Circles
“In the midst of winter, I found there was, within me, an invincible summer.” — D.L. or Albert Camus
Note: most of this post was written on Oct 4 but was published on Oct 24
Sleepy
When you use shampoo like it’s body wash, that’s when you know you need to go to bed.
My sleep schedule has been pretty good so far in this semester, sleeping a good amount and waking up naturally.
Lagging
Whenever I traveled as a kid, I would get jetlagged and end up trying to stay awake in the afternoon so that I could get back to a natural sleep schedule.
But I always ended up lying down and being unable to think of anything and waking up at 8 PM, just angry that I couldn’t stay awake.
Brotation
When I got back to campus, I felt a sense of unfamiliarity but also that everything was the same.
Some things obviously did change, like all the construction going on, the bricks that seemed to loosen from the ground, and the 25% of students that weren’t around anymore.
I was really self conscious about my bad haircut, but I don’t think anyone cares all that much.
Yeah, people change, but not really.
D
is one of the most energetic people I have ever met. She got everyone to download Poop Map, an app that allows your friends to track where you’ve pooped, which is a pretty funny concept.
E
is a super cool prefrosh who wanted to join the band, which I was surprised to hear because I thought that freshmen were supposed to make bands with other prefrosh?
So, I guess the music frosh this year did not all meet in a room and start jamming. Maybe that’s just something that I was incredibly lucky to experience.
Either way, we did need a vocalist in some range, so she was very welcome to join. Also, she might join acapella, which is great too because we definitely need more members to stay afloat in the future.
V and I joked that Caltech should take input from club leaders when admitting students, because we really need basses and altos for the acapella.
A
is another super cool prefrosh who happens to have gone to the same middle school as me in Shanghai.
I believe she had a hard time choosing between several houses, but I was initially very surprised but then only mildly surprised that she did not choose booty house.
Grindstone
In Shanghai, there’s an old man who goes around apartments shouting that he’s offering to sharpen people’s knives and scissors: an antiquated profession which has survived to the modern day. He’s so loud that he sounds like he’s in the next room when he’s actually 200 meters away.
When I heard him, I thought he would be a really good street singer.1
He told my dad that he got that loud because he had a lot of practice yelling.
Back in the day, families would parade through the streets on the way to a funeral, wailing as loud as they could. The louder the cries, the more street cred the family gets.
That man wouldn’t need to sharpen scissors if he was around back then. But then again, he wouldn’t have gotten so good at yelling if he weren’t a knife grinder.
Heads
Rotation is quite a tribal process and it doesn’t necessarily need to be that way. A house is not a place where people end up; it’s where the journey begins.
Everyone is more similar to everyone else than public sentiment would suggest, so there’s no point in wailing for the ghosts of prefrosh pasts.
Garden
My dad often tells me about Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger’s book, All I Want To Know Is Where I’m Going To Die So I’ll Never Go There.
It’s actually quite clear where most people’s journey will end: in the hospital. But what are you gonna do, not go to the hospital? Sounds like a surefire way to get to the hospital.
As Master Oogway once said, “One often meets his destiny on the road he takes to avoid it.”2 In essence, there are some things that will happen regardless of what branching of choices are made. Whether they are good or bad, that is not of concern.
Ultimately, as we learned in UGT from inspirational whiteboard philosopher B.K.W., “The secret is not to chase butterflies… It’s to take care of the garden so that they come to you.”3
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