Author Archives: hh464

Going Beyond Small Talk

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How may times have we experienced it? The smile, handshake, talks about majors and career aspirations, and leaving conversations thinking you will try but ultimately, you won’t remember their faces the next day. You leave the conversation learning almost nothing the person you just met, nothing about the world, and nothing new about yourselves.

I am always sad when I think about these conversations, not because they went poorly, or that I felt awkward. I feel sad because I know that I missed the opportunity to get to know a person with a whole different set of ideas, experiences, and stories than me. I know I missed the opportunity to meet a person who can provide their inputs on topics that impact all of us, who can suggest a new way of looking at things.

For some reason, I personally need more “in depth” conversations at least once a week. If I don’t get my fair share, sometimes I dip into feeling loneliness, like my brain is being restricted to my day to day responsibilities, without the ability to think broadly and creatively. Last semester, I got caught up with the grind and often times would not take the time to talk about things that weren’t related to my immediate tasks. What I didn’t realize at the time, was that that was a huge part of why I dipped into the “sophomore slump”.

Last week’s coffee chats weren’t usual meet and greets. We did not merely  talk about our career dreams and majors, but we delved into talks about what we believe is literature, what made authors come up with their ideas. I ended up learning a lot about the stories of Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, and JK Rowling that I have never known before. I also had the opportunity to hear heartfelt stories about peoples lives through a mutual connection of incorporating coffee shops into the story line.

I wish we can have more of these talks with strangers more often. I hope to find those who are like me, who want to talk about subjects more than just what they are going to do tonight, what parties they went to last night. Sure, sometimes reminiscing about good times is needed, but it’s important to give ourselves a dose of these conversations as well.

In the end, I met two new friends, and hopefully we can grab lunch soon.

 

The Cost of Being Brilliant

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If you are so good at doing something, that means that you are really good at doing a lot of things that utilizes that special skill set. However, it doesn’t meant that they are all beneficial.

The Brilliant Mind displays this fact really well and it allows the audience understand the “dark side” of being brilliant.

However, the movie only highlighted a few struggles of brilliance. Schizophrenia and social struggles are two of them however, I think there are a lot of other “costs” of being smart.

Looking back at my life I can draw a couple of examples. I had a really good friend of mine who was of higher intelligence compared to those around her. At year two she could read harry potter books and her professor parents taught her advanced topics in grade school. Her older brother went to Columbia and she was always on the top of her class. However, school was always boring to her and she rarely felt invigorated through the traditional learning system. She ended up establishing distance between herself and a lot of her classmates and ended up finishing high school early.

Not that there is anything negative to that, however I think it is just interesting to see how different gifts always, not necessarily have “costs”, but imply other consequences.

For those who skip grades, they miss out with going to school with people of their own age. Are they able to establish meaningful relationships, learn social norms, find out more about themselves as quickly as their intellectual knowledge is growing?

Is there a way for us to establish educational systems that can both satisfy the “geniuses” of the world without having to compromise the rest of their lives? However, what would that type of institution entail for inequality and segregation?

 

Reflecting upon old memories

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“Mom what are they doing in the park over there?” the three year old me asked my mother as I pointed my fingers towards a group of middle to old age men and women slowly waving their hands in smooth order. They were all really relaxed and it looked like they were having fun.

“They are practicing Tai-chi”, my mother answered.

I grew up in Taiwan from the ages of zero to five. While I do not have complete memories of everything that I experienced during that time, I remember a handful of memorable experiences. This was one of them. After that day I had proceeded to pretend that I was doing Tai-chi within my home and I would imitate random movements when I was seeing them done in parks. Tai-chi is a common exercise done in Taiwan, especially in the morning hours. It was seen as something that old people did but it was seen as normal.

Ever since I moved to the states during elementary school, I had barely noticed the absence of Tai-chi in American culture. It wasn’t until last week when I realized that people in the states would view Tai-chi as something foreign, a little bit strange, slightly bit other-worldly and weird. It is interesting because when I am in Taiwan, I didn’t think anything of Tai-chi. However here, in a separate environment, what is once so familiar to me seems out of context and unfamiliar.

I find this interesting because even as someone who has experienced different cultures, I am still susceptible into molding my thinking and viewpoints based upon what is the norm in certain areas. I think we should realize that no matter where we are and who we are with, we should remember to keep an open mind – approach things as if they are already familiar to us already.

 

Technology’s Influence on Art

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During my journey through Johnson’s Art Museum on Saturday I can’t help but notice the detail of prints. In days that lack computers or modern photography, prints were used to depict realistic images of the world around them. The artistry, level of accuracy, and scope of these works are inspiring and I can’t help but wonder if artists today can become masters of prints as much as these artists did.

While I am sure there are some people today who can replicate the quality of prints made centuries ago, I wonder what is the difference in the number of the people who has this skill. Out of the populations in the past, what is the percentage of them that know how to make prints.

As technology improves, how many skills are lost due to their lack of usage? Even though the thought that there are an infinite number of skills that has been lost through the centuries is a little bit disheartening, that is the price of “progress”. I guess the art of creating print documentation is replaced by knowledge on how to Photoshop, take pictures with iphones, and how to take pictures under microscopes. What would these technologies be replaced by a hundred years from now? 3-d sculpting? Virtual reality landscape painting?

Our documentation of imagery becomes more realistic every year. With that realism, there is an increase in accuracy in terms of depicting what is real. However we have to be careful to notice that soon the images that we create are no longer just real but realistically distorted, ultimately painting an unrealistic expectation of what is real. Perhaps it is then we should look back at print artworks and realize what is real imagery at its most basic form.

Balancing You and the Image of You

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Being an AEM major, I’ve been hammered with various interview tips that are presented as methods to help you “Ace the Interview”.

“Script stories that tell your strengths”, “Always look them in the eye”, “Make your weakness genuine, insightful, and then back it up with how you are working on your weakness”, “Separate yourself”, “Everything in your stories and experiences should connect back to why you want to work here, why you can contribute to the team, and why they should pick you”. These are just some of the various tips that I heard.

While these tips do make sense and are extremely helpful, I can’t keep myself from asking at what point do you stop being your best self and start to be a person you are not to get the job you think you want? At what point does “fake it till you make it” start to hurt you? What percentage of people force themselves into something only to be miserable working day to day? While we focus a lot of attention on performing well on interviews, we hardly ever hear about the fit and happiness of those who receive the jobs after. I am curious if there is a difference in interview experiences between the people who are happy and people who are unsatisfied with their current occupation.

That being said, I am also wondering about the effectiveness of interviews. At some point I feel like it may become similar to that of standardized testing needed to be admitted into college. Ultimately it may depend on whether a person is a good public speaker, well practiced, have the talent at talking to a semi-stranger, and is good at promoting themselves. While some of these qualities are necessary on the job, some may not be. In fact, skills that may be needed are often hard to detect. I wonder if there are certain types of interviews that are more effective compared to others.

I guess ultimately the best thought to keep in mind is something that Sarah brought up – remember to be yourself and that you are interviewing them too. Try to be the best version of you while still being you.

Saying Hello to an Old Friend

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When I was five I attended art classes, an effort my mother made in order to prevent me from drawing on walls. I also was enrolled in swim class, music class, and a dance class. I quit piano in first grade but picked up violin from fourth to tenth grade. I sang in the chorus in middle school. Between six and eight grade I used to read on average five books every two weeks.

Sometime in my high school years, I stopped it all. I quit orchestra because it conflicted my morning practice schedule. I stopped reading for fun because I didn’t have time due to schoolwork. I stopped making art due to my reallocation of free time to spending it with friends and there wasn’t art class to force me to make things.

Last summer my aunt, an artist, asked me if she could present one of my work when I made when I was younger as part of a National Taiwan Family exhibit. I agreed. I attended the exhibit and felt really out of place among professors and experts of art. However, my duck that I painted when I was four was placed proudly in the second floor corner, far away from the main highlighted pieces. Yet in the end of the summer, I had a call that I had a buyer. My dad didn’t want to sell it so our family still owned it.

What is interesting is that I have been away from creating anything of artistic nature for at least five years. Last weekend was the first time that I drew a drawing, and not just simple doodles that I made on top of my class notes. I was surprised at what I drew. I created an image about a person who was daydreaming. About a world in which every person’s identity and perspective is built upon their perspectives and experiences on life. About a city that was built upon the lives and blood of those who came before them. My art has became surprisingly…dark.

This experience has taught me that art and the courage to give yourself one hour to break free of the rules of the world can reflect how your personality has developed over time, how you have come to realize the world. In its own way, it is a method of self discovery, your consciousness portrayed externally in a way that you may not always be able to express in words, transcript reports, or athletic medals.

Cooking through Consequences of A Sheltered Life

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I am nineteen years old, about to turn twenty in two months. I am a varsity student athlete in an Ivy League University. I can speak two languages, write essays, participate in in depth conversation about social constructs and philosophical beliefs with my fellow peers.

Yet the extent of my cooking experience is limited by scrambling and microwaving eggs, making pasta, dumplings, cooking white rice, and boiling veggies. While I can technically survive on my own, my quality of life would significantly change if I did not have Cornell’s luxurious dining halls to rely on.

Why is that? Upon reflection my wonderful loving parents have been making my meals since I was born and as I grew older to the age that I could develop cooking skills, my “valuable time” was better spent swimming, practicing violin, doing homework, or hanging out with friends. My mother was a stay at home mother and while I learned the basics if doing laundry and cooking before collage, my only chore around the house is limited to taking out the trash, mowing the lawn, and washing dishes. I had swimming practice six days a week therefore there was no way in which my parents would allow me to cook, and wait for me to do so that late into the night. Most nights I would arrive home with dinner waiting.

As I entered the cooking event last week I realized that this would be the first time in my life actually cooking a legitimate meal that was slightly more sophisticated. As a consequence of my privileged parental support and their recognition on the importance of academics and extracurricular, I have never really cooked. This made me realize what other skills are people in our generations lacking. Granted, this issue is not a widespread one as there are many families that continue to value traditional skills. However, the current environment I believe are increasing the number of young adults who face the similar situation as me.

Can we fix tires, fix basic electric and household appliances, cook, paint houses? Will we be forced to be increasingly reliant on outside services? Or will must of us face the fact that we have many “firsts” to do in our twenties. While it may be harder to do so without the guidance of parents, it may be an exciting thing. That’s why we have YouTube anyway right?

Even if it’s a dream, it’s a dream worth living

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After the movie Matrix, we were asked one question: was the main character in a dream the whole time in order to prove himself that he was a hero? The movie asked a lot of other questions. Is our life a dream? Can our society be so ridged that it acts as a cage upon our free spirit? Can we break out of this cycle to live a “freer” life?

While I feel as though I should be scared about these life questioning questions, I really am not.

Even if our life is a dream, we should still live it fully. Unless we get a trigger that senses that there is a world out there, unless someone offers us the pill to learn the truth, we should always try to life our life to the fullest under the current constraints. By saying that there isn’t a point in doing anything because the world we live in isn’t the real one, it doesn’t make your dream fulfilling.

However, I think the question we should ask is how to live our life to the fullest. Since we only know this life of ours, we should life it to the fullest. That means questioning what is holding us back from our full potential. In this way the movie actually teaches some very valuable life advices. For example, when Neo is learning to jump and the advice is that unless he completely believes it, he won’t be able to do it. Unless we completely believe we can accomplish our goals, the goals will always just be dreams. It is also important to look at life and try to look at the possibilities it can bring beyond the day to day grind, to look at see what potential it can bring. Perhaps the money of structure and materialistic achievements isn’t everything.

The key that the Matrix taught us is to live your dream to the fullest but also understand how you can break out of the dream.

Broadening English Requirements

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I attended a Friday film night that showed “The Rose”, Shakespeare in Love and I have to say generally I was very surprised.

The scene and feel of the movie made it seem like a film that was based off of one of Shakespeare’s many plays. However, I was surprised as it intertwined an interpretation of how Shakespeare had the inspiration for Romeo and Juliet and I generally enjoyed the film. However, what surprised me the most was that by presenting the play of Romeo and Juliet in a way that made the audience had a glimpse of what the love story would have played out and meant in real life made me able to understand the lines of the play a lot better.

I think it showed that no matter what language and style that something is written through, they are written all about the same universal experiences. I remember how difficult it was for me to understand the lines back in high school. However when the lines were intertwined with imagery of an actual relationship, it became much easier.

Shakespeare is often portrayed as something so difficult to understand, not relatable, and not relevant for modern times. Now I understand that it really is just another language speaking about the same feelings and I hope that English teachers will continue to try to “universalize” Shakespeare writing.