom and aunt, dancing and singing to all our favorite songs. I hope everyone was happily reliving a fond memory and created new memories with roommates, friends, or family during the program.
Greetings Friend
I always enjoyed making presents for my friends from scratch. They always made me feel like I was giving them something important, something that I thought about carefully, planned thoroughly, and worked for many hours on to make it perfect. Or as perfect as I could get it. Creating beautiful products by hand also has helped me think more creatively and relax as I color or carefully piece small parts together. This workshop has helped me continue to make small presents by hand. I made cards for people who mean a lot to me but I have not seen in a while or know are lonely because of social isolation and the pandemic. It was a lot of fun working with my suitemates in the common room to make cards for our friend who decided to stay home for the semester. It was fun to see all the different ways we tried to make our cards personal and fit her personality. It was a great community experience working with my friends, doing something that we all enjoy for a common friend. All the different designs we came up with was great to see. We all think so differently, but the outcome is similar: beautiful cards for a fantastic friend.