Well, almost.
Along Melos’s road… up until the goal, even though it’s far away…
Don’t complain! Don’t give up!
Keep running for as long as you live.
~ メロスの道 (Melos’s Road), AKB48 Team K
It is once again finals week at MIT, and I’m busting out all of my favourite inspirational tunes, including the often-quoted “明日は明日の君が生まれる (A New You is Born Tomorrow)” and “花と散れ! (Go Down Gloriously!)”. I just spent the entire night cleaning my room while reading 15.401 lectures on my laptop screen, and pausing every 20 minutes to dance around. I’ve probably burned 500 Calories from just that alone.
Starting tomorrow, I am beginning my full-fledged studying program, in which I study the entire day, only pause to eat and sleep. This week I have been sporadically studying (in the meantime, I cleaned my room and stocked up on sleep), but once I wake up tomorrow, it will be full throttle until the end.
However, this post really isn’t about my studies. I don’t think I’ve gained a lot of knowledge this semester, with the exception of 14.05 and 18.440, but I do believe that I have personally developed, both in ways of career ambitions, friendships, and discovering what really matters to me. A few highlights from the semester:
- Super-successful spring 2010 showcase by the MIT Asian Dance Team!! (complete with 6-hour-long rehearsals during production week…)
- Joining Dance Revelasian (our expo is coming up in June; buy tickets from me!)
- IHOP run during IAP with Nexties and friends!
- Taking Portuguese I during IAP and realizing that I had quite a knack for the language after all
- Networking cocktail party, the first successful large-scale SEBC Marketing event of the year!
- Performing at Emperor’s Garden for ITASA 2010
- Finding out that the class I most dreaded (14.05 – Intermediate Applied Macroeconomics) ended up being my easiest one
- It is possible to write a 15-page essay in a day and get an A… but I shouldn’t be promoting procrastination, should I? ;)
- Joining the Chinese Choral Society… and having our conductor quit on us so that I’ve only gone to three rehearsals total, eep!
- Twisting my foot the day before a performance; sitting in the audience to watch my fellow dancers rehearse brought tears to my eyes. I told myself I could recover quickly, though, and I was fully better after two weeks.
- AXO Lipsync with ADT and my pledge class (choreographing and teaching Bye Bye Bye was a new experience for me)
- Late-night discussions with Chris Luna and Anton
- Putting together a successful SEBC Marketing panel in a mere two days
- Scraping up my left elbow so badly that I still have a very nasty scar (that probably won’t go away for five years)
- Figuring out what I wanted to do with my career and post-undergrad studies
- Spending waaaaay too much money on books…
- Fighting over the pettiest things with some of my closest friends…
- Participating in a ton of case studies for 15.818 – Pricing, and placing fifth in the class pricing competition
- Receiving three anonymous roses… mysterious sender, please let me know who you are!
- Getting our Brass Rats at the 2012 Ring Delivery!
- … and much more =)
Posted by Vivian Lee | Posted in Productivity and Goals | Posted on 03-22-2010
Spring break actually started for me yesterday, the 21st. After spending an entire Saturday in the air (after my flight was delayed for two hours at O’Hare International Airport), I awoke to a splendidly sunny Texas day. My siblings and I then went to Main Event for bowling (in which I discovered that I forgot everything I learned in 8.012 about rolling without slipping), followed by a delicious lunch at Serrano’s and a movie. Since I was going with my younger siblings, we saw Diary of a Wimpy Kid. For a children’s film, it was actually pretty good. I particularly enjoy a good dose of satire, and the storyline was just teeming with it. Yummy.
Today, however, I figure I should be getting down to business to defeat the Huns. As such, here are my spring break plans:
- Find a topic for my 14.05 paper.
- Actually write my 14.05 paper. (Max 6000 words?! Are you kidding me; how one does fit a complete quantitative analysis within 6000 words?!)
- Rewatch all 18.06 lectures.
- Start working on practice exams for 18.06 exam #2.
- Reread all 15.401 chapters and lecture notes.
- Complete 18.440 pset, no matter how much Prof. Kelner wants us to chillax ;)
- Make program booklets and tickets for MITADT‘s showcase.
- Redo my amazingly craptastic resume.
- Actually get my website (Vivian-lee.net) online?
- Go ice skating with my sister.
- Attend rehearsal for the Love of China’s 2010 showcase!
Sounds like a lot, but what else is spring break for, if not to catch up on work in the comfort of your own home?
In some ways, IAP was not a pleasant experience at all.
I felt like I was once again drowning in a sea of to-do list items and obligations. I ran from here to there and everywhere… and still didn’t get everything done. My patience was wearing thin and my energy was running low. In fact, it wasn’t until yesterday that I managed to get some time to relax and recoup. And even so, my mind refused to let me sleep for more than three hours at a time.
Lately, I’ve been contemplating my life goals a lot. By the way, I have yet to finish adhering all the sticky notes to my wall (I’m not even sure if I’ll finish it, because it doesn’t seem to be helping me much). But that’s a little beside the point. Basically, I have narrowed my life down to ten goals. The bold ones are currently active/in the works:
- Acquire Bachelors of Science in Economics and Management Science from MIT in June 2012
- [secret ambition still in the works, not displaying it here]
- Acquire MBA from Harvard Business School or MIT Sloan
- Land triple-figure (or more!) job in large, well-known company
- Start entertainment agency (Alpha Star Entertainment) OR Asian dance troupe (or both!)
- Eventually start my own company (business technologies?)
- Learn a lot of foreign languages, eventually get certification of proficiency in all the below (order of learning):
Cantonese, French, Mandarin, Portuguese, Japanese, Spanish, Italian, German, Korean, Russian, Vietnamese
- Devote self to Alpha Chi Omega and [secret]
- Become a classy socialite! Have amazing wardrobe, throw and attend awesome parties & events, shop often, extensive network
- Have a perfect lifestyle! Meet perfect guy, have one child, buy perfect house in inner suburbia, celebrate holidays with grandiose parties and decoration, be happy/healthy/wealthy/wise, devote self to a religion or cause
And before the new semester starts, I need to correctly identify how each of my activities this year connects to my life goals. If it doesn’t, then I obviously need to toss it out. Here are few of the activities in which I plan to participate:
- Classes - obviously contribute to Goal #1
- MIT Asian Dance Team - practice for #5
- Sekai no Melody - precursor to #5
- Dance Revelasian - more practice for #5
- MIT Concert Choir – #5 again
- MIT Chinese Choral Society - see above?
- Science and Engineering Business Club - networking myself into #4?
- Alpha Chi Omega sorority - obviously Goal #8
I’m a little worried that I might still be taking on too much, however. I can’t really think of what I would drop, though, if I were forced to make the choice. Probably one of the choirs and/or SnM, actually. It’s been an amazing three years, and I use it a lot in my spiel for job interviews… but to tell the truth things have gotten really slow around there and I can hardly keep up. Nor – sad to say – do I particularly want to, anymore…
